PL 16 seed in the tourney?

[lfnadminKeymaster]

To you who know better than me:

Whomever the Patriot League champion might be, are they destined to be a 16 seed, either in a PIG or on a Thursday game? Or might a Bucknell, Lehigh or BU slide into a 15 seed?

Real Time RPI currently has:

165 Lehigh
168 Bucknell
185 BU

Army is next, but they are under 200.

I am thinking that a Lehigh or Bucknell might require some conference upsets to miss a 16 seed, but I’m not sure.

[TMHParticipant]

Wouldn’t it depend on the results of the other tournaments?
What I don’t fully understand though is how they pick the PIG participants under the expanded format. There were #1 and #12 seeds playing in those games in the past.

[lehigh90Participant]

Read on other boards that 16 seed looked like the highest possible outcome, and PIG is very likely.

[lfnadminKeymaster]

Let’s say chalk wins the lower 10-rated RPI tournaments.

MEAC – Hampton – 170
SWAC – Texas Southern – 198
NEC – Wagner – 182
A-Sun – North Florida – 155

An upset winner in any of these 4 tournaments in particular would clearly be below a Bucknell or Lehigh, and even if chalk wins they could be ahead of one (or all) of them.

Some of the other interesting tournaments could be rooting for these upsets:

Southland: SFA (90), TAMU-CC (104), Sam Houston State (174)

Big Sky: Weber State (136), Montana (146)

WAC: Grand Canyon (104), NMSU (112) Cal State-Bakersfield (137)

Big South: Winthrop (128), Coastal Carolina (156), High Point (158)

I think the Patriot League needs a different winner in at least 1 of the above 4 tournaments in order to avoid the PIG. And it also looks like at best, unless the conference tourneys are bonkers, the high water mark for the PL will be a 15 seed.

[Bison137Participant]

[quote quote=25805]Wouldn’t it depend on the results of the other tournaments?
What I don’t fully understand though is how they pick the PIG participants under the expanded format. There were #1 and #12 seeds playing in those games in the past.

[/quote]

.
There are two categories of play-in games: (a) the four worst automatic qualifiers, and (b) the four worst at-large teams. The winners of category (a) become 16 seeds. The winners of category (b) slot in as approximately 12 seeds.

The PL needs at least one tournament upset to stay out of the PIG. Needs a few upsets to get to #15. In some ways, I wouldn’t mind a PIG spot. Would give the PL champ a good chance for a win, which counts as a real tournament win.

[lfnadminKeymaster]

Agree on the 16 vs. 16 game (though I want no part of Texas Southern – they are a much stronger team than their RPI). The big difference this year is that one of the 16 seeds will play a No. 1 seed in NYC.

If Lehigh does makes it, I will be burning candles to try to have them have the opportunity to play in NYC, either through the PIG or as a high-16 seed.

[CHIP72Participant]

I think Lehigh would have a chance of avoiding the First Four even with a lower RPI than some other teams if they win the PL Tournament and enter the NCAA Tournament with a 12 game winning streak.

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