{"id":84726,"date":"2018-02-28T18:42:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T00:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=84726"},"modified":"2020-08-24T15:14:04","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T20:14:04","slug":"week-womens-d-iii-understanding-selection-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2018\/02\/28\/week-womens-d-iii-understanding-selection-ncaa-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"This week in women’s D-III: Understanding selection to the NCAA tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Melissa<\/a>
Melissa Sheeran of Plattsburgh (Plattsburgh Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With conference tournaments wrapping up this weekend, it’s time to turn our eyes to the national scene. The Division III women’s tournament selection show takes place Monday morning, March 5 , at 10 a.m. EST.<\/p>\n

The DIII tournament, by its design, changes from year to year. Thanks to D3hockey.com for breaking down this year’s differences. One of the biggest changes is that this season, there will be nine bids given to the NCAA D-III Tournament. That means there will be a first-round, play-in type game that will take place a day prior to the quarterfinal games.<\/p>\n

In years past, a team was only considered a “ranked team” if they appeared on the final ranking, which was not publicly published. This year, teams appearing on either of the final two NCAA regional rankings will be considered ranked, and that final regional ranking will be made public. You can find regional rankings here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Normally, autobids (Pool A bids) are only given to conferences that have played with the same seven or more members for at least two years. There has been quite a bit of conference upheaval in recent seasons. This year, the NEWHL has been granted a waiver, and their conference champion will receive an autobid, despite only have five teams in the conference currently.<\/p>\n

The D-III conference format is anything but easy to understand. The final field is determined by bids awarded to three different pools of teams. The first is Pool A. These are the six bids given automatically the winners of the CHC, MIAC, NEHC, NESCAC, NEWHL, and NCHA postseason tournaments.<\/p>\n

The number of Pool B bids is determined by how many teams are currently playing and how many are playing in those Pool A conferences. It gets a little complicated, but just know that this year, a single Pool B bid is available, and it goes to a team not in one of the Pool A conferences or an independent. This year, that means teams playing in the UCHC and WIAC.<\/p>\n

Pool C bids are given out using the same criteria that will be used to seed the final nine teams and create the final NCAA tournament bracket.<\/p>\n

Those criteria are:<\/p>\n