Chuck Place of Albany offers these insights for Bearcat fans as Northwest Missouri State prepares for the post-season playoffs.
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Prior to the November 1 games, UNO was ranked 6th in the region and Tarleton State was ranked 8th. On November 1 UNO defeats Fort Hays 27-14 (a team with a poor 2-7 record) while Tarleton State defeated Angleo State 31-24 October 30. Angelo State was 3-6 entering that game (with one of those losses against a DIAA school). In this week’s regional rankings UNO dropped to 7th despite winning the previous Saturday. Tarleton State defeated a team with a 3-6 record and jumped from 6th to 8th ahead of UNO. Central Missouri had been 7th and dropped to 9th with their loss to Mowest.
Why do teams who both defeated teams with almost identical losing records by very similar margins change places in the regional rankings? Beware thinking that you cannot drop in the regional rankings even if you win — especially if you are playing a poor team.
If the play off bracket were to be set today based off regional rankings (which they are not and we have learned to expect changes even when you would not expect a change and also that national rankings of any poll are not part of the regional rankings), then it would look like this:
November 15:
#5 Central Washington @ #4 West Texas A & M
#6 Tarleton State @ # 3 Pitt State
#1 Abilene Christian and #2 NWMSU byes
November 22:
Winner of Central Washington @ West Texas A & M at #1 Abilene Christian
Winner of Tarleton State @ Pitt State @ #2 NWMSU
November 29:
Winner of game played November 22 at Abilene Christian versus
Winner of Nov. 22 at NWMSU (played on the home field of the higher seed)
December 6 or 7:
Winner of our super region (4) versus winner of super region 2 (which is former south east region which now has Delta State, Northern Alabama, Valdosta State and Carson Newman ranked 1-4 in that region.
But back to the Nov. 8 action on the field. Northwest plays Missouri Southern coached by long-time successful Bearcat assistant Bart Tatum. Also on that date the #4 team in our region West Texas A & M plays the # 6 team Tarleton State. Of course, one of those teams will lose but that does not necessarily mean that they would drop out of the top 6 and miss the play offs. #7 UNO has a tough game against Washburn but even a victory does not necessarily mean they would move up to replace the loser of the WTA&M vs TS game.
Another game of potential significance if you want to look very deep for reasons to maintain the #2 regional ranking or host the semi-final game in early December — Missouri S&T (Rolla) at Southwest Baptist. Southwest is 5-5 going into this game and because they were a Northwest opponent and the combined records of your opponents are one of the items on the regional rankings worksheet, a Southwest victory would help them move to 6-3 against DII opponents excluding their losses to Northwest and SEMO (DIAA). Missouri S&T is now 5-4 against an odd assortment of DIAA, DIII, DII and NAIA opponents.
My understanding is that the home team for the December 6 or 7 games telecast on ESPN will be established using the same criteria as the regional rankings. In 2007 the Bearcats at 11-1 hosted 12-0 Grand Valley State presumable because of the more difficult schedule and the more difficult schedule of our opponents — even though Grand Valley State was defending national champions and ranked #1 in the nation and their region.
As always, SID Brian Boettcher and his staff have depth and breadth of Bearcat information at www.nwmissouri.edu and the play off ticket order information is available on that site in addition to the letters that have already gone out to season ticket holders.
Several school are playing for an opportunity to make their first trip ever to the play offs. Even more schools are playing for a 3 or 4 seeding and the chance to host their first ever play off game. Bearcat Fans for the past decade-plus have made the play offs part of their plans. Thanks to everyone connected with the success of the University for this luxury we enjoy. — Chuck Place
Postscript — How powerful is the tradition and reputation of Bearcat basketball and Coach Steve Tappmeyer? The Bearcats lost 8 of 10 players with the most playing time from the 2007-08 squad and were picked just 5th in the MIAA by the pre-season vote of MIAA coaches — but the Bearcats were ranked 16th nationally. Don’t lose track of MIAA basketball. With the addition of an 11th team to the MIAA for basketball (UNO entered and Southwest Baptist stayed for basketball), MIAA league games begin Dec. 3 instead of after Christmas as in previous years.