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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeXtreme, post: 1760150, member: 41"] [I]The ACC is set to lose its automatic qualifier for the 2017 season as its two-year grace period of the five-team league’s membership falling beneath the six-team AQ threshold ends after 2016. However, while it’s likely, it’s not formalized that the ACC will actually lose its AQ for 2017. Assuming that, the question would arise as to whether two play-in games should remain for next season, or whether that should be cut to one since the reason the play-in games were added was to reduce the number of AQ teams in the field to 50%, and that’d be accomplished by the eighth- and ninth-rated AQ winners playing a lone preliminary round game. “The recommendations for conference AQs is made by the lacrosse committee during their annual meeting in July, and will go to the Competition Oversight Committee for approval in September,” Holman wrote. “No decision has been made, but yes it is possible that we could only have one play-in game for 2017 if the ACC is not granted a waiver, or gets another team to join the ACC.” One idea is to continue the two play-in game format, but reserve the other play-in game for the two lowest-rated at-large selections (similar to what’s done in DI men’s basketball, in which two of the “First Round” games are played between the four lowest-rated AQs and two are matchups of the four lowest-rated at-large selections. However, based on Holman’s response, that seems unlikely. “At this point if there was only one play-in game, the participating teams will likely continue to be selected the same way,” he wrote. “Seven of the nine eligible AQ conferences will go into the bracket of 16, while the two lowest ranked AQ teams will compete in a single play-in game to determine which team will earn the 8th and final AQ spot in the 16 team bracket. We will continue to select eight at-large teams.”[/I] [B][URL]http://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-future-of-ncaa-tournament-play-in-games-and-bracket-expansion/35160[/URL][/B] [B] [/B] Sounds like we may have a 17 team tourney moving forward, with only 8 at-large slots. [/QUOTE]

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