Army’s path to the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League postseason tournament and all that comes with it became much clearer after Saturday’s conference games, though a lot remains to be determined.
The No. 12-ranked Black Knights, who knocked off Bucknell Friday 19-11, to move their overall record to 10-2 and 5-2 in league play, essentially control their own destiny, with a couple of caveats tossed in.
The Patriot League has set up a multiple-team tiebreaker system that relies on goal differentiation among the teams knotted up at the end of the regular season to determine seeding amongst the six teams that qualify for its tournament. If just two teams finish with identical league records, the team that won their game would receive the highest seed.
The Patriot League tournament winner receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament that starts in early May.
Here is the deal:
Scenario 1 – On Friday night, Army defeats Loyola, Lehigh defeats Lafayette and Colgate defeats Boston University. All three schools finish with identical 6-2 league records and Army gets the top seed, a first-round bye (the second seed also gets a first-round bye) and hosts the semifinal games and the championship game based on the fact that Army wins the goal differentiation in the three games between the three teams. Army outscored Lehigh by six and was outscored by Colgate by three and Lehigh outscored Colgate by two.
Seeds – 1. Army. 2. Colgate, 3. Lehigh.
Scenario 2 – Army defeats Loyola and Colgate beats Boston University but Lehigh loses to Lafayette. Colgate beat Army in the regular season.
Seeds – 1. Colgate. 2. Army, 3. Lehigh or Navy.
Scenario 3 – Army defeats Loyola and Lehigh defeats Lafayette. But Colgate loses to Boston University. Army defeated Lehigh in the regular season.
Seeds – 1. Army, 2. Lehigh, 3. Colgate, Navy, Boston University or Loyola.
Scenario 4 –Army defeats Loyola, Lehigh loses to Lafayette and Colgate loses to Boston University. Navy beats Bucknell on Friday night. Army finishes regular league season at 6-2, while Lehigh, Colgate, Navy, Boston University and Loyola all finish at 5-3.
Seeds – 1. Army, 2-6 to be determined by goal differentiation between the five schools
Scenario 5 – Army loses to Loyola. The Black Knights could finish as low as fifth in the standings and travel on Tuesday to the fourth-place seed, or as high as third, where they would host a first-round game at Michie Stadium Tuesday against the sixth seed.
