Huge div. B week!

[btriley01]

I've already posted this once, but I'd like to do it here for a separate reason: a nice discussion. Here are the most important games for this weekend in division B:

Creighton/Ft. lewis
Montana/UNC and Montana State (in the same day!!)
UNC/Montana state
Dayton/Carnegie Mellon
UST/SJU

This seems to be a huge weekend. I think it will show who is who, and who isn't, namely montana. They've got it hard for themselves, but if they pull it off they will be back in my top ten, not that I vote..

[Gvlax]

Calvin vs Northern Michigan is a big conference game plus both teams in the top 25.

Calvin just beat number 25 ranked team ferris 8-6 last night. It is a big week in Div B

[Gvlax]

im not sure if this thread even belongs in the championship chat, maybe more general news? im sure it will be moved soon.

[westlax]

Another big game for #11 Montana is when #19 Western Oregon comes into town to play them on saturday. Montana just came off a huge 18-7 win over the #14 Southern Oregon Raiders. Western Oregon also played a ranked school handing #20 Pacific Lutheran a 15-6 loss. This game will decide the seeding for who wins the PNCLL-B South and a first round bye in the playoffs.

[scooter]

I agree fully with Riley here.....with only 3 at large bids given to B division teams, this week has the potential to out some from Dallas, or at the very least, force them to win a very difficult conference tourny

[Zeuslax]

Carnegie Mellon also plays New Haven from the PCLL on Sunday. They play Grove City on Saturday as well. These games should offer some insight into the relative strength of PCLL. I think New Haven is the only Div B team from the Pioneer that is traveling and playing OOC games this season.

[btriley01]

I agree fully with Riley here.....with only 3 at large bids given to B division teams, this week has the potential to out some from Dallas, or at the very least, force them to win a very difficult conference tourny

Actually, the LSA no longer has an automatic bid with the loss of UTA. There will now be 4 at large bids, that or we move back to the 8 team bracket.

[LaxZac02]

Carnegie Mellon also plays New Haven from the PCLL on Sunday. They play Grove City on Saturday as well. These games should offer some insight into the relative strength of PCLL. I think New Haven is the only Div B team from the Pioneer that is traveling and playing OOC games this season.

Salem State travelled to Florida for their Spring break playing Eckerd, USF, and U Tampa.

[scooter]

Actually, the LSA no longer has an automatic bid with the loss of UTA. There will now be 4 at large bids, that or we move back to the 8 team bracket.

that is actually very good to know...I was unaware

[Brew26]

Why did montana schedule 3 games in two days? Was that on purpose or just work out that way for scheduling? It could really hurt them at this point of the season if they are to lose, which would make them have to win their conference outright to make it to nationals.

[cjwilhelmi]

Actually, the LSA no longer has an automatic bid with the loss of UTA. There will now be 4 at large bids, that or we move back to the 8 team bracket.

that is actually very good to know...I was unaware

Actually...

LSA still has six teams which is the magical cutoff number (I think) for an AQ.

Austin College, Southwestern, St. Eds, TCU, Trinity, Texas-San Antonio

Now the big question is if TCU counts towards the B qualifier since they are an A team playing down. If it does then they have the AQ, if not then the LSA might not have a team represent Div B in Dallas (Southwestern is ranked 15).

I would like to see someone smarter (and more sober) than me to answer this.

[btriley01]

From the discussions going on, that is not the case. I'm not 100% sure, but that has been the talk.

Harding has the displeasure of playing both UST and Creighton in the same game. It can be done, but it is hard. Anyone who can win two in one day is balla in my book.

[Hi-Line Lax]

we scheduled 2 games on Sunday because playing lacrosse in Montana is not easy and we wanted to help out our buddies at MSU by giving them another home game... we only get 2 or 3 a year typically. We did this last year too (beating Western Washington and Montana State in Missoula). We hadn't planned on playing anybody else that weekend, but it isn't the first time that our league scheduler has ignored our wishes.

A better question might be why several other "Top 10" teams haven't scheduled anybody really worthwhile this entire season (1 top 25 for Dayton, 2 for Emory, 3 for Harding... isn't the point of the regular season to get ready for the post season?).

I'm not saying that we should be ranked higher, or teams who don't play OOC/Top 25 should be lower, I'm just explaining that I tried to put together a season that would prepare our team for a post season run... it's always come down to the conference tournament, for pretty much everybody.

On another note from this discussion... haven't heard anything about the LSA losing an AQ this year, but I was under the impression that the PCLL has lost its AQ for this year because of Salem State dropping out last year(thus still 4 at-large bids... unless this LSA thing would make it 5)... maybe somebody can clarify.

[Brew26]

Thanks for the answer hi-line and it is never fun doing the scheduling with the weather. Im glad that you guys want to play the best all year round, especially if you have the chance. And I wish you guys the best of luck this weekend.

[btriley01]

A better question might be why several other "Top 10" teams haven't scheduled anybody really worthwhile this entire season (1 top 25 for Dayton, 2 for Emory, 3 for Harding... isn't the point of the regular season to get ready for the post season?).

On another note from this discussion... haven't heard anything about the LSA losing an AQ this year, but I was under the impression that the PCLL has lost its AQ for this year because of Salem State dropping out last year(thus still 4 at-large bids... unless this LSA thing would make it 5)... maybe somebody can clarify.

First of all, its much easier to schedule top 10 teams when you have them at your doorstep. The closest top ten team to us is st. thomas at a whopping 15 hours away. We try as best as we can to get some of the teams, but its not easy.

Secondly, Salem state did not drop out. They have a standing record of 7-4 for this season. I believe what you're referring to is the fact that they could not afford to make the trip, so they dropped out of the national tourney. The LSA div. B has 6 teams, but one is an A team playing down. So they don't have an AQ bid.