| Jevon Yarbrough has been one of the most prolific scorers in D-III this season. Perhaps Hood might host, even while not being in the Top 16 in NPI — read on for why. Hood athletics photo by Craig Chase |
By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com
The NPI, or NCAA Power Index, makes our Selection Sunday a whole lot easier. The games are completed, the numbers are crunched, you hit refresh a bunch of times, and voila! You have 64 teams. We are guaranteed to get all of those right.
So what’s left is mocking up a bracket with those 64 in it, one which does justice to the NPI and the relative seeding of each team, and within the NCAA’s not-entirely-clear rules for how many flights you can have in a bracket.
And if you’re the men’s basketball committee, last year was a learning curve. That overall seeding provided by the NPI needs to be respected and incorporated as much as possible, because it is eminently visible to everyone. That committee didn’t quite get that message in 2025, but the message has been sent in 2026, and we’ll see how they do with it.
Here are our projections.
Each pod is set up the same, with teams “seeded” 1-4, and the host team playing the 4 in the first round. Teams which fly in the first weekend are noted with an asterisk.*
Top left quadrant
No. 1 overall seed Trinity (Conn.) hosts No. 64 Keuka; No. 30 WPI plays No. 34 Johns Hopkins
No. 15 Montclair State hosts No. 51 Maine-Farmington; No. 23 Catholic plays No. 46 St. Joseph’s (Maine)
No. 8 Wesleyan hosts No. 57 Penn State-Harrisburg; No. 27 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps* plays No. 42 WestConn
No. 9 Tufts hosts No. 55 Stevens; No. 25 Franklin & Marshall plays No. 45 Yeshiva
Bottom left quadrant
No. 4 Mary Washington hosts No. 60 Neumann; No. 32 John Carroll plays No. 33 Amherst
No. 13 UW-La Crosse hosts No. 49 Hope; No. 16 Redlands* plays No. 47 Aurora
No. 5 Chicago hosts No. 53 Penn State-Behrend; No. 31 UW-Platteville plays No. 35 Otterbein
No. 12 Gustavus Adolphus hosts No. 63 Bethany Lutheran; No. 20 UW-Stevens Point plays No. 43 Loras
Top right quadrant
No. 2 Emory hosts No. 61 MUW; No. 22 Roanoke plays No. 37 Rhodes
No. 17 Hood hosts No. 56 N.C. Wesleyan; No. 21 Babson plays No. 48 Susquehanna
No. 7 Endicott hosts No. 58 Lehman; No. 28 Bates plays No. 40 Gettysburg
No. 10 Illinois Wesleyan hosts No. 54 Heidelberg; No. 18 Mount Union plays No. 39 Grinnell
Bottom right quadrant
No. 3 St. Thomas (Texas) hosts No. 62 Belhaven; No. 26 Trinity (Texas) plays No. 36 Mary Hardin-Baylor
No. 14 WashU hosts No. 52 Transylvania; No. 19 UW-Whitewater plays No. 41 Whitworth*
No. 6 Randolph-Macon hosts No. 59 Worcester State; No. 29 TCNJ plays No. 38 Cortland
No. 11 Christopher Newport hosts No. 50 Vassar; No. 24 NYU plays No. 44 Washington & Jefferson
Yes, we could put a pod in Southern California, and only have one team fly, but we would be really hamstrung in finding teams to play on the 2 line in other brackets. Hood is the next team up in the NPI in terms of meriting a chance to host, and it does make it easier to fit all of the teams in geographically. That allowed us to send each of those three teams out to fill in holes in other pods.
Our bracket tried to take into account avoiding any rematches in the first round, which is one of the ways in which our matchups deviate from the NPI and seeding. N.C. Wesleyan had already played Christopher Newport and Mary Washington, for example, forcing us to look a little further afield to find them a first-round matchup.
Keep an eye on D3hoops.com for coverage of the bracket reveal on Monday, and post your questions in the comments section below.