NCAA Host Watch

Job 1 is clear. We have to win-out to be considered to host. After that it gets muddy.

We moved up in rpi from 27 on Monday to 20 after the 2 VCU matches. That really puts us back in the hosting picture. But we are going to need more help from the teams still playing we played earlier. Here is the current breakdown using figgiestats rpi.

4 - Louisville - up 1
21 - WKY - up 8 and back in Top 25
24 Marquette - down 1
(UD 1-2 Against Top 25 & our 2 losses are 5 sets)

43 - Northern Iowa up 10 & back in the Top 50
45 - Drake - up 10 & back in the Top 50
(UD 3-2 against Top 50)

56 - Loyola - down 6 - URI match affect and they play again today. Hopefully the A10 Tourney will put them back in the Top 50. We need the 2 additional wins in Top 50. 5-2 is impressive. Our current 3-2 isn't bad, but we need to impress if our rpi is more than 15-16 and right now it is.

Probable A10 Tournament Teams"

135 - VCU - up 4
143 - Davidson - same
149 - Fordham - down 4
200 - SLU - up 2

I think SLU is in, otherwise its...
252 - Duquesne - down 4

There are 50 reasons we need it to be SLU. It helps everyone still playing rpi which helps us. We have a shot to host if we can get to 17-18. We are probably the 16th seed and hosting if we get to 15-16.

It's not suppose to really work this way, but there are a bunch of teams in the West that are in the top 16 rpi. That's a lot of travel the NCAA will have to pay for to send teams both West and East to build the bracket. There is this bunch of West teams right around the cutline for a top 16 seed:

2 - Stanford
8 - Oregon

13 - BYU
14 - AZ St
15- WA St
16- Utah St

It hurts that we know if we had the 50% OOC Schedule Bonus, we would be a lock for a host spot. It just didn't work out this year.

It might come down to Utah St vs Dayton. Both are 1-2 Top 50. We are 3-2 Top 50. They are 2-4. If Loyola gets back in Top 50 we would be 5-2 and it's no contest if it comes down to them or us even if our rpi is one or two spots below them.