We here at NAIA Hoops Report are pumped to welcome Red Banner Roundball on board to the site. Red Banner Roundball has a passion for putting together projections for the NAIA National Tournament. He has been doing it for years and now that the NAIA is 1 Division we have teamed up with them to help bring you a NAIA Bracketology Report. Red Banner will act as our “Joey Brackets” per say as we continue to look for ways to bring you the best NAIA Hoops Coverage around!
We will start this article by saying that this is meant to be a fun article and by no means do we expect to be 100% accurate with the projections. We have done a lot of research on auto bids, ARC’s, RPI’s and SoS’s and used the data at hand to do our best to project what could happen with the NAIA National Tournament this season. We are still working to capture the new auto-bid selections from a few leagues. Some leagues are ever evolving and making adjustments on the fly. Once we have the qualifications from each league verified on who receives the auto-bids in their league, we will make sure we relay any changes that need to be made! Until then, ENJOY!!
The Bracket
Overall Seeding
The Pods are based off of a few things:
1. We based the ARC’s off of what was released this week to the coaches.
2. We made it so that no conference would have two teams facing one another to make it to the Sweet 16 in Kansas City. With that, some of the ARC’s overlap with one team going to a completely different Pod not aligned with their Pods.
3. Records for bracket are updated through Saturday’s games.
4. From what we know, it sounds like it’s possible that the Final 16 teams will be reseeded headed into Kansas City!
5. We used ARC, RPI and SoS data in order to take our best guess at how these games would play out!
6. Can’t emphasize enough that the information in this article is put together strictly off of what we have been told. Nothing has been officially released yet on if what we are hearing is correct or not!
ARC Rankings
GREAT LAKES
Mid-South Conference
River States Conference
MIDWEST
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
NORTH/CENTRAL
North Star Athletic Conference
SOUTHEAST
Southern States Athletic Conference
The Sun Conference
SOUTHWEST
Red River Athletic Conference
Sooner Athletic Conference
WEST
– These are not the official ARC Ratings, but our own rankings within each ARC.
– The arrows indicate the movement from where we had them in last weeks ARC rankings.
– While teams are rated inside Pods, they may face teams outside of their Pod to avoid playing teams in their own conference before reaching Kansas City.
Bid Breakdown
Storylines to watch:
48 Teams will make it into the 2020-21 NAIA National Tournament. If our Auto Bids are correct, that leaves 11 slots open for At-Large selections.
– Will we see a league like the Crossroads, GPAC or Mid-South get 4 teams in? Lots of “Bubble” teams in these three leagues!
– What does the committee do with the Red River Athletic Conference. In the previous NAIA Coaches Poll, you still had 3 RRAC teams within the Top 25. Due to Covid scheduling, Texarkana and Alexandria SoS are near the bottom of the NAIA, if neither can get an Auto Bid, it will be interesting to see what the committee does with them.
– The CalPac is now down to 3 teams and it looks as though they will have a “round-robin” of sorts to see who gets the CalPac auto-bid!
– The Aii is doing a four team tournament, with the winner getting the Independent auto-bid.
– The River States has adapted it’s season to where no regular season games will count towards a conference record. Instead, they will do a random draw for seeding for every team that elects to play in the league tourney. The two teams in the Championship game will get the two auto-bids for the RSC.
– The Heart of America gets the Host-bid. With William Penn already locking up one of the bids, it appears that Benedictine and Park will battle it out for the remaining Auto-bid. The loser should still be in good shape for the Host-bid, as long as no one outside of those three teams wins the Heart Tournament.
Bubble Watch
Dillard (GCAC)
Record: 4-2
RPI: 11 – Prior to their 2 losses this past week
SoS: 161
Record vs NAIA’s: 4-2
Best Wins: None
Bad Losses: None
Last 10 Games: 4-2
Huntington (Crossroads)
Record: 14-7
RPI: 20
SoS: 31
Record vs NAIA’s: 12-7
Best Wins: IU Kokomo, Indiana Tech, @ #18 Marian, Grace, #11 Bethel (IN)
Bad Losses: None
Last 10 Games:
Dakota Wesleyan (GPAC)
Record: 16-6
RPI: 24
SoS: 120
Record vs NAIA’s: 16-6
Best Wins: Northwestern, @ #9 Morningside,
Bad Losses: @ Midland
Last 10 Games: 5-5
Middle GA State (SSAC)
Record: 10-3
RPI: 26
SoS: 63
Record vs NAIA’s:10-3
Best Wins: #7 Faulkner
Bad Losses: None
Northwestern (IA) (GPAC)
Record: 18-5
RPI: 29
SoS: 115
Record vs NAIA’s: 18-5
Best Wins: @ Jamestown, #12 Dakota Wesleyan,
Bad Losses: None
Last 10 Games: 9-1
Columbia (MO) (AMC)
Record: 13-4
RPI: 32
SoS: 102
Record vs NAIA’s: 10-4
Best Wins: @Central Baptist
Bad Losses: @William Woods
Last 10 Games: 8-2
Cumberlands (KY) (Mid-South)
Record: 15-8
RPI: 35
SoS: 69
Record vs NAIA’s: 13-8
Best Wins: #17 Georgetown, #20 Thomas More, @#20 Thomas More
Bad Losses: @ Lindsey Wilson
Last 10 Games: 6-4
McPherson (KCAC)
Record: 15-7
RPI: 48
SoS: 131
Record vs NAIA’s: 14-7
Best Wins: None
Bad Losses: @ Friends, @ Kansas Wesleyan, @ Bethany
Last 10 Games: 8-2
Texas A&M Texarkana (RRAC)
Record: 9-1
RPI: 52
SoS: 192
Record vs NAIA’s: 8-1
Best Wins: None
Bad Losses: None
Last 10 Games: 9-1
Valley City State (NSAA)
Record: 16-5
RPI: 53
SoS: 163
Record vs NAIA’s: 11-5
Best Wins: #11 Dakota Wesleyan, Jamestown, Mayville State
Bad Losses: None
Last 10: 7-3
Grace (Crossroads)
Record: 13-9
RPI: 71
SoS: 126
Record vs NAIA’s: 11-9
Best Wins: #1 Indiana Wesleyan, #11 Bethel (IN)
Bad Losses: None
Last 10 Games: 5-5
The Masters (GSAC)
Record: 9-3
RPI: 133
SoS: 197
Record vs NAIA’s: 6-3
Best Wins: @BenU Mesa, BenU Mesa
Bad Losses: None
Last 10 Games: 6-4
