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Quick Hits: Lacrosse team tops Cornell, clinches sole possession of Ivy title
Published: Saturday, April 28th, 2012
In a game it led from start to finish, the men’s lacrosse team trampled Cornell in a 14-9 victory. The win clinches the sole possession of the Ivy League regular-season title and the right to host the four-team Ivy ...
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When's the game next week? Hopefully not interrupting lawnparties.
That was a complete, dominating victory on both ends of the field. Congratulations to us.
But unfortunately, stomping Cornell is unlikely to have "garnered us enough ammo for an at-large bid. " The criteria that the selection committee will consider for at-large bids is spelled out on their website and nowhere does it mention earning a conference championship or winning eight out of our last nine games.
The sad fact is that, by beating Cornell, we will drop them out of the Top 10. We now have exactly zero quality wins.
We are now playing as well as any team in the country but, according to the NCAA's published criteria, if we don't win the Ivy tournament, we will probably be sitting at home watching the NCAA games on television.
From GoPrincetonTigers:
The tournament begins with the semifinals Friday, as second-seeded Cornell makes a return visit to take on third-seeded Yale at 5, followed at 8 by the game between the top-seeded Tigers and fourth-seeded Brown. The winners play Sunday at noon for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Damn, I'm going to have to decide whether I want to go to houseparties/lawnparties or to the lax games... But I'd much rather have this dilemma or not. Go Tigers! Keep up the excellent work and win that Ivy Tourney!!!
... Just because the NCAA selection criteria does not specifically include "earning a conference championship or winning eight out of our last nine games" does not mean those factors to do weigh in the decision making process.
Uh, actually, you're wrong.
Roughly about a decade ago, the NCAA tried to respond to criticism that its selection criteria for at-large bids to all the post-season tournaments was too opaque. In response, the NCAA formally codified and disseminated more detail on what it would and would not consider. In particular, it tried to clear up questions such as, "Do quality losses help a bubble candidacy?" and "Does a bad loss hurt more than a quality loss?" and "How important is winning on the road versus at home?"
Men's ice hockey went all the way to an entirely mathematical algorithm to select its at-large teams. While the hockey at-large bids are still announced on a selection show, there is literally no suspense in terms of who is in and who is not.
Men's basketball and men's lacrosse still allow the selection committee more subjective discretion, but they are much more clear upfront about issues such as runaway wins versus close wins and losses, etc. Trouncing Cornell counts for no more than beating them in overtime.
So the fact that the NCAA selection criteria does not specifically include "earning a conference championship or winning eight out of our last nine games" does indeed mean exactly that. No credit is extended for championships or "finishing strong" or "quality close losses" -- none whatsoever.
We played UNC very tight and, by all rights, could have and should have won that game. But that earns us absolutely nothing in the eyes of the selection committee.
Right now and adjusting Cornell down for its loss to us, we have zero Top 5 wins and zero Top 10 wins. Furthermore, winning at home is discounted slightly so beating the Big Red at home carries a bit less weight than it does in Ithaca.
If we lose against Brown -- admittedly unlikely -- we're highly likely to be out. If we lose in the final against Yale, that's also bad. A loss against Cornell in the final is the best non-AQ scenario because the Big Red have the highest RPI, but still leaves us very much on the bubble and probably on the outside looking in.
We are on fire right now. If we make the NCAA tournament field, we will be deserving of serious consideration to make Memorial Day weekend. But the sad fact is, if we don't win the Ivy tournament, we could very well be shut out of the postseason entirely.
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