64 teams qualify for the NCAA Tournament with that number comprised of 32 automatic qualifiers and 32 at-large bids (the AQs are at the bottom of the link). The at-large cut-off for the women’s field ended up at 43 since there were 11 conference champions that were ranked in the top 43.
As with the men there are a few spots that are literally separated by tenths of a point and in the case of Texas Tech and Georgia Tech hundredths of a point. I’m showing that Texas Tech is .003 ahead of Georgia Tech for the No. 16 spot so with the difference being that small we just won’t know for sure until the names are announced tomorrow.
It appears that Notre Dame will be the one to get the final at-large bid with ND ahead of Florida International by .41 in the final second run rankings.
Here was the breakdown on the final two teams vying for that last at-large spot – you’ll notice that Notre Dame’s win are a good bit better but FIU only has 3 losses while Notre Dame has 13 and that’s what made it so close.
#43 Notre Dame (16.44)
9 Best Wins – #30 Clemson, #34 Virginia Tech, #54 Illinois, #56 Florida State, at #66 Boston College, at #74 Purdue, Indiana (76-85) , 2 sub 125 ranked teams
Losses (13) – #3 North Carolina, #7 Miami, #9 Michigan, #10 Duke, #12 Oklahoma State, #15 Virginia, #16 Georgia Tech (2X), #22 Arizona State, #26 Syracuse, #27 Wake Forest, #30 Clemson, #36 NC State
9 Best Wins – #30 Clemson, #34 Virginia Tech, #54 Illinois, #56 Florida State, at #66 Boston College, at #74 Purdue, Indiana (76-85) , 2 sub 125 ranked teams
Losses (13) – #3 North Carolina, #7 Miami, #9 Michigan, #10 Duke, #12 Oklahoma State, #15 Virginia, #16 Georgia Tech (2X), #22 Arizona State, #26 Syracuse, #27 Wake Forest, #30 Clemson, #36 NC State
#44 Florida International (16.03)
9 Best Wins – at #46 Georgia State, #60 Brown, #65 UT Arlington, #67 Old Dominion, #72 Yale, at Marshall (76-85), VCU (86-95), at Central Florida (96-105, at Middle Tennessee State (116-125)
Losses – #37 Columbia, #41 Rice, Troy (86-95)
5/3 Oracle/ITA Women’s Ranking Projections
| Rank | School | Points | Previous |
| 1 | Florida – IN | 76.19 | 1 |
| 2 | Cal | 75.78 | 2 |
| 3 | North Carolina – IN | 74.09 | 3 |
| 4 | Ohio State – IN | 70.17 | 5 |
| 5 | Georgia | 69.53 | 4 |
| 6 | Vanderbilt | 65.90 | 6 |
| 7 | Miami | 61.17 | 7 |
| 8 | Pepperdine* – IN | 53.12 | 8 |
| 9 | Duke | 52.52 | 9 |
| 10 | Michigan | 51.47 | 11 |
| 11 | Auburn | 50.93 | 10 |
| 12 | Oklahoma State – IN | 49.11 | 15 |
| 13 | South Carolina | 47.64 | 13 |
| 14 | Virginia | 46.11 | 14 |
| 15 | Stanford – IN | 45.88 | 12 |
| 16 | Texas Tech | 42.23 | 19 |
| 17 | Georgia Tech | 42.23 | 16 |
| 18 | LSU | 39.98 | 17 |
| 19 | Texas A&M | 38.91 | 18 |
| 20 | USC | 36.63 | 20 |
| 21 | Mississippi State | 36.00 | 21 |
| 22 | Kentucky | 33.79 | 23 |
| 23 | Arizona State | 33.42 | 22 |
| 24 | Texas* | 30.92 | 24 |
| 25 | Syracuse* | 28.90 | 27 |
| 26 | UCLA | 28.21 | 25 |
| 27 | Wake Forest* | 28.14 | 26 |
| 28 | Wichita State* – IN | 26.96 | 28 |
| 29 | Tulsa* – IN | 26.75 | 29 |
| 30 | Clemson* | 24.36 | 31 |
| 31 | Northwestern* | 24.22 | 30 |
| 32 | Kansas* | 23.41 | 33 |
| 33 | Arkansas* | 22.50 | 32 |
| 34 | Virginia Tech* | 21.68 | 34 |
| 35 | TCU* | 21.51 | 35 |
| 36 | NC State* | 20.96 | 36 |
| 37 | Columbia | 20.83 | 37 |
| 38 | William & Mary* – IN | 19.40 | 38 |
| 39 | Princeton – IN | 19.24 | 40 |
| 40 | Baylor* | 18.93 | 39 |
| 41 | Rice* – IN | 18.80 | 41 |
| 42 | Ole Miss* | 18.11 | 42 |
| 43 | Notre Dame* | 16.44 | 43 |
| 44 | Florida International* | 16.03 | 46 |
| 45 | Fresno State* | 15.71 | 47 |
| 46 | Georgia State* – IN | 15.60 | 45 |
| 47 | Denver* – IN | 15.17 | 44 |
| 48 | Dartmouth* | 14.82 | 48 |
| 49 | Penn* | 14.05 | 49 |
| 50 | UNLV* – IN | 13.59 | 72 |
| 51 | South Alabama* | 13.01 | 55 |
| 52 | Washington* | 12.83 | 50 |
| 53 | Alabama* | 12.57 | 54 |
| 54 | Illinois* | 12.43 | 51 |
| 55 | South Florida* | 12.16 | 53 |
| 56 | Florida State* | 12.05 | 57 |
| 57 | Harvard* | 11.90 | 52 |
| 58 | Oregon* | 11.71 | 58 |
| 59 | Cornell* | 11.46 | 59 |
| 60 | Brown* | 11.19 | 60 |
| 61 | New Mexico* | 11.16 | 56 |
| 62 | Utah* | 10.73 | 61 |
| 63 | Long Beach State* | 10.38 | 62 |
| 64 | Missouri* | 9.34 | 63 |
| 65 | UT Arlington* | 8.91 | 64 |
| 66 | Boston College* | 8.72 | 66 |
| 67 | Old Dominion* | 8.56 | 67 |
| 68 | DePaul* | 8.36 | 70 |
| 69 | North Texas* | 8.26 | 68 |
| 70 | Washington State* | 8.26 | 65 |
11 Comments |
Lol so now equality not enough? Now demanding women be first? C'mon
Bobby, What about calling the NCAA tennis MAY MADNESS!!! You can start bracket challenges here and if we find someone in Vegas to open a book on the men's team draw maybe TV will dramatically boost coverage??? This site is a great promoter of college tennis but when people start doing bracket challenges and calling Vegas things will get really crazy. You have been polling folks to pick conference champions – wouldn't it be great to have a bracket challenge too? I say get someone to open a book in Vegas! Nole and Andy Murray were neutral on betting at Slams for some very good reasons. People LOVE to bet the bowl games and March Madness, college tennis is MADE for Vegas!!! What do you think?
Good feedback – maybe next year I'll look at alternating by the week or something along those lines.
There may be some more parity between 9 and 30 this year, and there are going to be some significant line-up issues (injuries or players no longer on the team) for at least a couple of the hosts, but 6 of the top 16 losing…I doubt it. Almost always seems to be at least 14 that advance…I'll guess 12 for this year.
In the past they have gone straight off rankings for seeding with the exception of using H2H on adjacent teams.
Bobby, Shouldn't you post your notes for the Women prior to doing the same article for the men? Next year maybe? I may be wrong but the women's teams get more scholarships so it's bigger business by proportion for the women and their families than men.
How confident are you that the bottom 3 seeds (XU/UCSB) will stay at that line? Do they go straight off the ranking list for the 3/4 cutoff?
My picks for #17-32 to locations: Cal – Kansas; Florida – Northwestern; UNC-Tulsa, Ohio State – Wake; Georgia – Clemson; Vanderbilt – UCLA; Miami – Mississippi State; Pepperdine – USC; Michigan – Kentucky; Duke – LSU; Auburn – Texas; OK State – Wichita State; South Carolina – Georgia Tech; Virginia – Arizona State; Stanford – Syracuse; Texas Tech – Texas A&M; Under 400 miles – Georgia Tech, USC, Kentucky, UCLA, Wake Forest, Wichita State, and Clemson; Texas A&M at 430 miles; From what I can tell, LSU, Miss St, AZ St, Texas, Syracuse and Northwestern have no options within 400 miles. UCLA is lower ranked so they get shipped out while USC goes to Pepperdine; That seemed to be what they did last year with a lot of the teams 17-24 staying closer to home.
Very many of the top 16 are paper weights. I am guessing only 10 will make it to Tulsa. On the men's side 14/16 should move on.
Are you kidding me? Forida v Stanford in round of 16? Florida coach Thornason (sp) may lose it after he sees the draw. My favorites were Cal, Florida, and Stanford. All other teams have definable flaws.
A Texas school will host as a non-1 seed. You heard it here first.