OK, how would you do it???

[putter]

Lets see how you would bracket the teams. Lots of talk about travel and which teams should go where. Put down what you think should have happened. Use regionalization or not it is up to you to place the teams.

1) Appalachian St. hosts 16) Lafayette
2) Montana hosts 15) E. Illinois
3) YSU hosts 14) Tennessee Martin
4) Umass hosts 13) Coastal Carolina
5) JMU hosts 12) McNeese St
6) Illinois St hosts 11) Hampton
7) S. Illinois hosts 10) Montana St.
8) Furman hosts 9) New Hampshire

I didn't worry about geography, just tried to place the teams where I thought they fit in.

[PaladinFan]

I like that. I say either go one or the other. Either say you will regionalize, or don't. I think what is upsetting is that they throw out the term "regionalization" all the time, yet they never back it up.

If you are going to send one team across country in the first round, why not just seed all 16?

[Death Dealer]

I like what you've got there, all except I think MSU should be playing App St. Last team in plays first team in. I think some of the posts about seeding all 16 teams are right, it seems kind if gay to only seed the first four. Whose bright f'king idea was that anyway! Someone mentioned that maybe it was to cut down on flying here and there and the cost of it all.....so we have schools bidding outrageous amounts of money to host a game? I read someone saying that $100,000 was a reasonable bid? So then if your a poor school and you're fifth in, then the sixteenth school with more money could outbid you and you'd have to go to their house and play.....yeah' that makes sense.....I've heard about the whole 9/11 thing and all the other stuff....but you gotta admit it kinda messes up an otherwise pretty good set-up by screwing up the proper sequence of match-ups. Looks like they'd fix that. I know, just call me Mr. Obvious and get it over with.

[Skyhawk Nation 24]

1. Appalachian St. vs. 16. McNeese St.
8. Hampton vs. 9. New Hampshire

4. Youngstown St. vs 13. Coastal Carolina
5. Illinois St. vs. 12. Eastern Illinois

3. UMass vs. 14. Montana St.
6. James Madison vs. 11. UT Martin

7. Furman vs. 10. Southern Illinois
2. Montana vs. 15. Lafayette

[AZGrizFan]

I like what you've got there, all except I think MSU should be playing App St. Last team in plays first team in. I think some of the posts about seeding all 16 teams are right, it seems kind if gay to only seed the first four. Whose bright f'king idea was that anyway! Someone mentioned that maybe it was to cut down on flying here and there and the cost of it all.....so we have schools bidding outrageous amounts of money to host a game? I read someone saying that $100,000 was a reasonable bid? So then if your a poor school and you're fifth in, then the sixteenth school with more money could outbid you and you'd have to go to their house and play.....yeah' that makes sense.....I've heard about the whole 9/11 thing and all the other stuff....but you gotta admit it kinda messes up an otherwise pretty good set-up by screwing up the proper sequence of match-ups. Looks like they'd fix that. I know, just call me Mr. Obvious and get it over with.

Your assumption is that MSU was the last "at large" team in....not necessarily true.

[Death Dealer]

and by the way, that wasn't a post complaining about playing MSU. I don't mind playing MSU. I just think some of the matchups are kinda screwy....for instance, the most obvious...YSU/JMU in the first round?

[Death Dealer]

Your assumption is that MSU was the last "at large" team in....not necessarily true.

You're absolutely right AZ. Man I love your avatar....talk about pontoons!!!!

[UNHWildCats]

I would use the AGS rankings and come up with this

16. Lafayette @ 1. Appalachian State
9. Southern Illinois @ 8. Illinois State

13. Northern Iowa @ 4. Youngstown State
12. Coastal Carolina @ 5. James Madison

14. Eastern Illinois @ 3. Massachusetts
11. Tenn-Martin @ 6. Furman

10. Hampton @ 7. New Hampshire
15. McNeese @ 2. Montana

I just ranked in order of spot in AGS poll using teams that may not be in the actual 2006 tourney. I gave the higher seed the 1st round game.

[Tod]

1) Appalachian St. hosts 16) Lafayette
2) Montana hosts 15) E. Illinois
3) Umass hosts 14) Tennessee Martin
4) YSU hosts 13) Hampton
5) JMU hosts 12) McNeese St.
6) Illinois St hosts 11) Montana St.
7) S. Illinois hosts 10) Coastal Carolina
8) Furman hosts 9) New Hampshire

[blukeys]

I think some of the posts about seeding all 16 teams are right, it seems kind if gay to only seed the first four. Whose bright f'king idea was that anyway! Someone mentioned that maybe it was to cut down on flying here and there and the cost of it all.....


The top 4 seeding and the attempt to lessen air travel occurred in 2001 due to 9/11/01. Prior to 2001 the 16 teams were always seeded. That is how a 15 seed Delaware beat a 2 seed Montana in the early 90's.

The NCAA has saved money since then and has made some commitments to put this money back in the playoffs.

If you look at the pre 9-11 Champions as opposed to the post 9-11 champions, It is hard to dispute that the first category is more deserving of championships than the second (post 9-11).

[UMass922]

Your assumption is that MSU was the last "at large" team in....not necessarily true.

And even if it is true, the strongest team in the field should be playing the weakest team in the field, even if that weakest team is an auto-bid and not an at-large. Note how in the basketball tournament the 16th seeds are always auto-bid teams, whereas the last at-large teams in are usually seeded around 12.

[FargoBison]

(1)App St vs (16)Lafayette
(8)ISU vs (9)UT-Martin

(4)YSU vs (13)MSU
(5)JMU vs (12)Hampton

(3)UMASS vs (14)EIU
(6)Furman vs (11)CCU

(2)UM vs (15)McNeese St
(7)UNH vs (10)SIU

[LeopardFan04]

I'd seed them 1-16...then I'd flip teams a spot if need be to avoid conference matchups...like is done for the bball tourney...

16/1 Lafayette @ UMass
9/8 Furman @ S. Illinois

13/4 TN-Martin @ Youngstown St.
12/5 Montana St. @ James Madison

14/3 E. Illinois @ Montana
11/6 Hampton @ New Hampshire

15/2 McNeese St. @ App. St.
10/7 Coastal Carolina @ Illinois St.

More teams have to travel farther, but I think the matchups are fairer in that it avoids two teams like JMU/YSU playing...also rewards the top teams with a home game...

[UMass922]

I would like to see 1-16 seeding too, but a bunch of you have already covered that, so I'm going to offer of what I think a better-looking bracket under the current system would look like. My main priority was to preclude the possibility of regular-season rematches until as late in the tournament as possible, which I think could have been done while still retaining reasonable "geographic proximity" and matchups that are reasonably fair. To me it's inexcusable that the current bracket gives us a rematch in the first round (ILS vs. EIU) and a number of possible ones in the second round. In the bracket I've offered here, no rematches could possibly occur until the semi-finals.


Coastal Carolina @ #1 Appalachian State
New Hampshire @ Southern Illinois

Eastern Illinois @ #4 Youngstown State
Montana State @ Furman


Lafayette @ #3 Massachusetts
Hampton @ James Madison

McNeese State @ #2 Montana
Tennessee-Martin @ Illinois State

[MSU2001]

My bracket using the current system given the 16 selected teams...

Coastal Carolina @ #1 App. State
Furman @ New Hampshire

Montana State @ #4 Youngstown State
Illinois State @ Eastern Illinois

McNeese State @ #2 Montana
UT-Martin @ Southern Illinois

Lafayette @ #3 UMass
Hampton @ James Madison

I would like to see them seed at least the top 8 teams in the bracket, then perhaps regionalize the rest of the matchups. Under this system, we could have...

Coastal Carolina @ #1 App. State
UT-Martin @ #8 S. Illinois

Montana State @ #4 Youngstown State
Hampton @ #5 James Madison

McNeese State @ #2 Montana
Furman @ #7 New Hampshire

Lafayette @ #3 UMass
Eastern Illinois @ #6 Illinois State

[OhioHen]

I "seeded" the top 8 based on my opinion of their deserved ranking. Then I looked at the others who are in this year and made pairings that minimize potential conference matchups and rematches while placing teams 9-16 within 1 or 2 "seeds" of where they would have been in a "true" 1-16 list. This required reversing my original 6/11 and 7/10 pairings (as is done with the NCAA Hoops bracket).

The resulting bracket:

16. McNeese State @ 1. Appalachian State
9. Coastal Carolina @ 8. New Hampshire

13. Montana State @ 4. Youngstown State
12. Hampton @ 5. James Madison

14. Eastern Illinois @ 3. Montana
11. Furman @ 6. Southern Illinois (originally the 7/10 game)

10. UT-Martin @ 7. Illinois State (originally the 6/11 game)
15. Lafayette @ 2. Massachusetts

[psc2445]

Lets see how you would bracket the teams. Lots of talk about travel and which teams should go where. Put down what you think should have happened. Use regionalization or not it is up to you to place the teams.

1) Appalachian St. hosts 16) Lafayette
2) Montana hosts 15) E. Illinois
3) YSU hosts 14) Tennessee Martin
4) Umass hosts 13) Coastal Carolina
5) JMU hosts 12) McNeese St
6) Illinois St hosts 11) Hampton
7) S. Illinois hosts 10) Montana St.
8) Furman hosts 9) New Hampshire

I didn't worry about geography, just tried to place the teams where I thought they fit in.

perfect:hurray:

[putter]

I just look at JMU@YSU and S. Illinois against Delaware in 2002. Top teams should not have to play each other in the first round so some type of "seeding" should be done for the full field.

[chiapet9]

i would put them all on a piece of paper and pull them out of a hat. (since that's what it seems like they do sometimes anyway). i would get:


Lafayette @ UNH
Furman @ JMU
McNeese @ CCU
YSU @ UMass
Hampton @ Montana
UT-Martin @ App. St.
EIU @ ISU
SIU @ MSU

**i don't necessarily agree with these matchups - they're just what came out of the hat. honestly - it didn't do too terribly. hahaha.

[mcveyrl]

I seeded everybody, but then moved things around slightly for "pseudo-regionalization." Think somebody else did something like this earlier. Might've even had the same result, I don't know.

UTM @ #1 ASU
Furman @ #8 SIU
Coastal Carolina @ #4 YSU
Hampton @ #5 JMU

Lafayette @ #2 UMass
Eastern Illinois @ #7 UNH
McNeese St. @ #3 Montana
Montana St. @ #6 SIU

[89Hen]

I'd try to avoid conference match-ups in the second round if possible.

Eastern Illinois at Appalachian State (1)
Coastal Carolina at JMU

New Hampshire at YSU (4)
Hampton at Furman


McNeese State at Montana (2)
Tennessee Martin at Illinois State

Lafayette at Massachusetts (3)
Montana State at Southern Illinois

[chiapet9]

it seems like everyone in their RIGHT mind would have placed JMU up against a weaker team like Hampton or Coastal Carolina. that must mean that the selection committee was clearly in their LEFT mind when forming the playoff brackets.