Midwest Dominance wrote:
It does not seem fair to think that the west region should receive an extra national entree like you are assuming they will. They should receive the required two and the Midwest region or even the Mideast should receive an extra. The West region teams are not even close to the same level as the 6,7,8 teams in the Midwest region. It doesn't seem fair to leave a more talented team home because they live in the Midwest. The 5th team from the Midwest region is consistently in the top 10 at nats, I think that speaks for itself.
It might not be fair for the West to receive any at-large bids, but I'm just looking at all of the regions under the current rules that only 5 teams can come from any one region. Suppose that every team in the top 35 from the now 2-week old poll went to nationals, with only 5 max from each region and of course each region getting a minimum of 2. Then it would look like this:
Atlantic: 5
Central: 3
Great Lakes: 3
Mideast: 5
Midwest: 5
New England: 5
South/Southeast: 2
West: 3
This totals 31 teams, leaving still one more at-large bid. This is why I think that 3 teams from the West will make Nationals, and it being somewhat of a toss-up as to which region gets the last at-large bid.