Today, Fast Pitch News had Matt Larsen, NCAA DI Softball Committee Chair, as a guest on their “In the Circle” Podcast. Larsen also is the Director of Athletics at North Dakota State University.

Of course, the hot topic was the NCAA Softball selection process, especially in light of the recent decision to preselect Regional Hosting Sites.

I listened to the Podcast a couple of times and tried to capture the highlights in my notes below. The actual Podcast is linked at the bottom:

These are some comments from the Chariman:

The NCAA decided to go with predetermined sites in an effort to be consistent with the fall and winter championships. With testing protocols in already in place, that makes it a lot easier when you know where you’re going in advance. The predetermined sites gives the NCAA more flexibility in planning with the testing process.

They will identify the 16 regional sites the week of April 26, which is two weeks prior to Selection Sunday. At that point, they will have a “fair amount” of data and information – a lot of games will have been played – not the entire season – but we’ll have a good sample size of games to be able to make those predetermined site selections.

The facility requirements to host a regional or super regional competition are similar to the past, but they have added requirements for handling the testing protocols, physical distancing, and those types of things. That’s outlined in the bid materials. But also, “how that team is doing is going to impact their opportunity to host a regional as well.”

The Committee’s job is “to build the best possible bracket.” They want to do that with the predetermined sites as well.

It is possible that a #1 seed might have to travel. They’ll do their best to minimize that from happening, but “it could happen.”

The committee is “happy we’re playing.” A lot of people have done a lot of work to make that happen. They started talking last summer about what this year may look a little different.

The Committee takes a look at a lot of data points and, like other years, there is a lot of criteria to use – it’s never just one data point. He has encouraged the committee to watch as many games as possible in light of the disparity in the number of games played by different teams. Some teams will have played 30 games, some have played 56, some teams are playing only conference games, so you have to take all of that into consideration. Seeing some of those games first hand will help the committee in their selections.

In the past, Strength of Schedule was a great data point that the committee used, but that not be the case quite as much this year. In some cases, we won’t have that opportunity this year. Who are the best 32 at large teams? That’s our challenge.

Generally, the same list of rules applies in terms of selection and bracketing. The bracket is still built the same way. The only difference is predetermined regional sites.

The Committee utilizes 5 Regional Advisory Committees which are made up of coaches to get additional input – first hand evaluation of teams – either within their own conference or teams they have had the opportunity to play. They have those calls every two weeks. What teams are playing well? Who is trending up? Who is trending down?

They will take that information to the national call every two weeks to see what the national picture looks like. That process has been sped up a little bit because of determining the preselected regional sites. Having that information from the regional advisory committees and having as many games played as possible to try to make our best determination of those 16 regional sites. That’s the biggest change this year.

A lot of the same rules still apply with regards to bracketing. The only thing that has changed is picking the regional sites two weeks ahead of time. They still build a bracket the same way. Number of flights versus bus trips are still looked at the same way.

Conference tournaments are one data point, but the most important point is the “full body of work.” How teams are trending at the end of the year is a consideration, but the whole year is important. The end of the season is just as important as the beginning of the season, but we’re trying to look at the full scope of a team’s resume.

The RPI is still a valuable tool for selection. Who knows what the future holds. They are aware that basketball uses a NET computation and they are always look at ways to improve the process.

There are a couple of very challenging parts of the job. When you’re looking at the top 16 or 18 teams in the country and you may literally be splitting hairs on who had the most top 5 or top 10 wins – that is incredibly hard. That’s a credit to the sport of softball.

Then you have the at large bids. There are 32 automatic bids and then you have to select the most deserving 32 at large teams from 50-60 potential teams, who each have a great case and a great argument. There’s great debate and a great challenge.

Being an outdoor sport has helped gettingt he season played and the fall and winter sports also helped by paving the way. Everyone is buying in so they can play games. It’s a commitment from all levels.

There were a number of options discussed, including having all the competition at one site, but ultimately they wanted as much normalcy as possible in the process. They thought preselecting the sites and building in the safety protocols was the best plan. He thinks we have a pretty good plan. They have a lot of work to do to determine the 16 most deserving sites.

CHIP AGAIN: Given the political climate in Blacksburg with out of town visitors (ex: Spring Game), VT may or may not have even submitted a bid to host regionals.

But if we did, I like our chances based on this Podcast. Fingers crossed.