2023 D3 NCAA Tournament Bracket

[Asgot]

Fun exercise that should bring some clarity to the Pool C discussion: who are current locks to get a Pool C bid assuming these conference winners:
NESCAC: Tufts
Liberty: RIT
Centennial: Dickinson
All three of these teams if they lose would be locks to get a Pool C bid but as we have discussed these 3 leagues are guaranteed to be multi-bid leagues.
ODAC: Lynchburg
NCAC: Denison
ODAC and NCAC are the toughest one to judge at the moment, both have 2 teams worthy of NCAA bid but question if they have the resume to outduel a 3rd team from the leagues mentioned above (LL, 'CAC, CC). Geography could be the biggest benefit especially for a team like Denison/Kenyon as that would be a reason to include them over some other options.
Pool C is 10, here are locks assuming above conference champions:
Middlebury
Salisbury
CNU
Swarthmore/GBurg winner
RPI/Union Winner

Obviously that only fills up half of the field but I wanted to cover the legit GUARANTEED Pool C bids. For anyone questioning RPI, they are ranked 2nd in their region and would be a shoe in if they made the Liberty Championship.
A few teams who have helped their case in the past week since the rankings were released - St. Lawrence and Amherst. I'm pretty close to putting Amherst as a lock for the tournament after a win over regionally ranked Bowdoin but we will wait and see. Williams can really help themselves with beating Middlebury and at that point they would be a lock as well. I think there is a strong possibility that we see 4 NESCAC teams. If Union and Saint Lawrence both lose this weekend that will be an interesting battle for the 3rd spot in the regional rankings, Union holds the edge in head-to-head but Saints just picked up a high quality region win over Clarkson.
Interstingly, Swarthmore is ranked ahead of Gettysburg in the regional rankings but I still believe that the Bullets would have a greater shot at the Pool C bid if they lost as opposed to Swarthmore. Whoever loses that game will no doubt be sweating out the selection show.
If Lynchburg and W&L make it to the ODAC title that would feel like a 2 bid league as both would be picking up nice regionally ranked wins with W&L picking up a big one over HSC (who I don't think is very good but alas).
Kenyon needs to beat OWU to feel good about their pool C contention. They don't have a great resume and that win over Denison is really carrying them, if they don't make the NCAC title game I have a hard time seeing them earn a Pool C aside from for geography reasons.

Exciting weekend on tap, those were just some thoughts and insights in my opinion. Feel free to discuss.

how can you put Kenyon in but not York if they lose the MAC finals? I am assuming that you believe that York wins the MAC but what if they do not? are they simply out?

[Laxwizard]

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse- ... l-rankings

Kenyon is unranked and York is ranked too low to make it. Neither can get a pool C bid.

[SixBySix]

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse- ... l-rankings

Kenyon is unranked and York is ranked too low to make it. Neither can get a pool C bid.

Worth noting that regional rankings are redone before the selection process.

[DeepPocket]

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse- ... l-rankings

Kenyon is unranked and York is ranked too low to make it. Neither can get a pool C bid.

Check the link. Kenyon is ranked 3rd in region IV, with a stronger pool C case than MANY big name/strong conference teams (see the teams ranked 4+ in regions I, II, and III).

As I see it, without the AQ York is out. York, for a pool C, would NEED a few scenarios to play out to have a decent pool C case (ie Denison must win NCAC- strengthening York’s win and weakening Kenyon’s regional ranking, Also F&M winning tonight, and better still winning the Centennial- could make them regionally ranked and give York a solid case with a second regionally ranked win). Toss in a few random upsets in other conferences and these “ifs” are likely thrown out. Bottom line, win the damn AQ.

[Laxattackjack]

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse- ... l-rankings

Kenyon is unranked and York is ranked too low to make it. Neither can get a pool C bid.

Check the link. Kenyon is ranked 3rd in region IV. With a stronger pool C case than MANY big name/strong conference teams.

As I see it, without the AQ York is out. York, for a pool C, would NEED a few scenarios to play out to have a decent pool C case (ie Denison must win NCAC- strengthening York’s win and weakening Kenyon’s regional ranking, Also F&M winning tonight, and better still winning the Centennial- would likely make them regionally ranked and give York a solid case with a second regionally ranked win). Toss in a few random conference upsets and all these “ifs” are thrown out. Bottom line, win the damn AQ.

If F&M wins the centennial, that would hurt York. Dickinson and GBurg are in before York. Swarthmore also might be in better shape than an at large York. If F&M wins, would we see 4 teams from centennial? Probably not.

York needs to win. If they can’t beat an unranked Stevenson, they probably wouldn’t be getting past the first weekend. I think York is better than that and should win the MAC.

[SpartanLaxFanatic]

York would need some MAJOR help.

Agree with what was said above, F&M winning would not benefit them. Sure they have beaten the Dips and that would improve their resume if F&M would get regionally ranked, but that would also give the 3 teams above them (Dickinson, Swarthmore and Gburg) another regionally ranked win as well. Reality is I don't see York moving up past any 3 of the Centennial teams, especially splitting the season series with Stevie. They played a great OOC schedule, for which they deserve credit, but they went 3-5 and only have regionally ranked win to their name, simply not good enough.

[DeepPocket]

… that would also give the 3 teams above them (Dickinson, Swarthmore and Gburg) another regionally ranked win as well…

Missed that. You’re right, win or go home.

[Laxattackjack]

Who is making the pick’em bracket?

[Laxwizard]

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse- ... l-rankings

Kenyon is unranked and York is ranked too low to make it. Neither can get a pool C bid.

Check the link. Kenyon is ranked 3rd in region IV, with a stronger pool C case than MANY big name/strong conference teams (see the teams ranked 4+ in regions I, II, and III).

As I see it, without the AQ York is out. York, for a pool C, would NEED a few scenarios to play out to have a decent pool C case (ie Denison must win NCAC- strengthening York’s win and weakening Kenyon’s regional ranking, Also F&M winning tonight, and better still winning the Centennial- could make them regionally ranked and give York a solid case with a second regionally ranked win). Toss in a few random upsets in other conferences and these “ifs” are likely thrown out. Bottom line, win the damn AQ.

I stand corrected. Kenyon is ranked so has a shot at pool C.

[Laxattackjack]

I think st Lawrence left the chat. RPI still hanging on by a thread, waiting no for a blowout

[Bigdawg69]

Gettysburg about to lose to swarthmore again… nice turnaround this season from them

[SixBySix]

Gettysburg may not be the 2 seed but bet the house they’ll beat swarthmore in a rematch

Eh, Gettysburg has played down to Swat for a long time--it's only recently started to bite them (lost 3 of the last 5, but also had multiple narrow escapes in the years before that, back when Swat wasn't anywhere remotely as good as they are now). The Centennial has some weird idiosyncrasies, and Gettysburg underperforming against the Garnet is one of them.

That said, I'll agree they will be healthy favorites even as the 3 seed. But I'd recommend only putting a mortgage payment on it, not the whole house.

Hopefully I saved some degenerate D3 lacrosse gamblers some money with this post.

[Laxattackjack]

Gettysburg about to lose to swarthmore again… nice turnaround this season from them

Swarthmore just sealed the deal for an at large. GBurg just lost hope of a first round home game.

[BIGDAWG]

Gettysburg about to lose to swarthmore again… nice turnaround this season from them

bro thats not chill copying my tag

[Bigdawg69]

Gettysburg about to lose to swarthmore again… nice turnaround this season from them

bro thats not chill copying my tag

You copied mine?

[Nescac12001]

Reading through the last couple pages, we may not all be able to agree on who deserves bids, but I think we can all agree on one thing for sure. Laxattackjack is pretty insufferable. Just read back through all his posts and man is he annoying

[YCOLaxFanSU]

Question: If Salisbury loses to CNU tomorrow (given their history, a very good possibility) how might that affect seeding. Last year Salisbury and CNU entered the NCAA tournament with 1 loss (to each other) but CNU got the better seeding. It was like the conference championship didn't matter. Is that the case? Salisbury has that loss to Gettysburg but they have the regular season head to head win over CNU.

[Laxattackjack]

Question: If Salisbury loses to CNU tomorrow (given their history, a very good possibility) how might that affect seeding. Last year Salisbury and CNU entered the NCAA tournament with 1 loss (to each other) but CNU got the better seeding. It was like the conference championship didn't matter. Is that the case? Salisbury has that loss to Gettysburg but they have the regular season head to head win over CNU.

If Salisbury loses to CNU, CNU gets the better seed for only having 1 loss vs Salisbury 2 losses. CNU would also have 7 ranked wins vs Salisbury 5 ranked wins.

Both would still get a home first round

[ah23]

Check the link. Kenyon is ranked 3rd in region IV, with a stronger pool C case than MANY big name/strong conference teams (see the teams ranked 4+ in regions I, II, and III).

Purely based on what the resume criteria seem like (so grain of salt there), I'm not sure how they'd be any higher than 5-6 in Regions I and II and 6 in Region III. No shot that they have a better Pool C resume than Amherst/Union (the 4s in I/II) or Gettysburg (5 in III), right?

[Bigdawg69]

Western New England earns the AQ over Endicott out the ccc