So wanted to give you an idea of what we might be looking at come Selection Monday on 3-2-26. As you can tell, Concordia is in a solid spot right now as an overall number eleven seed and presumably in a very good spot to host a 1st/2nd round pod should they win the MIAC Championship Game next Saturday. However, there are also a number of variables in play that could change all this. First, keep in mind that the NCAA has the ubiquitous "500 Mile Rule" whereby any team that's within a 500-mile radius of a host school has to cover their own costs of transportation to the site event and as you can imagine, the NCAA Tournament Committee does their darndest for the first- and second-round pods. But there are also situations where this isn't always possible either and, more often than not, schools out west or in Texas provide some logistical gymnastics for the committee. As you can see, there are at least six teams within a 500-mile radius of the Fargo-Moorhead area - UW-La Crosse, Bethel, GAC, UW-River Falls, Wartburg and Bethany Lutheran - that could all easily fit into a pod hosted by Concordia. Keep in mind though that there are three WIAC schools that are also prime candidates to host 1st/2nd round pods - UW-Oshkosh, UW-Whitewater and UW-Platteville - where any of these six aforementioned teams could easily fit in. It's entirely possible that the committee shoves Concordia to a Texas location or an Oregon location - even as a number-one seed in a pod - just for seeding integrity purposes. And that's precisely why I worry about what the committee might decide to do with Concordia should the win the MIAC Championship Game this next Saturday. And I'll just come out and say right now that it's certainly not fair at all to Concordia if they do their due diligence in winning the MIAC Championship Game and get shoved out west or down to Texas to protect their number-one pod seed.
Aside from that, you'll see that both Bethel and GAC are currently in very good positions right now and if there's any doubt about the Gusties, I think those are effectively erased if they win their semifinal playoff game on Thursday night to advance to the MIAC Championship Game. But it's a much different story for both SMU and Hamline right now and the only path those two teams have is to get the automatic bid by winning the MIAC Championship Game.
So right now it appears that the WIAC will once again be a five-bid league with the MIAC getting three teams in while both the ARC and UMAC will be one-bid leagues.
As always, please feel free to fire away with thoughts.
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