NCAA DIVISION I MEN S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING THE BRACKET There are three basic phases in the process: I. SELECT AQ Identify conference AQs At-large select at-large teams (8) Preliminary round games determine the four teams that will compete in two preliminary round games for the final two AQ spots. II. SEED the top 8 teams; and III. PLACE the teams in the bracket. I. PRIOR TO THE NATIONAL SELECTION MEETING Review selection and site determination criteria located in the 2017 NCAA Division I Men s Lacrosse Pre-Championships and Committee Policies and Procedures Manuals. Review NCAA Bylaw 31.3.3.4 as it relates to teams under consideration. II. TIMELINE FOR SELECTION WEEKEND Saturday, May 6 Committee arrives in Indianapolis. Saturday, May 6 and Sunday, May 7 Review final regional advisory committee rankings and conference call discussion. Committee debriefing, display/distribute ranking information and explain data. Seeding/bracketing. Discuss site representatives and officials. Selection announcement at 9 p.m. Eastern time live on ESPNU. Monday, May 8 Committee departs Indianapolis. Participant teleconferences.
Page No. 2 III. SELECTION RECOMMENDATIONS PROCEDURES a. The role of the regional advisory committee (RAC) is to assist the Men s Lacrosse committee in the evaluation of teams throughout the season. Regional advisory committee members may participate in discussions and share factual information that is generally known about their team. Regional advisory committee members may vote for their own teams; and need not be removed from the call or meeting at any point. However, RAC s do not have the authority to select teams. They strictly act in an advisory capacity. The final authority of selections and seeding rests with the Men s Lacrosse Committee. b. Report scores of any late games. c. Make a final check on the eligibility and availability of student-athletes (i.e., injuries, illness, red cards, yellow cards in last match). This information should be presented to the full committee at the selection meeting. The national committee will determine the significance of the information on a case-by-case basis. d. Recommend teams, in rank order, to the national committee. Automatic qualifiers, including their order within the region should be included. e. Determine your regional advisory committee recommendations regarding site selections. f. Identify regional advisory committee members or others who will be available to staff preliminary-round games. IV. GENERAL PROCEDURES Among the resources available to the committee are complete box scores, game summaries and notes, various computer rankings, head-to-head results, common opponents, Division I results, nonconference results, home and away results, results in the last 10 games, rankings, and the regional advisory committee rankings. Determine the automatic-qualifying teams. The two lowest ranked automatic qualifying teams as determined by the committee, regardless of conference RPI, will compete in one play-in game to determine the final AQ spot in the championship bracket. America East Conference Big East Conference Big Ten Conference Colonial Athletic Association The Ivy League Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Northeast Conference The Patriot League Southern Conference
Select the remaining at-large teams (8) Nationally seed the top 8 teams. Place the 8 seeded teams into the championship bracket. Place the remaining 8 teams in the bracket according to established criteria (geographic location and competitive balance within bracket). V. NATIONAL COMMITTEE SELECTION MEETING 1. Principles and procedures for establishing the championship bracket. a. Each committee member is encouraged to come prepared with a listing of the top 12-20 teams overall after the last national ranking call. b. Identify the automatic qualifiers (8). c. Item a. above provides the committee with an initial at-large pool for consideration (usually 12-20 teams). d. Identify teams for immediate at-large selection or eliminate teams from consideration, both situations by unanimous vote. e. Compare the remaining group by gridding them out, using the selection criteria. Teams are voted in or out at this point by unanimous vote. f. Seed the top 8 teams (and rank the remaining 8 teams). g. Place the top 8 teams in the bracket. h. List the remaining 8 teams (in rank order). i. Pair teams geographically, where possible while maintaining bracket integrity; avoid firstround conference matchups where possible. j. Select first-round sites (higher rank team to host if an acceptable bid was submitted). 2. Principles for selection, seeding and bracketing. a. At no point in the process shall a member vote or take part in committee deliberations regarding a team that he or she represents as a coach or administrator and, therefore, will be removed from the meeting room.
Page No. 4 b. At any time during the process of selecting at-large teams, the committee may elect to begin seeding the teams. c. At any time during the process, the chair may designate a quiet period, generally 15 minutes in length, to permit committee members to individually reflect on the way he or she will vote. These periods may be (a) prior to finalizing the vote on teams eligible for the last remaining at-large positions; (b) prior to the start of the seeding process; and (c) prior to the start of the bracketing process. d. Votes will be by open voice. VI. SELECTION OF AT-LARGE TEAMS 1. Select the best available teams to fill the at-large berths, regardless of conference affiliation. 2. There is no limit on the number of teams the lacrosse committee may select from one conference. 3. The committee is not bound by the polls or regional rankings. 4. If the vote on a team is unanimous, the team is selected; if not unanimous, the team goes back into the pool for further discussion (discussed immediately or deferred until later). The same procedure is followed for up to three subsequent votes, if the third vote is not unanimous and the majority position shall prevail on the 4 th vote. 5. Teams may be voted in one at a time or in groups. 6. To be considered during the at-large selection process, a team must have an overall won-lostrecord of.500 or better and have played a minimum of 10 contests. In addition to Bylaw 31.3.3, the men s lacrosse committee shall consider the following criteria in the selection of at-large teams for the men s lacrosse championship (not necessarily in priority order): Selection Criteria: Eligibility and availability of student-athletes for NCAA championships. Won-lost record; Strength of schedule index [based on team s 10 highest rated contests; (2 games against the same opponent will count as two contests)]. Results of the RPI. Record against ranked teams 1-5; 6-10; 11-15; 16-20; 21+.
Page No. 5 Average RPI wins (average RPI of all wins). Average RPI loss (average RPI of all losses). Head-to-head competition. Results versus common opponents. Significant wins and losses. (wins against teams ranked higher in the RPI and losses against teams ranked lower in the RPI). Locations of contest. Additionally, input is provided by the regional advisory committee for consideration by the Division I Men s Lacrosse committee. Coaches polls and/or any other outside polls or rankings are not used as a selection criterion by the committee for selection purposes. Principles for Seeding Teams VII. SEEDING OF TEAMS The committee may consider comparing data of individual teams. Principles for Placing Teams in the Bracket VIII. PLACING TEAMS IN THE BRACKET The committee will attempt to achieve relative balance in the bracket and provide comparable competition, while abiding by the remaining principles. Balance does not mean equal. After all teams have been placed in the bracket, the committee will formally adopt the bracket via committee vote. Place the 8 seeds in the bracket. The top 8 seeds shall be given priority consideration to host first-round competition if an acceptable bid was submitted. The remaining ranked teams that have been selected (by the regular selection criteria for automatic qualifiers or as an at-large) will be paired geographically, while also maintaining bracket integrity, and to create the least number of flights. Teams traveling over 400 miles will trigger a flight being counted. After the bracket is determined, check for conflicts with the principles for placing the teams into the bracket (e.g., conference matchup in first game) and determine the relative strength of the bracket and fewest flights, then the committee will formally adopt the bracket.
Page No. 6 Additional Considerations If possible, rematches of previous years tournament games should be avoided in the first round; where possible while maintaining bracket integrity; avoid first-round conference matchups where possible. IX. SELECTION OF OFFICIALS 1. Official assignments will be made by the NCAA coordinator of officials, and approved by the committee. 2. Three field officials and one alternate official will be assigned for each game. 3. The committee has approval to reimburse air transportation for a combined maximum of nine officials for all rounds of the championship, if necessary. Additional flights may be approved as needed. X. STAFF ASSIGNMENTS 1. Whenever possible, national committee members will staff the preliminary-round competition. If additional site representatives are needed, current regional advisory committee members should be assigned. For quarterfinal sites, National Committee members will serve as site representatives. 2. During the selection meeting, one individual will be assigned to each site. XI. NOTIFICATION OF TEAMS After the announcement of the bracket, a memorandum will be emailed to each selected institution s director of athletics, senior woman administrator and head coach. There should be a follow-up call discussing the details noted in No. 2 below. 1. Each site representative (or designated alternate) shall contact the director of athletics/senior woman administrator of those institutions that have been selected. a. Provide bracket information. b. Remind the director of athletics/senior woman administrator to contact the NCAA travel service, Short's Travel Management, to make air travel arrangements (866/655-9215).
Page No. 7 Participants located within 400 miles of the site of competition are required to travel via ground transportation. Those teams must contact Go Ground Options, the NCAA ground transportation service, at 866/386-4951 to make their arrangements. c. Instruct the director of athletics/senior woman administrator to contact the host institution regarding practice and game times and hotel needs. d. Remind the director of athletics/senior woman administrator to send a roster, statistics and publicity materials to the host institution. e. Remind the director of athletics/senior woman administrator to review the information in the Division I Men s Lacrosse Pre-Championship Manual. f. Remind the director of athletics/senior woman administrator that a typed list of all studentathletes who may participate in the championship must be brought to the administrative meeting (Appendix H of the Host Operations Manual). g. Provide information regarding the first-round participants call that will be conducted by the committee member or designated alternate. h. Instruct the director of athletics/senior woman administrator to contact you or Anthony Holman at the national office if there are any questions. 2. Each site representative shall contact the respective host institution to provide the following information and instructions: a. Information from No. 1 above that applies. b. Information (official's patches) will be sent via overnight mail from the national office. c. Men s lacrosse balls will be sent to each host institution from STX. d. Indicate that the NCAA national office staff will contact the host institution with the names, phone numbers and emails of the officials assigned to the game. The host institution should contact the officials immediately to inform them of the site of competition, game times, meeting times and hotel availability. The tournament director shall keep this information confidential until the onsite administrative meeting. e. The host institution should contact its opponent with the following information: (1) Practice and game schedule. (2) Time and site for administrative meeting.
Page No. 8 (3) Hotel accommodations. (4) Time of arrival and mode of transportation. (5) Ticket prices and seating information. (6) Rosters and statistical information. f. Contact Anthony Holman at the national office if there are any questions (317/917-6929, office or 317/525-3279, cell). XII. NOTIFICATION OF OFFICIALS The NCAA coordinator of officials will make officials assignment for each game via Arbiter. The national office will provide this information to the tournament director and site representative. The tournament director shall: 1. Provide game date, time and directions to the field. 2. Confirm the date, time and location of the pregame meeting. 3. Provide contact information, in the event the official has follow-up questions. 4. Confirm if hotel accommodations are needed. * The crew assigned to each tournament game will not be announced until the onsite administrative meeting. RATING PERCENTAGE INDEX (RPI) XIII. OTHER The Rating Percentage Index (RPI) was created in 1981 to provide supplemental data for the Division I Men s Basketball Committee in its evaluation of teams for at-large selection and seeding of the championship bracket. The Division I Men s Basketball Committee adopted the RPI in 1984. The RPI is intended to be used as one of many valuable resources provided to the committee in the selection, seeding and bracketing process. It never should be considered anything but an additional evaluation tool. No computer program that is based on pure numbers can take into account subjective
Page No. 9 concepts (e.g., how well a team is playing down the stretch, what the loss or return or a top player means to a team or how emotional a specific conference game may be). Several independent elements are combined to produce the RPI. These elements are part of the statistical information that can be used by each member in an objective manner. Each committee member independently evaluates a vast pool of information available during the process to develop individual preferences. It is these opinions, developed after many hours of personal observations (e.g., games watched), review of regional rankings submitted by coaches, discussion with coaches, and directors of athletics senior woman administrators, commissioners and review and comparison of objective data that dictate how each individual ultimately will vote on all issues related to the selection, seeding and bracketing process. While the various elements of the RPI are important in the evaluation process, the tournament bracket each year is based on the subjectivity of each individual committee member to select the best at-large teams available and to create a nationally balanced championship.