NCAA tourney field set Sunday

When it comes to NCAA tournament committees, prominent members of the Princeton community tend to be involved. Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 served as chairman of the Division I Men's Basketball Committee in March. For the past four years, men' s lacrosse head coach Bill Tierney has played a similar role as a member of the selection committee for the Division I lacrosse tournament.

This year, though Tierney is not a member of the committee that selects and seeds teams for the tournament, he still has a vested interest in the selection process. Tierney will find out Sunday whether his No. 6 Tigers (9-3 overall, 4-1 Ivy League) will earn a berth in the tournament, which regularly draws more spectators than the NCAA men's basketball's Final Four.

The 16-team bracket consists of seven automatic berths — given to teams who have won their conference titles — as well as nine at-large bids. No. 1 Cornell (12-0, 6-0) has already clinched the Ivy League title and the automatic Ancient Eight bid, so Princeton is hoping for an at-large bid.

NCAA rules require teams to have at least a .500 record to be eligible for the tournament. This year, the rule has led to the absence of a historically dominant team. For the first time since 1982, No. 19 Syracuse (5-7) will not appear on the bracket. The Orange was knocked out of contention when it suffered a 9-7 loss to Massachusetts last weekend.

In deciding which teams receive the nine at-large bids, the committee considers several important factors. One such indicator is how a team fared during the regular season.

Tierney explained that, while a team's overall record is important, it is combined with other factors.

"Obviously, your season results are very important," Tierney said. "But because most lacrosse teams play an average of 13 games a year, there is not enough to go on, should you just compare records."

In addition to overall records, a team's ranking on the ratings percentage index (RPI) is another useful tool. The RPI, which is also used in men's basketball, is a numerical value that factors in a team's overall record, its strength of schedule and its opponents' strength of schedule.

Princeton is currently No. 10 nationally in the RPI. If the committee were to choose teams based on the RPI alone, the Tigers would have a good shot at making the tournament. Several of the teams ahead of Princeton in the current RPI have already clinched automatic bids to the tournament.

Strength of schedule is another crucial factor in the selection process, but similar to a team's overall record, it cannot be used as the sole determining factor.

"Some teams play a very weak schedule and might have an 11-2 record, while others play a really tough schedule and might have an 8-5 record," Tierney said. "You have to examine these things very closely to determine who the best teams are."

Combining these three numerical tools may not always lead to clearcut decisions. Though numbers are useful, they cannot account for subjective factors such as the quality of a team's performance during the season. Therefore, the committee also uses secondary criteria, including head-to-head competition, results against common opponents and various coaching polls.

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After the 16-team field has been selected, the committee is responsible for seeding the bracket. While only the top-eight teams are given official seeds, Tierney noted that the committee will often seed all 16 teams to gain a sense of appropriate first-round matchups.

Tierney noted, though, that several less obvious considerations come into play when determining the eight opening-round matchups. According to Tierney, travel concerns are always of utmost importance.

"In the first round [of the tournament], there can only be two flights," Tierney said. "Therefore, if you go directly with the seedings and three flights were needed — which are any trips over 350 miles — you have to change some matchups using geographical proximity as a guide."

The committee also makes a conscious effort to mix up the playing field, avoiding league rivalries in the first round as much as possible.

This year, the committee is seeding a field that will battle for a coveted spot in the May 23 championship game, which will be played at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md. Princeton Stadium will be the host of quarterfinal matchups the weekend of May 19 and 20.

At 9 p.m. on Sunday, the selection show will be televised on ESPNU, and the Tigers will find out if they have made the cut for this year's NCAA tournament. Tierney and his players are hoping that the numbers will be on Princeton's side.