Third Regional Rankings Released 2-21-24

 Am a day late in getting this one out but you've gotta cut me a bit of a break here after covering that thrilling MIAC Quarterfinal Playoff game last night between Hamline and St. Kate's.  But, in a way, it might be just as well as you can imagine that I was not terribly amused when the latest Regional Rankings were released late Tuesday afternoon.  A look at how Region 9 was unveiled looks like this:

1	UW-Whitewater	11-3	22-3
2	UW-Oshkosh	12-2	21-4
3	Wartburg	16-0	23-2
4	Gustavus Adolphus	19-1	23-2
5	UW-Stout	8-6	19-7
6	Concordia-Moorhead	18-2	19-4
7	Loras	14-2	22-3

As you can see, the first four spots remain unchanged with UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh, Wartburg and GAC all entrenched in the same spots they were a week ago.  And Loras stays in the seventh spot where it was a week ago as well.  No, the change this time around was flipping the fifth and sixth spots.  Where UW-Stout a week ago was in the sixth spot and Concordia was in the fifth spot, the Regional Ranking committee, in its infinite wisdom, decided to flip these two teams.  The thing of it is, I was truly afraid something like this could happen, especially in light of the win UW-Stout had over conference rival UW-River Falls in one of the WIAC Quarterfinal Playoff games on Monday night.  Now, if the committee is looking strictly at SOS (Strength of Schedule), the Blue Devils would have the edge here not only with the expanded non-conference schedule that they're able to play but also because of the fact that two conference opponents - UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh - are in this regional grouping and UW-Stout has a victory over the Warhawks from earlier this month.  And while I can live with that line of reasoning up to a certain point, the wins they had in the last week of the regular season along with Monday night's playoff win over UW-River Falls, shouldn't have played a factor in the committee's decision to shove UW-Stout up and slide Concordia down.  None of these latest wins by the Blue Devils were over RROs (Regionally-Ranked Opponents) and that being the case, what prompted the committee to do this?  And consider the fact too that the Cobbers easily won their last two conference games and by virtue of having the second seed in the MIAC Playoffs, they don't play their semifinal game until tomorrow (Thursday) night.  So, to me anyway, it seems like the committee is either (1) blatantly giving UW-Stout the benefit of the doubt here or (2) basically saying, "Screw it.  We're shoving Concordia down because we don't think they deserve to be that high."  Either way, why the change now?  The fact that the committee did what it did - now - is very telling IMHO.  

Obviously, tonight (Wednesday 2-21) should help clarify the WIAC picture as said UW-Stout team goes on the road to take on UW-Whitewater while UW-La Crosse will travel on UW-Oshkosh in the two WIAC Semifinal Playoff games.  Thursday night then is the big night in both the MIAC and ARC as St. Kate's takes on second-seeded Concordia up in Moorhead and CSB travels to St. Peter to take on top-seeded GAC.  Back home in Iowa, Dubuque travels to Waverly to face top-seeded Wartburg while Coe makes the trip on US Highway 151 up to Dubuque to take on Loras in what could be a dandy match-up.  Over in the UMAC tonight, North Central makes the trip up to the shores of Gitche Gumee to take on top-seeded UW-Superior while Northwestern travels out to Morris to take on second-seeded UM-Morris.  

Obviously, the next few days are going to be fun and reveal a lot more which translates into some moving pieces in the above so stay tuned.  As always, please feel free to fire away with thoughts.