AT-LARGE (17 TEAMS/8 SLOTS)
|
W-L
|
RPI
|
T5
|
T10
|
T20
|
Notable Losses (25+)
|
Yale
|
7-2
|
4
|
1-0
|
2-1
|
4-1
|
at Penn State (29)
|
Virginia
|
8-2
|
5
|
0-1
|
0-1
|
4-2
|
---
|
Cornell
|
9-1
|
6
|
1-0
|
3-1
|
3-1
|
---
|
Rutgers
|
10-2
|
7
|
0-1
|
1-2
|
2-2
|
---
|
Penn
|
4-4
|
8
|
0-3
|
1-3
|
2-4
|
---
|
Harvard
|
7-2
|
9
|
0-0
|
0-2
|
2-2
|
---
|
Ohio State
|
8-3
|
10
|
0-0
|
1-2
|
4-3
|
---
|
Denver
|
6-5
|
11
|
0-2
|
1-2
|
1-5
|
---
|
Notre Dame
|
4-4
|
12
|
0-3
|
0-4
|
1-4
|
---
|
North Carolina
|
7-4
|
13
|
0-2
|
0-3
|
4-4
|
---
|
Richmond
|
6-4
|
15
|
1-1
|
1-1
|
1-4
|
---
|
Duke
|
9-5
|
16
|
0-0
|
0-1
|
3-3
|
at Syracuse (31)
|
Brown
|
6-4
|
17
|
0-1
|
1-2
|
1-3
|
---
|
UMass
|
6-4
|
22
|
0-1
|
0-1
|
1-2
|
at Towson (28)
|
Lehigh
|
7-3
|
23
|
0-1
|
0-2
|
0-2
|
---
|
Army
|
9-2
|
24
|
0-0
|
0-1
|
0-1
|
---
|
Loyola
|
5-5
|
25
|
0-1
|
0-2
|
1-3
|
Towson (28)
|
Yale remains in fine shape for a top-four seed with four weeks left before Selection Sunday. The Bulldogs still have Brown and Harvard left in the Ivy League’s round robin. … Virginia isn’t going to get much RPI help from its remaining opponents other than Duke, which it visits on Thursday. The Cavaliers’ last three games are against Quinnipiac, Syracuse and Lafayette, which came out of the weekend a combined 10-21. …
After smashing Harvard on Saturday, Cornell still has some valuable opportunities remaining: Army and Brown at home before closing Ivy play at Princeton. … Rutgers remains about where it was prior to losing at Maryland. Regardless of the score, dropping a game to the Terrapins isn’t going to damage a team’s profile. …
Penn still has a top-eight RPI, but it’s fair to wonder whether the committee would reward a .500 team with a home game in the first round. That’s not to say the Quakers, who still have Brown, Dartmouth, Saint Joseph’s and Albany to come, will finish at .500. … The overall strength of the Ivy League and the way the RPI compounds that means Harvard didn’t take a major hit for losing to Cornell. The same principle would hold in any of the Crimson’s final three games (at Penn, Princeton, at Yale), but it still wouldn’t be wise to lose out. …
Ohio State has a chance to earn a path to Memorial Day Weekend without leaving campus. The Buckeyes are already hosting a quarterfinal doubleheader, and a victory at Maryland on Saturday would go a long way in locking down a first-round home game. … Denver will be rooting for Ohio State to do just that. The better the Buckeyes do, the better it is for the Pioneers thanks to their victory in Columbus. …
Notre Dame gets back on the board by getting to .500. The Irish look the part right now, but they could use some extra heft for their profile. They still have a pair of top-20 games left — at home against North Carolina and Duke. … North Carolina’s top-20 victories have come against Denver (11), Richmond (15), Brown (17) and sub-.500 Johns Hopkins (20). …
Richmond faces a problem similar to Jacksonville’s. The Spiders won’t get any RPI help from facing Mercer or VMI, two of their final three regular-season opponents. … There is no understating the significance of Duke’s meeting with Virginia on Thursday. The Cavaliers have already swept North Carolina and won their lone meeting with Notre Dame. If they win in Durham, they won’t drag another ACC team into the tournament on their coattails. …
There’s hope for Brown, which landed the high-profile victory it was missing thanks to a victory at Penn. Yale and Cornell await the next two weekends. … The Bears’ victory also helped UMass, but not enough to offset the Minutemen’s loss at Towson. It’s hard to see how the CAA produces an at-large team at this point. …
Lehigh moves into the top 25 of the RPI after beating Bucknell on Sunday. The Mountain Hawks still have Colgate, Boston University and Loyola to come before the Patriot League tournament. … If Army is going to harbor even slim at-large hopes, it better beat Cornell on Saturday. … Loyola’s gone from 5-5 to making the NCAA tournament before — as in last year (albeit without Ivy League teams competing for at-large berths). The Greyhounds finish April with games against Boston University, Georgetown, Colgate and Lehigh.
BRACKET
A few notes worth remembering …
-
The NCAA will return to eight campus-site games in the first round this season. First-round conference matchups will be avoided, which can lead to some movement for the unseeded teams.
-
With the return of the Ivy League from last year’s hiatus and the addition of the Atlantic Sun, there are 10 conferences eligible for automatic berths. That means there will be two play-in games, featuring the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifying teams.
-
Limiting air travel remains a priority for the NCAA, so this won’t necessarily be a 1-through-16 bracket. Historically, the NCAA tries to bracket the field so only two teams must travel more than 400 miles for a first-round game, though it isn’t a completely inflexible rule.
-
Quarterfinal hosts are funneled into their home sites. Whichever quadrant of the bracket Ohio State lands in will play a second-weekend game in Columbus.
-
This exercise is an attempt to project what the NCAA committee would do based on its history and on this season’s results to date. It is not an attempt to predict future results or suggest what the committee should do.
Columbus, Ohio, quarterfinal
(1) BIG TEN/Maryland vs. COLONIAL/Towson-METRO ATLANTIC/St. Bonaventure
(8) Ohio State vs. Denver
Hempstead, N.Y., quarterfinal
(5) Cornell vs. SOUTHERN/Jacksonville
(4) Yale vs. PATRIOT/Boston University
Columbus, Ohio, quarterfinal
(3) BIG EAST/Georgetown vs. NORTHEAST/Saint Joseph’s
(6) Virginia vs. Penn
Hempstead, N.Y., quarterfinal
(7) Rutgers vs. Harvard
(2) IVY/Princeton vs. ATLANTIC SUN/Utah-AMERICA EAST/Binghamton
Last three in: Penn, Harvard, Denver
First three out: Notre Dame, Duke, North Carolina
Moving in: Denver, Jacksonville, Towson
Moving out: Duke, UMass, Richmond
Conference call: Ivy (5), Big Ten (3), Big East (2)