NCAA D3: At the Break, Part 1

The first part of the season is over and players have headed home for the holidays. This is a good time to look at the standings for each of the 10 D3 women’s conferences.

Here, we’ll look only at conference games, as those are the only ones that affect conference standings. The surest way for a team to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament in March is by winning their conference tournament and earning their conference’s automatic qualifier (AQ) berth, if the conference has one. This will be the path for eight schools come March: the winners of the CNE, NEHC, NESCAC, SUNYAC, UCHC, MAC, MIAC, and NCHA tournaments. In Part 1, we'll look at the 6 conferences with uncomplicated AQs.

Conference of New England

Points: 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT or shootout win, 1 for an OT or shootout loss.

Endicott is the clear leader of the conference at the break. They have an inside track to one of the three 1st-round byes in the 5-team conference playoffs. Below that, it’s anyone’s guess. The teams currently tied for 2nd, Suffolk and UNE, have identical records. Western New England, last year’s conference champion, trails them by only 2 points with a game in hand. Nichols, in 7th place, has 2 fewer wins in 2 fewer games than 5th place J&W. Making the playoffs is still within everyone’s grasp.

New England Hockey Conference

Points: 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT win, 1 for an OT loss. If a game is tied at the end of overtime, each team gets 1 point and the teams conduct a shootout that only matters to break ties at the end of the season.

The standings list the teams in order by points, with last year’s champion and national runner-up Elmira at the top, albeit with the help of playing two more games than most of their conference mates. Using either the winning percentage (as shown on the website) or the points percentage (as given here) to rank the teams would instead put undefeated and untied UMass-Boston on top with Norwich second, dropping Elmira to third.

Since there are no first-round byes at stake in the NEHC championship, the more interesting question looks to be at the bottom of the standings: which 2 teams will miss out on the playoffs?

Three teams are winless: Albertus Magnus, New England College, and Salem State. Albertus Magnus is ahead of the other two with a point gained through an overtime loss. These three teams have not yet played each other at all, so we don’t have any head-to-head games to help determine whether one is significantly better than the other two. Albertus Magnus has not yet faced any of the top three teams in the conference, while Salem State and New England College were each swept by both Elmira and UMass Boston. The league is transparent in their tiebreakers, which may be needed to determine who’s in and who gets left out.

New England Small College Athletic Conference

Points: 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT win, 1 for an OT loss, and 1.5 points for a tie. A game that is tied at the end of OT concludes with a shootout, but the results of the shootout are only used in tiebreakers at the end of the season.

The NESCAC has played fewer conference games than others, so the standings are less meaningful than those of other conferences. Amherst, Trinity, Bowdoin, and Middlebury have started the season undefeated, although Bowdoin and Middlebury needed overtime to get there. The other teams haven’t yet won a game, but Colby and Williams have played half as many games as Wesleyan, Connecticut College, and Hamilton. At this point, there’s a clear split between the top and the bottom, but it’s too early to know if it will hold.

State University of New York Athletic Conference

Points: 2 for a win, 1 for an OT loss or a tie. If a game is tied after OT, the teams conduct a shootout that may be used for a tiebreaker.

Like many other conferences, the SUNYAC has teams that have played differing numbers of games. Thus, the points percentage paints a more accurate picture of the ranking than the number of points. Leading the standings is unbeaten Oswego, followed by perennial NCAA tournament team Plattsburgh and last year’s champion Cortland. Oswego tied Plattsburgh (and won the shootout) and beat Cortland in regulation. Cortland beat Plattsburgh in regulation. The remaining games between these teams are likely to determine who gets to play their semifinal at home.

Last year, the fourth and final playoff spot came down to the wire between Canton and Morrisville, and this year could shape up to feature a similar battle—although Canton has played 3 more conference games than Morrisville so it’s hard to read anything into the teams’ records. In their lone meeting this season, Morrisville needed OT to beat Canton.

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Points: 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT or shootout win, and 1 for an OT or shootout loss.

The top 3 teams in the MIAC have identical records of 5 wins and 1 loss for 15 points. The head-to-head matchups clarify nothing: Hamline has yet to meet either Augsburg or Gustavus, and Augsburg and Gustavus split their series. In fourth place, St. Benedict also has 5 wins and 1 loss, but 3 of those wins have come in OT (and one of those in a shootout), costing the team 3 points. That could mean the difference between having a full week to rest at the end of the regular season and needing to play the 5th-place team in the midweek first-round game. However, 3 points is also the equivalent of a regulation win, so one game could easily move the Bennies up the standings. (St. Benedict has yet to meet any of the teams ahead of them.) The MIAC’s tiebreaking procedure is clearly spelled out, should it be needed.

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Northern Collegiate Hockey Association

Points: 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT or shootout win, and 1 for an OT or shootout loss. 

St. Norbert, Adrian, and Concordia WI have pulled ahead of the rest of the field in the quest for home ice during the playoffs. St. Norbert is a point ahead of the others, as Concordia needed OT to win their second game against Lake Forest and first-year program MSOE took perennial NCAA tournament team Adrian to a shootout. However, these three teams have yet to play each other this season. The NCHA’s 2-games-plus-minigame first-round format makes home ice even more important, and the tight cluster of teams currently in positions 4 through 9 will be duking it out not just to get into the playoffs but to snag that last home first-round seeding.