[plash.ricrem]

I vote for bad.

Yeah. Not particularly a fan of UVM playing 4 games over the course of the final 48 days of the season. Won't be shocked at all if they get jumped in the semis by whomever they end up playing...

 

[plash.ricrem]

Trying to have some fun with conference standings, because its not like I'm going anywhere these days. Read on twitter (UA beatwriter?) that winning % will be the driver for seedings, no idea if H2H tiebreakers apply if possible (or how they'd get resolved for imbalanced scenarios like UVM not playing Hartford or UNH if they split with UMBC).

Here’s where I got so far before my mind exploded like that gif. Essentially seems like everyone but Bingo can change seeds, with UVM and UMBC locked into the top 2 spots, then 3-5 up for grabs between some likely combo of Hartford, UNH, and UA, and 6-8 likely involving some combination of UML,NJIT, and SBU.

1. UVM/UMBC
2 UVM/UMBC
3. Albany (with 2 Ws) / UNH (with W v. UML) / Hartford
Then I gave up, essentially the winning %s / potential combinations are below:

Hartford 8-6 .571 (No More games?!)

UNH 8-6 571 (1 game v UML) – W = .600 L= .533

UML 7-7 .500 (1 game v UNH) W= 533 L= .467

Albany 5-5 .500 (2 games SBU) 2W = 583 -1 = 500, 2L= .455

NJIT 6-8 .429 (bingo 2x) 2W=.500 1W=.438 2L= .375

SBU= 6-8 .429 (2G Albany) 2W= .500 1W =438 2L=.375

Bingo= 2-10 (2G NJIT) 2W= .285 1W=.214 2L= .145

 

[godanesgo99]

Real hard if you are a team like UA that didn't get to play any games against Bing or Maine. The whole uneven schedule thing really makes it hard for seeding - especially when you are potentially giving teams a bye

 

[ProfessorDavid]

UVM feasted on the cupcakes and haven't played the top tier teams

 

[mainejeff]

Lots of whining here.....glad to see I am not the only one.

 

[Mr quint]

The more I think about it, if you’re going to stretch this over three weeks, why not just do a normal format?
Have 8 and 9 travel to 1, 7 travel to 2 etc.

I suppose some of those trips would be longer than the pod approach and maybe there’s a testing element to it that is easier with the pods. And I guess having two less teams playing proportionately reduces the chances of COVID. But either way, you have 5 teams traveling next week. And the traditional format seems a little fairer from a competitive standpoint given the imbalances this year.

Full disclosure, I actually like the double bye concept that some leagues use. I’ve always thought it should be as hard as possible for a team seeded below 4 to win. This year is just a different animal though, and it seems that everyone should get a decent shot at it.

And with that, I’ll shut up about this and take what I can get.

 

[mbennett_22]

AE Tiebreakers

AMERICA EAST BASKETBALL TIE BREAKERS 2020‐21 SEASON

General Provisions

1. A team must play a minimum of 12 NCAA Division I games to be eligible for the America East Playoffs.
2. Seeding will be determined by a team’s winning percentage in conference games.
3. All ties will be broken using team winning percentage in conference games.
4. Ties will be broken from top to bottom of the standings (i.e., a tie at 1st must be broken before
breaking a tie at 3rd).

Tie Breakers

1. Winning percentage in conference games versus the other teams with which it is tied (i.e. head‐to head‐competition).
2. Winning percentage in conference games versus the other conference opponents in descending rank order.
a. In the event of arriving at an opponent that one of the tied teams did not play, skip that opponent and move on to the next common opponent in descending rank order.
b. In the event of arriving at another group of tied opponents (i.e. opponents with identical winning percentages yet to be broken by tie break) when comparing records, each team’s winning percentage versus the combined tied opponents is used rather than the performance versus the individual tied opponents. This holds true even if the tied teams have not played an equal number of times against the tied opponents.
c. Teams that have opted out of the season will not be included in tie breaker No. 2.
3. Quality of top wins. Combined opponents’ winning percentage of a school’s top four wins.
4. Better NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking through end of conference regular‐season games.
5. Draw conducted by the Commissioner or her designee.

 

[VT Cats Fan]

Also, begin the discussion: UVM and UMBC having 15 days between their last regular season game and a 1-game elimination Semifinal. Good or Bad? Or Neither?

In a normal year, I'd say bad. Given that every time a team takes the court, it increases the risk to the team of being shut down and people getting sick. I'm fine with trying to mitigate that risk as much as possible while still having some level of competition.

UVM looked pretty good after a long lay off against SBU. It appears as though SBU is not a top tier team, but they certainly did have some talent. I think that there's something to be said for no competition for a couple of weeks. This UVM team has seemed to handle it recently. They have come out more hungry and played harder. When you don't play 2-3 games every week, it's probably more appreciated when you do get to play.

 

[dunbar]

Does anybody else think this is a trial run for what they want to do next year? I like the idea of the back-to-backs and this this will keep the 7 and 8 seeds from being rewarded with home games.

 

[UNHFan]

Does anybody else think this is a trial run for what they want to do next year? I like the idea of the back-to-backs and this this will keep the 7 and 8 seeds from being rewarded with home games.

I would like to see it as I miss the old one site tournament weekends. This would be a great compromise.

 

[VT Cats Fan]

Does anybody else think this is a trial run for what they want to do next year? I like the idea of the back-to-backs and this this will keep the 7 and 8 seeds from being rewarded with home games.

Maybe. This season has been such a cluster, I think that it's hard to extrapolate anything that happened this year into the future. The league and schools were trying everything possible to get games in with as little risk as possible. In a way, all options were on the table. I haven't seen or heard any coaches or really many fans for that matter, complaining about the playoff format that the league had been using. If it ain't broke...

 

[GoCatsGo]

Does anybody else think this is a trial run for what they want to do next year? I like the idea of the back-to-backs and this this will keep the 7 and 8 seeds from being rewarded with home games.

I'm not sure we know the answer to this, because NJIT has only been in the league during pandemic times, but...was it possible that we were just going to stick with the 1-8 format we've used the last few years, and 9&10 would be out of luck? It's not so much about not rewarding 7/8 with home games, but more about having to carve out another calendar date.

 

[ball_of_rubber]

I can see them having the play-in games on Friday nights at the 1 and 2 seed locations, otherwise go to a single-site tournament. Leaving one team out can make sense, but I think I’d draw the line there; I don’t think it makes sense leaving out two.

 

[catpower]

This year's format is a complete anomaly. The NEC has been doing top 8 only when it was a 10-team league and I expect the America East to do the same in a normal year. Single site tournament is never coming back (home court games have been way too successful), and it's not worth the money to send the 9-10 seeds to a play-in game at the 1-2 seed's place to play the night before. Purely from the league and host team's perspective, putting on a game that doesn't involve one your own team and having to pay gameday staff, an extra set of referees, etc just makes no sense. Honestly, if you can't get in the top 8 you don't deserve a playoff spot to begin with.