At this late date in the season, it’s worth looking at the national and regional rankings, especially the latter. The national rankings are interesting from a seeding perspective, but the regional rankings are the ones that determine who goes to the NCAA tournament and who does not.
The national rankings are updated on Tuesdays (through the previous Sunday’s games) and can be found here. Regional rankings are here on the official NCAA site (also through the previous Sunday’s games), and they are updated Wednesdays. You can also see the latest rankings at the end of this post, and I’ve added links to these sites on the left nav bar. I figure this will be easier than trying to keep them up-to-date myself.
Since a team’s record within the region is heavily considered by the voters in the regional polls, I include that alongside a team’s record within the division on my team stats page. A quick look at those records tells me that only Henderson State has a chance at an at-large bid (if they don’t win the conference tournament), and both Christian Brothers and Delta State have an outside chance at one. Anyone else wanting to reach the NCAA tourney field will probably have to win the conference tournament. Other conferences in our region (D-II South) are the Sunshine State Conference (Florida teams) and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Mid-South/Georgia teams).
Regional rankings (through games of 2/4):
| 1 | Benedict | 15-2 | 13-1 |
| 2 | Rollins | 13-2 | 11-1 |
| 3 | Montevallo | 14-5 | 13-2 |
| 4 | Valdosta State | 12-4 | 11-3 |
| 5 | Barry | 15-4 | 14-3 |
| 6 | Florida Gulf Coast | 20-3 | 20-3 |
| 7 | Henderson State | 13-3 | 11-3 |
| 8 | Christian Brothers | 14-5 | 11-4 |
| 9 | Paine | 11-6 | 11-4 |
| 10 | Eckerd | 15-5 | 12-4 |
National rankings (through games of 2/4):
| Rank | School (first place votes) | Record | Points | Previous Rank |
| 1 | Winona State, Minn. (8) | 21-0 | 200 | 1 |
| 2 | Bentley, Mass. | 21-0 | 192 | 3 |
| 3 | Findlay, Ohio | 20-1 | 183 | 5 |
| 4 | Metropolitan State, Colo. | 19-2 | 168 | 8 |
| 5 | Central Missouri | 19-1 | 162 | 2 |
| 6 | Southeastern Oklahoma State | 18-2 | 153 | 10 |
| 7 | Grand Valley State, Mich. | 19-2 | 148 | 7 |
| 8 | Southern Indiana | 21-3 | 139 | 12 |
| 9 | Minnesota State | 21-2 | 138 | 4 |
| 10 | Clayton State, Ga. | 19-2 | 130 | 6 |
| 11 | Humboldt State, Calif. | 16-3 | 121 | 15 |
| 12 | Quincy, Ill. | 17-4 | 110 | 13 |
| 13 | Northwest Missouri State | 17-4 | 94 | 16 |
| 14 | West Liberty State, W. Va. | 18-2 | 93 | 17-t |
| 15 | Emporia State, Kan. | 18-2 | 88 | 9 |
| 16 | Augusta State, Ga. | 18-3 | 79 | 21-t |
| 17 | Cal State-San Bernardino | 14-4 | 67 | 11 |
| 18 | Rollins, Fla. | 18-3 | 53 | 25-t |
| 19 | Millersville, Pa. | 18-3 | 46 | 14 |
| 20 | Henderson State, Ark. | 15-5 | 30 | 24 |
| 21 | Virginia Union | 12-4 | 26 | 20 |
| 22 | Seattle Pacific, Wash. | 14-7 | 25 | NR |
| 23 | Benedict, S.C. | 17-2 | 24 | 23 |
| 24 | Barton, N.C. | 15-5 | 22 | NR |
| 25-t | Motevallo, Ala. | 17-5 | 21 | NR |
jfwiii.net 
Any tournament bracket that is filled according to “rankings” is a joke.
See: http://lookinferlearnin.wordpress.com/2006/11/09/we-wuz-robbed/
That’s awful…I wasn’t even aware that had happened. I’d love to know who the voters are for the regional polls and/or who is on the selection committee for basketball. From what I understand, they’re one and the same, but do we know anything about who gets a say?
At any rate, I figure the Bisons’ only chance of making the tourney, even if they win out in the regular season, will be through a GSC Tournament win. The Lady Bison volleyball team wasn’t fortunate enough to get that automatic bid this year, and it’s obvious that common sense did not otherwise prevail in the selection process.
There are all kinds of shady things about D-II sports, eh?
Florida Gulf Coast – Typical “outlaw” school.