Michigan Softball receives a #10 Nation Seed

Submitted by MGoSoftball on

Hosts regional Friday 20MAY11, we play Kentucky, ND and WMU.  ESPNU will feature our regional on television.  Our first game is Friday at 8pm

Our regional winner will travel to #7 California, Louisville, Jacksonville St., and Ill-Chicago regional at Louisville.

 

Arizona State receives the #1 seed vs #16 Texas A/M regional 

#9 Oklahoma regional vs #8 Arizona regional

#5 Missouri regional vs #12 Washington Regional

#4 Florida regional vs #13 Oregon regional  (at Penn St)

#3 Texas regional vs #14 Tennessee regional

#6 Georgia regional  vs #11 Baylor regional (at Maryland)

#15 Stanford regional vs #2 Alabama regional

 

Surprises:

UCLA (ranked #12) is not seeded.  They dropped some games late in the season so that hurt them.

Penn State is in as the host site with Oregon #13 being the seeded team.

Tennessee wins the SEC title but gets a #14 Seed

Maryland is the host site for #11 Baylor

 

 

 

 

MGoShoe

May 15th, 2011 at 10:38 PM ^

...is seeded #10. Makes perfect sense. At least Michigan hosts its regional. If the team wins, a super regional in Louisville isn't the worst thing in the world travel wise.

Other teams in Michigan's regional: Notre Dame, Western Michigan and Kentucky.

MGoSoftball

May 16th, 2011 at 12:51 AM ^

find out this answer.  Cal does not have a softball field on campus.  I have been to Berkley several times and it is a very small campus.

I do not know where they play their games.  Maybe it is at the local high school???  HS are playing their playoffs about now too.  idk.

kmd

May 16th, 2011 at 4:57 AM ^

Two people named Levine and Frick would beg to differ.

http://www.calbears.com/facilities/levine-fricke-field.html

One possibility is the capacity of 500 isn't enough for such an event (I don't know what the NCAA requires for softball). The second possiblity would be something having to do with construction on the football stadium, which is significantly reducing parking and access to that part of campus.

Alton

May 16th, 2011 at 9:35 AM ^

Well, there are 20 requirements for hosting an NCAA tournament event.  A list of some possibilities that might keep Cal from hosting, looking at the picture--

* minimum 500 unobstructed-view seats (the link says 500 seats exactly, but if even 1 is obstructed view, that disqualifies them).

* Permanent restrooms on site for public use (port-a-johns do not fulfill this requirement).

* A covered press box.

* Parking for both teams and umpires.

* Locker rooms for the teams and umpires.

* Lighting to a minimum of 150 footcandles.

I suspect it's the last one keeping them from hosting.  I see a few light towers, but they don't look sufficient to light the field for television.  They didn't schedule any home night games this year--even their Friday games were played at 3 in the afternoon.

 

MGoSoftball

May 16th, 2011 at 9:52 AM ^

The Cal field looks like a High School JV field.  500 seats is unusual.  I have been to Cal-Berkely several times and just now realized that this is the Varsity SB field and not the Club team field.  What a shame because it is a beautiful campus.

There is also mention of the football stadium being under construction too so that might be a problem as well.

Anyway, it is good for us that they cannot host because we will get the Super if we win.  That is all that matters because South Bend Wolverine needs to come  home.  He is in DC working on his PhD and wanted to some home for the Supers.

redwings8831

May 15th, 2011 at 10:37 PM ^

We would host the super regional if we get there. If we play Louisville, we're 10 and they are not seeded. If we play Cal, although they are the higher seed, they can't host due to facilities issues.

Michigan4Life

May 15th, 2011 at 10:37 PM ^

Do you know who's in Ann Arbor Regional?  It looks like they have a good shot of going to the CWS. Louisville is definitely a winnable super regional.

Michigan4Life

May 15th, 2011 at 10:47 PM ^

matcup.  ND and Kentucky are 2 solid teams but Michigan should be able to handle them pretty well.

 

Looking at Louisville Regional, looks like Cal got jobbed big time by traveling from west coast to Kentucky.  Louisville have the home field advantage and will have their crowd behind them.

BiSB

May 15th, 2011 at 10:38 PM ^

I'm a softball noob, so forgive what may be a dumb question:

Is it common for the #2 team in the country to be ranked that low?

Alton

May 15th, 2011 at 11:20 PM ^

They don't use geography in ranking the top 16 teams, though.  Those are "National" seeds.  They do use geography in assigning teams to regionals, though, but not the national seeds.

The Primary Selection Criteria, from the tournament manual:

* RPI

* Head-to-head competition

* Results (by RPI ranking)

-- record against ranked teams 1-25, 26-50, 51-100, 101-150.

-- average RPI win

-- average RPI loss

* Results versus common opponents

* Significant wins and losses

* End of season results.

Here is the tournament manual, with the selection criteria spelled out on pages 5-6.  Again, there is no geographic consideration in ranking the top 16 teams.  It is done purely by RPI and the other factors listed above.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/4414f18045b43492bcf5fc74b0e395c3/20…

Srock

May 15th, 2011 at 10:39 PM ^

#2 team in the country gets the 10th seed, easy, it's a Big Ten team.... UM has played NO ONE since they moved back up North. There is no love (for good reason) for Big Ten softball. It just isn't thought of very highly. Southern Bias of course.....

Srock

May 15th, 2011 at 10:52 PM ^

Interestingly, if you go to NCAA.com and find the softball page, you can see a list of NCAA Div 1 RPI..... Michigan is #10 in RPI, Notre Dame #17..... So maybe the committee pulled a little Hockey "pairwise" type of ranking....

 

 

Alton

May 15th, 2011 at 11:19 PM ^

The national seeds are selected based on the selection factors.  Geography is not one of those factors.  Teams are assigned to regionals based on geography as much as possible, but Michigan's #10 seed is based purely on the selection criteria.

MGoSoftball

May 16th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^

certainly a factor.  They could have put this game in Chicago or Jacksonville but knowing that Michigan is the other half of the regional, Louisville makes the most sense.

Then bring a west coast team to be the top seeded team rounds out the regional.  I do not envy the TC at all.  There are so many factors here.

All in all I think we have a great seeding.  We just have to get past Cal.

Alton

May 16th, 2011 at 7:54 AM ^

What I was trying to say is that geography is not a factor in selecting the teams or in seeding them #1 to #16.  Geography is a factor in selecting the hosts and assigning teams to the regionals, but it is absolutely not a factor in ranking them #1 to #16.  That is why they are called "National Seeds."

I do agree that given the fact that #7 California could not play at home (because the do not have lights at their field), it made sense to play in Louisville because they were paired with #10 Michigan.  However, the fact that California is #7 and Michigan is #10 has nothing to do with geography, but is a result of the committee's implementation of the selection criteria. 

If California had ended up #8 instead of #7, and Arizona had ended up #7 instead of #8, Michigan would be paired with the winner of Arizona's regional.  They don't change the seedings based on geography.

 

MGoSoftball

May 16th, 2011 at 9:18 AM ^

why they cant host.  I looked up the stadium on Google Earth and it looks like light poles but maybe not.  I would not be surprised if those hippies refused to have lights and waste all that energy for some as stupid as a softball game.

Agreed.  National Seedings are not supposed to be based on geography.  I would not be suprised if there was some "tweaking" based on geography.

Alton

May 16th, 2011 at 9:38 AM ^

I posted above; I think it's the lights, too.  Looking at their schedule, they don't play any night games at home.  Not even on Fridays, when a night game would be the natural choice.  There are light towers in the picture, but I would question whether there are enough towers to properly light the field.  It really looks like there is just enough lighting for security purposes, but not for batting against a 70 mph fastball.

 

Wolvie3758

May 15th, 2011 at 11:03 PM ^

I think UM got jobbed in the seeding process..they deserved at least a top 8 seed..unbeaten on the road, 2/3 of their games road or neutral games..UNLIKE many schools..beat ASU and AZ head to head and have the best record overall and #2 ranking in both polls...BUT...with Cal unable to host it all works out its as if we got the 7 seed after all..This SHOULD motivate UM I would think..getting no respect at all

Scorekeeper

May 15th, 2011 at 11:23 PM ^

Michigan actually has a pretty tough regional.  But, there are a few other regionals with tough match-ups  [Texas, ULL,  Houston, and Texas State]; [Florida and UCLA in #4].  A real cupcake regional is Arizona playing host to Texas Tech, New Mexico State, and Harvard (as the #8 seed). 

Tennessee got hosed, but their regional (#14) looks easier than ours. 

 

Michigan4Life

May 15th, 2011 at 11:56 PM ^

is still better than ND and Kentucky. It's in Ann Arbor so that should help Michigan.  I expect Michigan to advance to Super Regional.  I think Louisville will win their regional even though Cal is #7 seed.  Michigan has a pretty decent path to CWS.

 

As long as JT pitch well, Michigan should have no problem crusing through the regional.