D3 Bracketology Update: 2/9/26
D3 Brackets?! Yes, D3 Brackets!
In the full enjoyment of Bracketology, I decided to add D3 bracketology to my page this season. The D3 bracket is quite a bit different than D1, so let’s give you a quick overview.
There are 47 automatic qualifiers given to conference champions (“Pool A”).
21 “Pool C” teams are selected as At-Large candidates. These teams are selected based on the NPI rankings, selecting the top 21 NPI rated teams not awarded the Pool A.
Within the bracket, geography matters. The Selection Committee tries to keep teams within 500 miles, as any distance beyond that would lead to the team flying to the tournament. Therefore, the Committee seeks to keep teams within 500 miles of home, or the host may shift to allow as many teams as possible to be within 500 miles.
Below, you will see my first bracket of the year. The current NPI rankings, according to the NPI numbers at D3DataCast.com, are included in parentheses. Pool A bids are also assigned according to the designations on this site. Travel distances are also noted here, with flights highlighted in red.
In terms of further explanation, I made a personal emphasis to try and avoid conference foes being grouped together. This required some creativity.
The biggest challenge of course in this means that CMS and Redlands would not be in the same pod. I decided to put CMS in a pool at Wash U, allowing for the other two teams to drive to St. Louis. Furthermore, I decided to send Redlands on a plane too, where they would travel to Oshkosh. In order to do this, I bumped #15 IL Wesleyan and #16 Wesleyan down to the “2 Line”, while sliding up CMS and Redlands to the “1 Line”. As for the second weekend, I kept as close to 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, etc. as possible, while trying to minimize flights.
Nazareth and Whitworth also get sent flying. Whitworth is 500+ miles from every NCAA Tournament team, so I left them to fly wherever I needed a spot, and UW-Stevens Point was that remaining “3 Line”. Nazareth draws the short stick and being thrown down to the Texas pod. Maybe Jeff Van Gundy can host his alma mater while they’re down there!