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Women's Final Four

Holland, Mich., 2008 and 2009

Our projected Field of 63

As is traditional, we have attempted to project the field of 63 based on the same criteria the NCAA national committee will be using on Sunday night. They give us 39 gimmes in the automatic bids and we have to figure out the 3 Pool B and 21 Pool C bids. (Pool B and C explained)

The NCAA will tell us who is in the women's tournament tonight, and will give us pairings for those teams on Monday morning. Coincidentally, we believe it doesn't matter who wins on Sunday. In three of the conferences who play Sunday, we believe both teams are in. In the other three, only the champion will get in.

Here are our Pool C teams:
Tufts
UW-Whitewater
William Smith
Southern Maine
George Fox
UW-Eau Claire
Oglethorpe
McMurry
Marymount
Rochester
Washington U.
Brandeis
William Paterson
New Jersey
Wilmington
Albright
Trinity (Texas)
Bowdoin
Salem State
Ohio Northern
St. Thomas

Our four Pool B teams were Chapman, Scranton and Juniata.

When we selected St. Thomas as the last Pool C team, the seven teams remaining on the board were Rutgers-Newark, Lake Forest, Cortland State, Albion, Hardin-Simmons, Western Connecticut and Gwynedd-Mercy.

This is as Sunday's games started. We projected higher seeds winning on Sunday in the ASC, NESCAC and SCAC.

In terms of selcting and bracketing teams, this was the most difficult bracket we've ever had to construct. There were a few reasons for this.

We selected 12 Northeast teams, stacking the first bracket to overflowing. Three moved into the "East" bracket and one into the "Atlantic."
We were determined to make sure our undefeated teams weren't in the same bracket.
There were three OAC teams and three WIAC teams, whom we attempted to separate as much as possible.

Geography wasn't an issue in the first two brackets. In Bracket 3, Colby-Sawyer has to be at Kean's regional for travel purposes.

The other four brackets are tricky. In Bracket 5, Denison, Manchester and Baldwin-Wallace would play at DePauw, with St. Norbert, Washington U., Wilmington and UW-Whitewater at Whitewater (if their men don't host) or at Washington U. (if UWW's men host.)

In Bracket 6, D'Youville, Ohio Northern and UW-Eau Claire would play at Hope, while Carleton, St. Thomas and UW-Stevens Point would play at Simpson. (That puts two MIAC teams in the same regional. Neither one can fit in the Hope regional, or at Washington U. if that regional gets moved. The NCAA won't fly teams if it can avoid it, and will bus them up to 500 miles.

In Bracket 7, Oglethorpe, Piedmont, Virginia Wesleyan and Greensboro would play at Greensboro in a geography-trumps-seeding regional. The rest play at Thomas More.

In Bracket 8, the typical four west coast/three Texas setup.

We match up Bracket 7 with Bracket 4, Bracket 8 with Bracket 3, Bracket 6 with Bracket 2 and Bracket 5 with Bracket 1.

Remember, this is before Sunday's games. Some seedings could change and teams could swap places based on those outcomes.

The NCAA will announce which women's teams made the tournament in a release at or about 10 p.m. ET on Sunday night. Listen to Hoopsville, we'll read them off.

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