NESCAC Playoff scenarios

Another wild day of NESCAC play and there's still a lot to be decided with only two regular season NESCAC games left on the schedule. (Amherst at Williams and Hamilton at Middlebury, both at 3 tomorrow).  So let's recap what we do and don't know about the NESCAC playoffs.

Seeding
1. Trinity
2. Amherst or Williams
3. Amherst or Williams
4. Bowdoin or Middlebury
5. Bowdoin or Middlebury
6. Colby
7. Conn College
8. Wesleyan
9. Hamilton
10. Tufts

What we do know 
Seeding and eliminated teams 
We know seeds 1 and 6-8 and we know that Hamilton (9) and Tufts (10) have been eliminated from playoff contention. It's the second straight year the Jumbos have finished in last place and missed the playoffs after hosting their first NESCAC home playoff game as the four seed in 2012.

 For Hamilton, it is only the third time in the conference's 15 year tournament history that the Continentals will not be participating in the tournament. The other two times came in back-to-back years (2007, 08).  That was right before Norm Bazin, currently coach of the top 10 D-I UMass-Lowell Riverhawks, arrived at Hamilton. In three years in Clinton, NY, Bazin led the Conts to seventh, sixth and first place finishes. Current coach Rob Haberbusch just completed his third year as Continental coach and has led the buff and blue to finishes of eight, eight and now ninth.

Matchups
The only matchup we know is #8 Wesleyan at #1 Trinity. For the second straight year, the teams will play each other three times in a row, as the Nutmeg State travel partners play each other the last weekend of the season. Last season, the Bantams and Cardinals split the final regular season weekend and then the third seed Bantams beat the sixth seed Cardinals in OT in the NESCAC Quarterfinals.

We also know that Bowdoin and Middlebury will play each other, we just don't know who will be home. More on that below.

What we don't know
As mentioned, we don't know where Middlebury and Bowdoin will play each other in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. If Middlebury beats Hamilton tomorrow afternoon, the Panthers earn the four seed and will host the fifth seed Polar Bears. If Middlebury ties Hamilton, the Panthers and Polar Bears both finish with 19 points, but Bowdoin wins the tiebreaker by virtue of their 1-0-1 head-to-head matchup with Middlebury.

We also know that Williams and Amherst will play either Colby or Conn College. If Amherst wins or ties against Williams tomorrow, they get the 2 seed and will host #7 Conn College, leaving #6 Colby to travel to #3 Williams for a rematch of last year's NESCAC Quarterfinals. If Williams wins, they get the #2 seed and will host #7 Conn College and Amherst would host #6 Colby.