When the Region 5 committee finds room for a third team from a conference, it can help that team get an at-large bid. It's happened previously, and it happened again this time. Coe athletics photo

Remember last year, when we talked about how the committee rewarded teams who went out and augmented their schedules with quality teams, and boosted their SOS by doing so?

Remember when we emphasized to the national chair that if the committee thinks strength of schedule is important, that it needs to do so every year?

Memories are all we have, now, as this year's bracket throws all of that progress back out the window.

• Printable bracket file
• Final regular-season Top 25
• Make your picks in the D3Challenge bracket challenge!
• First-round schedule
• Final regional rankings
• Final 2023 strength of schedule
• Committee chair appearance on In The Huddle

This year's at-large bids go to: UW-Whitewater, Union, Wheaton and Coe. All of them 9-1. Coe has a strength of schedule of just .503, which is more than 130 points lower than that of St. John's, which sits home at 8-2. Normally, that fairly vanilla résumé wouldn't be enough to get a team in the field, but in this case, when the Region 5 committee ranked Wartburg, Coe and Central from the American Rivers Conference, suddenly that gave Coe a win against a regionally ranked opponent.

That separated them from Muhlenberg, which had a much better SOS. One win against a regionally ranked opponent is not more than St. John's, of course. And a .503 SOS is not more than St. John's, not by a long spot, but apparently we are back to the days where a 9-1 record trumps all else.

Please note: Every other team in this bracket is an automatic bid. So when you want to ask why Alfred State at 6-4 or Christopher Newport at 7-3 is in this field, the answer is simple: They won their conference. That's baked into the Division III philosophy.

Elsewhere in this bracket, ask yourselves why Endicott is hosting against Cortland. After all, these are both 9-1 teams. Endicott has a quite strong SOS at .573, but Cortland's is much better, at .626. These teams even have a common opponent, as Cortland beat Ithaca, but Endicott lost to Ithaca. Nonetheless, Cortland travels to Endicott. 

How about North Central? The defending champions, at 10-0, aren't even the top seed in their own bracket, and will have to contend with Trinity or Hardin-Simmons the second weekend should North Central get past Belhaven in the first round.