Questions for Selection Sunday

[Professor Chaos]

Yeah imagine how bad Bisonville would be the past 24 hours if we got Montana State'd. I'm still not happy about Montana, it'll be the best 2nd round team we've ever faced, by far.

Took #2 to overtime, lost by three to Weber. Don't remember a 2nd round game with that kind of resume.

Ha! You should hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth on AGS about how Montana doesn't deserve to even be in the playoffs. They gave up 400+ yards rushing to Montana St on Saturday... unless they figure something out in a hurry I think the Bison will do just fine against them - to be honest SEMO has a solid running game as well so they're going to be tested again just to be able to make it to Fargo.

As for Montana St if I were them I'd be more pissed about having to face Weber St in their first game. I don't think the 3 vs 4 really means anything since they also should've switched Sac St and SDSU around at 1 and 2. This way it's the same semifinal matchups if all 4 top seeds win (NDSU @ Sac St and Montana St @ SDSU) it would've been had the committee seeded them correctly.

[B.Schlossman Fan Club]

As someone else posted on AGS:

Remember that NCAA takes the larger of 3/4 of the gate or the bid amount. If Weber's "revenue potential" is close to UND's, which it probably is based on previous attendance, that 1 of 5 criteria wouldn't trump the others.
Although, if you pair this with UND previously being sent to SHSU and having their locker room in a tent due to renovations, I have to wonder if the NCAA has a vendetta against them. What could UND have possibly done and/or continue doing to warrant that?

Matt Larsen did his job bahahaha!!!!

[Professor Chaos]

I'd say UND fans are rightfully pissed about this.

That said I wish the committee did this more often and gave the home game to the more deserving team when the "revenue potential" is close.

[NDSU92]

Ha! You should hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth on AGS about how Montana doesn't deserve to even be in the playoffs. They gave up 400+ yards rushing to Montana St on Saturday... unless they figure something out in a hurry I think the Bison will do just fine against them - to be honest SEMO has a solid running game as well so they're going to be tested again just to be able to make it to Fargo.

As for Montana St if I were them I'd be more pissed about having to face Weber St in their first game. I don't think the 3 vs 4 really means anything since they also should've switched Sac St and SDSU around at 1 and 2. This way it's the same semifinal matchups if all 4 top seeds win (NDSU @ Sac St and Montana St @ SDSU) it would've been had the committee seeded them correctly.

Yeah meant moreso having to face the defacto 9 seed in the 2nd round. And weber is better than at least three of seeds 5-8 in reality

[Hammersmith]

As someone else posted on AGS:

Remember that NCAA takes the larger of 3/4 of the gate or the bid amount. If Weber's "revenue potential" is close to UND's, which it probably is based on previous attendance, that 1 of 5 criteria wouldn't trump the others.
Although, if you pair this with UND previously being sent to SHSU and having their locker room in a tent due to renovations, I have to wonder if the NCAA has a vendetta against them. What could UND have possibly done and/or continue doing to warrant that?

Nicholls State

Vendetta? The problem with that is that the committee changes every year. I think each member serves a 2-year term(though I could be wrong about that). If I'm correct, that means nobody on this year's committee was also on the 2019 committee. Hard to have an ongoing vendetta with constantly changing people.

It's more likely that UND got unluckily screwed because of different priorities at the times. The members of the 2019 committee were more interesting in minimizing financial losses, so they prioritized Nicholls higher bid over their crappy facility situation. But this year's committee had members that pushed for something else. Maybe a compromise for Holy Cross getting the bid over Weber? I don't know, but I don't think I like changing precedents like that.

I really want to see Weber's bid. If it's close to UND's $125k, then I won't mind so much. But if it was really low and they still got the home game...


edit: Looks like 4 year terms for the committee. 10 or 11 members, and 2-3 members are replaced every year. So less than half the committee is the same between 2019 and this year.

[NDSU1980]

Nope. The committee, including Matt Larsen, decided to ignore every precedent in the selection process history ignored the financial component, but just in that game.
UND had a higher bid than Weber and I'm not sure it was that close.

Let's see the proof. I highly doubt the NCAA would take a lower bid. I'd say someone is lying. And GO WEBER.

Edit, OK I see some are saying it's true. But it couldn't happen to a better school.

[Bison03]

They are already bringing up the “Larsen screwed UND” conspiracy theory. I would imagine he fought not only for them to be in, but to host.

[tony]

I'd say UND fans are rightfully pissed about this.

That said I wish the committee did this more often and gave the home game to the more deserving team when the "revenue potential" is close.

UND was one of the last two teams in the field and they got put up against a team that had a good argument to be seeded. That's a tough draw, but it's a fair one. They can be pissed all they want. I say, "Remember Delta State!"

The beautiful irony of this is that for 30+ years, I've been hearing a whole bunch of UND fans/media folks crying that NDSU only won so many championships because NDSU bought home field advantage. Note: This is BS. NDSU won three D2 championships before bidding - and the two teams that won after bidding (or it might be just one) were both undefeated.

[aces1180]

I remember when Roger Thomas helped send NDSU to play at Delta State instead of hosting the 2000 NCAA DII semi-finals…

[abc123]

UND was one of the last two teams in the field and they got put up against a team that had a good argument to be seeded. That's a tough draw, but it's a fair one.

Yet Montana was supposedly one of the other ones and they are hosting?
The issue isn't necessarily the draw (though objectively, those two teams shouldn't be matched up) nor should they funnel into Montana St, who should also not be happy being possibly lined up to play a team who had a good argument to be seeded in the second round as the #4 seed.
The committee has zero consistency in what they were doing. Maybe it happened somewhere and no one can recall, but at this point, there are zero known examples of them completely ignoring the bids. It's literally always been about that. And it clearly was if Montana is not only in but hosting (which is confirmed that the committee admits they have a general idea on what teams are capable of bidding).