Happy March! Did you realize there were only three weeks left of the regular season, including conference championships? That’s right, and it’s time to start thinking about regionals qualification. As a reminder, postseason qualification is based on NQS, which is calculated by taking a team’s top six scores of the season, at least three of which must be on the road, dropping the highest score overall, and averaging the remaining five.
Each year in this series we take a look at each “bubble” team’s highest possible NQS after this coming weekend and discuss what they’ll need to do to finish in the top 36 and make regionals. This week we’ll stick only to team discussion, adding in potential individual qualifiers next week.
Let’s start with a regionals projection based on current standings, attempting to take geography into account.
| Norman | Denver | Pittsburgh | Los Angeles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Oklahoma | 2. Michigan | 3. Florida | 4. Utah |
| 8. Alabama | 7. California | 6. LSU | 5. UCLA |
| 9. Auburn | 10. Denver | 11. Oregon State | 12. Kentucky |
| 16. Ohio State | 15. Arizona State | 14. Missouri | 13. Michigan State |
| 17. Arkansas | 18. Georgia | 25. Maryland | 19. Southern Utah |
| 20. Iowa | 22. Minnesota | 27. Towson | 21. Stanford |
| 24. Illinois | 26. N.C. State | 31. Ball State | 23. Washington |
| 30. North Carolina | 29. Nebraska | 33. Penn State | 28. Arizona |
| 32…. |
