One More to Go: A CCIW Update

It's an annual tradition, though maybe not unlike any other.

Tomorrow is the final day of the regular season in the CCIW, and actually the final time that we'll have regular season games on this day after just two years of the return to nine teams in the conference. Next season, the conference tournaments will expand from four teams to six in both men's and women's basketball. It's going to make more games matter at the end and possibly bolster resumes when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. But that's next year.

With the final day approaching, I always take the time leading up to it to look over the conference and see what the tournament scenarios are. This is where it's handy to have access to the list of CCIW tiebreakers, which was last updated in the fall of 2014 and may need to be updated slightly with Carroll's return. Fortunately, any updates that would need to be made won't impact either race. Also, compared to prior years, this year's post will be so much simpler than any other. As with last year, my thanks goes to the D3Boards community for helping sort through all of this.

Women's Basketball

North Central was eliminated long ago and isn't even really in a competitive position in the conference standings; they're locked into eighth place in the conference and a tie with last place Millikin would favor the Cardinals. Up at the top, meanwhile, the field was locked into place a week ago with jockeying for standings being the only intrigue. Fortunately, the scenarios here are very simple.

• Illinois Wesleyan: Clinches the #1 seed with:
• A win at Elmhurst
• Wheaton: Clinches the #1 seed with:
• An Illinois Wesleyan loss at Elmhurst
• Carthage: Has clinched the #3 seed
• Elmhurst: Has clinched the #4 seed

Tiebreakers

• Wheaton would hold the tiebreaker over Illinois Wesleyan with a 7-0 record in their last seven games; Illinois Wesleyan would be 5-2 in their last seven. (Tiebreaker 5)
• Carthage holds the tiebreaker over Elmhurst due to a head to head sweep (Tiebreaker 1)

This is a fairly clean one, with Wheaton having no control over their own destiny tomorrow since they have completed their regular season schedule. That fifth tiebreaker is actually the one I mentioned above that should probably be updated, so as to include the full gauntlet of CCIW teams, but even if that change were to be made, Wheaton would be 8-0 and Illinois Wesleyan 6-2, so the point is moot. Either way, Illinois Wesleyan is in total control over their destiny and could bring the CCIW Tournament back to Bloomington with a win tomorrow night. Carthage and Elmhurst, meanwhile, were locked into place almost a week ago once the Lady Reds got the sweep.

Men's Basketball

I know it's kind of a broken record at this point, but despite North Central blowing a 21 point halftime lead last Wednesday, the Cardinals earned an invitation to the CCIW Tournament already, and in fact that field was also set that night. The seeding was the only question. And once again, fortunately, the tiebreakers are actually pretty simple.

• Illinois Wesleyan: Clinches the #1 seed with:
• A win versus North Central
• An Augustana loss versus Elmhurst
• Augustana: Clinches the #1 seed with:
• A win versus Elmhurst AND an Illinois Wesleyan loss versus North Central
• North Central: Clinches the #3 seed with:
• A win at Illinois Wesleyan
• A Wheaton loss at Carroll
• Wheaton: Clinches the #3 seed with:
• A win at Carroll AND a North Central loss at Illinois Wesleyan

Tiebreakers

• Augustana holds the tiebreaker over Illinois Wesleyan due to a sweep of North Central; Illinois Wesleyan would be 1-1 against North Central in this scenario. (Tiebreaker 3)
• Augustana holds the tiebreaker over North Central due to a head to head sweep. (Tiebreaker 1)
• Augustana holds the tiebreaker over Wheaton due to a sweep of North Central; Wheaton is 0-2 against North Central. (Tiebreaker 3)
• Augustana holds the tiebreaker over both North Central and Wheaton due to a 3-1 head to head record against both; North Central is 2-2, Wheaton is 1-3. (Tiebreaker 1)
• North Central holds the tiebreaker over Wheaton due to a head to head sweep. (Tiebreaker 1)

I know there are a lot of scenarios in the tiebreaker list, but we could have another three way tie this year, only this time for second place instead of first. Augustana's head to head sweep of North Central looms large in this scenario, as does North Central's sweep of Wheaton, including Saturday's big win that proves basketball makes no sense given what happened on Wednesday. This makes the NCC-IWU game tomorrow the biggest on the schedule given the potential ramifications. Most likely, North Central will end up facing Illinois Wesleyan again on Friday, though the question is of whether it would be a matchup in Bloomington or Rock Island. I'll cover that though later in the week once the tournament field is set.

Here's the interesting scenario that, as far as I can tell, has never happened before, but has been planned by the CCIW office: Illinois Wesleyan is in the driver's seat for hosting both tournaments. Should both the men's and women's teams end up locking up their respective number one seeds, the Shirk Center in Bloomington would be your host site. The women would play their semifinals on Thursday, the men on Friday, and both title games would be on Saturday (women at 2:00, men at 7:30).