With Regionals now completed, we can begin to prognosticate about potential seedings and anticipate some exciting pool play matchups. Here's a look at Ultiworld's predicted seedings by pool, with the overall seed listed in parentheses.
May 9, 2013 by Charlie Eisenhood in Analysis with 15 comments
With Regionals now completed, we can begin to prognosticate about potential seedings and anticipate some exciting pool play matchups.
With more parity this year than ever, nothing is certain and teams will have to battle just to make the quarterfinals. One of the country’s top contenders, Minnesota, is already out of the mix after being upset by Iowa at Regionals.
Here’s a look at Ultiworld’s predicted seedings by pool, with the overall seed listed in parentheses.
OPEN
| POOL A | POOL B | POOL C | POOL D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon (1) | Wisconsin (2) | North Carolina (3) | Pittsburgh (4) |
| Colorado (8) | Carleton (7) | Central Florida (6) | Texas (5) |
| Dartmouth (12) | Harvard (11) | Ohio (10) | UNC-Wilmington (9) |
| Georgia (13) | Florida State (14) | UC Davis (15) | Arizona (16) |
| Luther (17) | Washington (18) | Cornell (19) | Illinois (20) |
Some quick explanations:
– We made no attempt to avoid Regional rematches, as USA Ultimate has not done it that way in the past. We also tried to follow the seeding guidelines presented by USA Ultimate in their explanation of the Southwest Regional seeding.
– Oregon and Wisconsin both have great resumes, but Oregon gets the nod with the 15-8 head to head win.
– Texas is placed above UCF thanks to 3-0 record against them.
– Carleton is the clear 7 seed. Yes, they will rematch against Wisconsin. That’s where they should be.
– Colorado has a higher RRI and better resume than Ohio or Harvard. They have a head-to-head win over UNC-Wilmington. They get the 8 seed.
– Dartmouth has clearly done better than Georgia and UC Davis, who they are being compared to thanks to Regionals upsets.
– Georgia has to be above Florida State, and has a better RRI than UC Davis.
– Florida State, ranked #8 in the final USAU rankings, will fall immediately after Georgia regardless of where they end up.
– The rest is straightforward: UC Davis has to be above Arizona. Arizona will fall immediately after them. RRI and USAU rankings make the last four easy.
WOMEN’S
| POOL A | POOL B | POOL C | POOL D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon (1) | Carleton (2) | Iowa State (3) | Tufts (4) |
| Washington (8) | British Columbia (7) | Ohio State (6) | Iowa (5) |
| Georgia (12) | Minnesota (11) | Virginia (10) | Wisconsin (9) |
| Stanford (13) | UC Santa Barbara (14) | Central Florida (15) | Texas (16) |
| Northeastern (17) | Northwestern (18) | Whitman (19) | Ottawa (20) |
Some quick explanations:
– Overall, seeding is much more difficult on the women’s side because a lot of teams have only played regional competition. This could easily fall out in different ways.
– Iowa State gets the spot over Tufts with head-to-head win.
– Iowa beat Ohio State head-to-head.
– There’s a case for a higher British Columbia, but loss to Wisconsin really hurts them in the common opponent category. Hard to see placing them higher.
– Of top eight ranked teams, only Washington hasn’t been seeded yet. They get the eight spot.
– Wisconsin gets the 9 seed, although they could be anywhere from 7 down to 13. Very tricky seed. Put them here because of head-to-head over Virginia and a LOT of quality wins.
– Georgia gets the 12 spot, which could seem high. But they finished ranked 10th by USAU. Their lack of connectivity makes this tricky, but we expect USAU to lean on the rankings in this situation.
– The Southwest teams get pushed down to 13 and 14. Their end of season rankings were 14 and 15. Shouldn’t be a shock. Are they better than this? Likely. They were hurt by a bad early tournament at Santa Barbara. But USAU weights the regular season heavily.
– Pretty straightforward at the bottom. UCF beat Texas, Northeastern beat Northwestern, Northwestern’s quality wins get them above Whitman.
