It’s been another good season for Notre Dame, and the NCAA Tournament is a certainty barring a complete collapse down the stretch. The latest Bracketology rankings have them as a fifth seed. But only the top four seeds in each quadrant get to be host schools for the first two rounds. That means if the forecasters were charged with creating the bracket today, there would be no postseason action in South Bend.
This raises the question of what it will take to get the Irish that coveted fourth seed. Figuring this out requires more analysis than I’m equipped to do, so I turned to my friend and World Series history podcast co-host Lucas Mitzel for help.
Lucas likes to crunch college sports numbers, particularly as they pertain to the programs for North Central College, our alma mater as well as that of Nick Shepkowski, our site’s editor. I asked Lucas to do this in relation to the Irish’s chances of getting to host tournament games. He had a very quick turnaround from the moment I asked him, which is perfect timing given the gauntlet the Irish are about to face.
While these aren’t comprehensive figures for what the Irish need to get a fourth seed, this analysis does place a heavy emphasis on NET, the tournament selection criteria system that replaced RPI for the women a few years ago. So with that in mind, here is Lucas’ interpretation of where the Irish are at: