NCAA: Never get Caught Assuming Anything

Okay, found out late Wednesday that all this promotion that we are the top seed at the national softball finals this week is completely false.

Officially the Tigers are the No. 7 seed, out of eight. That makes them an underdog Friday night against the No. 2 seed Moravian Greyhounds -- a team which ETBU thumped 15-3 back in March at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.

The highest-ranked team at the tournament -- No. 4 Luther -- is playing the next-highest ranked team -- No. 8 Linfield -- in the first round. Luther is seeded fourth while Linfield is seeded fifth.

The top seed at the tournament officially Ithaca College (33-13), which finished the regular season as the 24th-ranked team in the country.

Huh?

The lesson here is that one should never get caught assuming anything when it comes to the NCAA -- in fact, that's the acronym I've come up with. Never get Caught Assuming Anything. It was my personal thinking based on past experience that World Series seeding was based on the original regional seedings -- meaning, since Louisiana College was the top-ranked and top-seeded team in the nation entering the postseason, the winner of the Pineville Regional was to assume the No. 1 seed at the tournament.

That's the way things were back in 2004, when ETBU entered the West Regional in Orange, Ca., at Chapman. The Tigers were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and would have been seeded No. 1 at the World Series had they advanced. Instead, Chapman -- the No. 2 seed at the regional -- won and went to the championship. They were declared the top seed at the World Series because they played in the "top seed regional."

So my apologies to anyone who was confused by the last two days' references to ETBU as the top seed. In the end it doesn't really matter once the games start -- all eight teams are regional championship winners and arguably members of the Division III Softball "Elite Eight." And the NCAA, in fairness, cautions everyone before the regionals that those bids are not issued based on any national rankings other than the NCAA's. And the top 25 is put out by the NFCA.

I'm not quite sure how these "seedings" were done, honestly, but it doesn't really matter. You play your first round game and you move on from there.

Go Tigers!