The pace is beginning to pick for me and all of the national committee members as we prepare for selection weekend for the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship.  Our committee has been busy since September working with our respective regional committees to rank the top 10 teams in each region. 

We have been meeting by teleconference every two weeks to update each other on how things are shaping up in the various regions - expanded this year to 8 as compared to six in previous years.  The Pacific, South and Southeast regions have all looked very strong so far.  It will be interesting to see any possible changes when we hold our last national committee call on November 5 before reporting to Indianapolis for selection weekend on November 7. 

This time of year, conference tournaments play a major role in the selection process.  With 64 bids to the women's championship available and 30 of those being held for automatic qualifying conferences, that leaves only 34 "at-large" bids.  Bubble teams across the country will all be rooting for league favorites in these tournaments to maximize the number of at-large berths.  Upsets in conference tournaments often decrease the number of available at-large berths when a team that would probably not have received a tournament bid wins their respective conference tournament and the accompanying automatic bid.   Those same bubble teams can also use their conference tournament to improve their profile.  Just last year, Penn State winning the Big Ten Tournament and Missouri winning the Big 12 Tournament had a positive impact on their selection and seeding.

When the committee does get behind closed doors in Indianapolis, the selection and seeding of teams for the championship will be driven by three primary criteria.  The first is the team's RPI - which consists of their winning percentage and their strength of schedule, the second is their head-to-head results against other teams being considered for selection, and third is a comparison with other teams under consideration of their results against common opponents.   The hardest call for the committee is in comparing teams with very similar profiles, but no head-to-head results and no common opponents.  That is when we often have to turn to our secondary selection/seeding criteria which includes results against teams already selected for the tournament and late season performance (last 8 games). 

We're looking forward to an exciting week of women's soccer as the NCAA Championship field begins taking shape, and the committee gets ready for the unveiling of the 64-team bracket on Monday, November 9 (8 p.m. ET, ESPNews). 

Paul Bradshaw

Division I Women's Soccer Championship Committee Chair

Baylor Associate AD / Internal Affairs