Women's Soccer AAC Tournament

[bullsfan27]

Selection show postponed to tomorrow at 1 pm

[NewEnglandBull]

1 hour ago, bullsfan27 said:

Selection show postponed to tomorrow at 1 pm

Gosh even Covid impacted the selection committee from performing on time...

[chapelbull]

More time to organize the screw job for our Bulls

[BullyPulpit]

Top Drawer's final ranking before the selection show has the Bulls moving up to #12 in the nation. Given the scheduling issues with Covid and the split in the season, it is hard to say if the Bulls' 9-0-2 record is enough to warrant a top 4 seed in the Tournament, but those that do the rankings certainly seem to think the Bulls deserve consideration. For those interested, the selection show is at 1 pm today and should be available at the following link: 

Live coverage of the 2020-21 DI women's soccer championship

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Complete coverage of the 2021 NCAA DI women's soccer championship, including the bracket, scores, schedules and updates.

 

[bullsfan27]

Bulls to face Central Connecticut State in round 1. Winner faces 7 seed Texas A&M. CCS is 7-0. Memphis got in as well

[BullyPulpit]

USF got somewhat hosed here in the seeding, but it was an extremely difficult year for seeding. USF essentially was the #26 overall seed in the tournament. The part that is confusing to me is Memphis being seeded one spot behind us at #27, despite losing to USF head-to-head and losing to Cincy in the conference semi. This suggests that the Committee really took into account any non-conference games. Memphis beat SEC Champ and #16 seed Vandy on the road in OT the week before losing to USF 2-1. Their other loss was a loss to a decent Ole Miss squad. USF's non-conference schedule included a tie at UF and 3-0 win over FAU. Neither team was particularly good. 

With that being said, you have to beat tough teams in the tournament and every game is essentially neutral field. While USF draws a perceived tougher team in the round of 32 and has to win an opening round game, it sets up an easier Quarterfinal matchup than if they were to have received a #14 through #16 seed, as FSU, UNC, and UCLA are clearly the cream of the crop this season. 

It isn't as if the Committee completely favored the major programs, as 4 non P5 (including the Big East) teams received top 16 seeds, with BYU at #12 the most surprising of the group. Again, they had the benefit of 2 marquee non-conference games, but they lost both falling 201 to #3 seed UCLA and 3-2 in OT to #8 seed USC. 

St. Louis nabbed the #15 seed, with a non-conference win over #6 seed Arkansas and a 1-0 loss to #10 seed Oklahoma State in OT. 

Santa Clara must have gotten in off of their historical performance, because they didn't play any non-conference games and had 3 games cancelled. They split with BYU in the regular season and they were only 7-1-0 overall.  

Georgetown made it in as the #13 seed. 

[chapelbull]

So no first round bye?

[BullyPulpit]

Just now, chapelbull said:

So no first round bye?

The tie to Cincy likely cost us any shot at that. Also, the Committee really seems to have put a lot of stock in non-conference performance as evidenced by the 4 non-P5 teams receiving first round byes and Memphis's inclusion in the tournament. I believe you said that there was no way that 2 non P-5 teams would receive byes and that clearly wasn't the case. What hurt USF was the non-conference schedule. 

[chapelbull]

1 minute ago, BullyPulpit said:

The tie to Cincy likely cost us any shot at that. Also, the Committee really seems to have put a lot of stock in non-conference performance as evidenced by the 4 non-P5 teams receiving first round byes and Memphis's inclusion in the tournament. I believe you said that there was no way that 2 non P-5 teams would receive byes and that clearly wasn't the case. What hurt USF was the non-conference schedule. 

That's not exactly what I said.  I pointed out the history with few non P5 teams getting byes and the fact that Santa Clara was higher than us.  At the end of the day multiple teams with lower RPIs than us got byes.  Hell Memphis has a higher RPI than Vanderbilt and Vandy got the 16 seed.   End of the day, we were predictably screwed again.  But oh well.   Great job by the team so far and let's keep it going

[BullyPulpit]

16 minutes ago, chapelbull said:

That's not exactly what I said.  I pointed out the history with few non P5 teams getting byes and the fact that Santa Clara was higher than us.  At the end of the day multiple teams with lower RPIs than us got byes.  Hell Memphis has a higher RPI than Vanderbilt and Vandy got the 16 seed.   End of the day, we were predictably screwed again.  But oh well.   Great job by the team so far and let's keep it going

RPI was pretty much meaningless this season because of the dearth of non-conference games. The NCAA said so at the start of the selection show. With that being said, USF was the second most under-seeded team when taking their Top Drawer Soccer final ranking and comparing it to their implied tournament seed. Virginia was ranked #4 by TDS but had an implied seeding of #22 in the NCAA Tournament. In Virginia's case, they lost to WVU and tied them in non-conference play. This likely weighed heavily into the Committee's seeding decision. South Carolina is another example of a team that probably would have received a top 16 seed, but they lost their only challenging OOC game to #14 seed Clemson. This resulted in an implied seeding of #21, which was about 7 positions worse than their ranking would suggest. 

I would add that I don't know how "screwed" we were given what the Committee was given to work with. The only tournament team we beat was Memphis. Our non-conference schedule was void of any good wins and the tie to Florida isn't that good considering their 1-6-1 SEC record. I thought that we should be seeded a little bit higher, but I knew that any hope of a bye was eviscerated by the tie at Cincy. Had we gone 10-0-1 with another victory over Memphis I really do think we would have had a shot at the #15 or #16 seed. What the Bulls can do now is go out and show the NCAA that they messed up. Unfortunately, CCSU has had a pretty strong program over the last 3 years, so beating them and getting a shot at Texas A&M is not a given. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by BullyPulpit