Sweet 16 hosts announced

Mar 08, 2015
Babson packed 'em in this past weekend.
Babson athletics photo


The men's sectionals will be hosted at Augustana, Babson, Randolph-Macon and UW-Stevens Point. The women's sectional hosts are Calvin, Montclair State, Thomas More and Tufts.

Both sets of sectional hosts are pretty straightforward and non-controversial this year, as long as you remember that one of the primary goals of the NCAA Division III championships committees is to keep teams within a 500-mile radius of their destination. That means that although George Fox is the No. 1 seed in its bracket, it is unlikely to host a sectional because DePauw and Calvin are within driving distance of each other. And of those two, Calvin is the highest seed, which is why the Knights are hosting.

UW-Stevens Point is hosting the men's sectional for the fifth time in 10 seasons. For Babson, it's the first time, while Augustana last hosted in 2011 and Randolph-Macon in 2003. Tufts is hosting for the second year in a row, while Thomas More will host for the fourth time in the past 12 tournaments. Calvin last hosted a sectional in 2005, while Montclair State has never hosted under the current system.

But even so, hosting the sectional is hardly a guarantee of advancing to the Final Four. There has never been a year in which all four men's hosts advanced, and it's only happened once in women's basketball. In fact, hosts fail to advance more than 50 percent of the time.

Women's sectional hosts: 43% success rate

Since the format of the NCAA Tournament changed in the 2000 season, all four sectional hosts have advanced to the Final Four just once in 15 seasons. On two occasions, none of the four sectional hosts have advanced. Teams in bold advanced to the Final Four.
2015 Tufts  Montclair State Thomas More  Calvin
2014 Tufts FDU-Florham DePauw Whitman
2013 Amherst Williams DePauw UW-Whitewater
2012 Amherst Mary Washington Mount Union Chicago
2011 Amherst Lebanon Valley Thomas More UW-Stevens Point
2010 Amherst Kean Illinois Wesleyan Washington U.
2009 Amherst Rochester Thomas More Illinois Wesleyan
2008 Kean Messiah UW-Whitewater Howard Payne
2007 Emmanuel NYU Scranton Luther
2006 Southern Maine Scranton DePauw Pacific Lutheran
2005 Southern Maine Scranton Randolph-Macon Calvin
2004 Bowdoin Marymount Thomas More UW-Stevens Point
2003 King's Rochester UW-Eau Claire Hardin-Simmons
2002 Springfield Salisbury Wilmington UW-Stevens Point
2001 NYU TCNJ Baldwin-Wallace St. Thomas
2000 Rowan St. Lawrence Washington U. Hardin-Simmons

Men's sectional hosts: 46% success rate

Since 2000, all four sectional hosts have never advanced to the Final Four, although on three separate occasions, three teams have advanced. There has never been a year in which no sectional host moved on. In 2013, there were no sectionals because of the tournament format. Teams in bold advanced to the Final Four.
2015 Babson Randolph-Macon UW-Stevens Point Augustana
2014 Amherst Mary Washington Illinois Wesleyan UW-Stevens Point
2013 None      
2012 Middlebury Franklin & Marshall Wooster UW-Whitewater
2011 Williams Rochester Wooster Augustana
2010 Williams St. Mary's (Md.) Guilford UW-Stevens Point
2009 Richard Stockton Franklin & Marshall John Carroll Wheaton (Ill.)
2008 Plattsburgh State Ursinus Hope Washington U.
2007 Amherst Virginia Wesleyan St. John Fisher UW-Stevens Point
2006 Amherst Virginia Wesleyan Wittenberg Lawrence
2005 Amherst Ramapo Albion UW-Stevens Point
2004 Williams Franklin & Marshall Wooster Puget Sound
2003 Williams Randolph-Macon Wooster Buena Vista
2002 Catholic Brockport State Otterbein Carthage
2001 Clark Christopher Newport Ohio Northern Chicago
2000 William Paterson Cortland State Calvin Buena Vista