DEL approximately follows the postseason systems of each real-life sport. Basketball, baseball, and hockey have conference tournaments, followed by the league tournament. Football has conference championship games, followed by bowl games. All conference champions automatically go to the league tournament or bowl games, with the remainder of the field set by the commissioner (and usually a selection committee) based on record, ranking, and other factors. Independent teams have no automatic bids. Below are the sport-by-sport notes for postseason play. Basketball All basketball teams that are not under sanctions will play in their conference tournaments. (Some real-life conferences have only 8-team tournaments, but DEL does not make such a distinction.) The tournament is essentially a 16-team single-elimination format, with byes given when appropriate. Following this are the CBEL (64-team) and NIT (40-team) tournaments. Conference champions all go to the CBEL tournament, which is filled out with 33 additional teams. (The best independent team does not receive an automatic bid.) As with real-life, the following considerations are made when filling out the field. Locks Teams ranked in the top 32 of the RPI are always selected. Top-25 teams are nearly always selected. About once in 10 seasons in real-life does a ranked team not get selected. In CBEL, the two "official" rankings for this purpose are the win-loss computer rating and the writers' poll. Twenty-win teams from major conferences with RPI ratings #50 or better have always been selected. In CBEL, this rule applies to top-tier conferences. However, if there are too many "lock" teams, teams that achieved lock status because of this rule can be placed back on the bubble, beginning with the weakest top-tier conferences. Ineligible Teams with 0.500 or lower records are not considered. In real-life, only one team ranked #68 or worse in the RPI has been selected; that event most likely because it had two friends on the selection committee. Teams below 0.500 in conference play are rarely selected; teams more than two games below 0.500 not considered. Bubble Teams The remaining teams are placed on the "bubble". While the RPI factor is important in determining who gets in and who doesn't, the factors below are also considered. Teams are usually selected from a conference in order of the standings. Only about once every two seasons in real-life does a team get skipped in favor of a lower team in the conference standings. Other important factors are the team's performance in its last 10 games, road record, wins over top-25 RPI and top-50 RPI teams, losses to bottom-half teams, and the median RPI rating of a team's non-conference opponents. The last three of these are incorporated into the RPI rating. Although the NCAA selection procedure does not use my computer ratings, these ratings are a remarkably good indicator of which bubble teams are selected. In 2002, my computer ratings were perfect in determining which bubble teams were selected in the men's bracket and missed only one call in the women's bracket (Hawaii would have been -- probably should have been -- selected instead of Tulane). In fact, my ratings are a better indicator of what bubble teams are selected than are the RPI ratings (though the composition of the bubble is highly dependent on RPI ratings). Although there is no set rule, top-tier conferences usually get at least 3 (usually 4 or more) bids, while bottom-tier conferences usually get no more than 2 (including the automatic). It is unclear how the real-life selection process considers conferences. They claim to "select teams, not conferences" but, on the other hand, do take average conference RPI values into their considerations. After selecting the 64 team field for the CBEL tournament, the NIT tournament field is selected (teams at 0.500 are considered here). The field is 32 teams, and when possible is filled entirely with human-run teams. (Note that human-run teams are not given priority anywhere else in DEL postseason selections for CBEL or any other sport.) When filling out the brackets, the primary consideration is to separate teams from the same conference. Most importantly, the highest-rated team from a conference should not be in a region with any other teams from its conference, the top three teams from a conference should be placed into separate regions, and one conference may not contribute more than one 1-4 seed within a single region (or more than one 13-16 seed). If needed, a team's seed can be changed by one (up or down) to help meet bracket requirements. Each team selected for the tournament receives 15 prestige points (equal to one press bonus). A first-round win brings 5 more points, a championship game win brings 15 points, and a win in any other round brings 10 points. The tournament champion thus receives a total of 75 prestige points. Baseball Baseball conference tournaments have a wide variety of formats in real-life. To simplify for CMEL, we use 4-team tournaments in Tier III, 6-team in Tier II, and 8-team in Tier I (all double-elimination). This gives the regular season more significance in Tier III, where teams probably have to win their tournament to make the CMEL tournament. Following this is the CMEL (64-team) tournament. Conference champions all go to the tournament, which is filled out with 33 additional teams. (The best independent team does not receive an automatic bid.) As with real-life, the considerations for selecting at-large bids are identical with those in basketball: RPI ranking Non-conference record Conference record (season and tournament) Road record Last 10 games Record vs. 1-25, 26-50, 51-100, 101-150, and 151+ in the RPI Head-to-head records Common opponents Since these are virtually identical criteria to those used in basketball, the same principles apply for "lock" and "ineligible" teams: Locks Teams ranked in the top 32 of the RPI or the top-25 of the writers poll or win-loss computer are always selected, so long as their conference record is 0.500 or better. Forty-win teams from top-tier conferences with RPI ratings #50 or better are selected, again so long as their conference record is 0.500 or better. As with CBEL, if there are too many "lock" teams, teams that achieved lock status because of this rule can be placed back on the bubble, beginning with the weakest top-tier conferences. Ineligible Teams with 0.500 or lower records are not considered. Teams ranked #65 or worse in the RPI are not considered. Teams below 0.500 in conference play are rarely selected; teams more than 4 games below 0.500 are not considered. Bubble Teams The remaining teams are placed on the "bubble". Teams are selected using the considerations listed above and in the basketball section. When filling out the brackets, the primary consideration is to separate teams from the same conference. Each team selected for the tournament receives 15 prestige points (equal to one press bonus). Teams receive 15 additional points each for winning the regional and super-regional, and 5 points per world series win. The champion receives 10 more points (in addition to the 5 received for winning the championship game), for a total bonus of 75. Brackets All baseball tournaments are double-elimination, which makes for more complicated bracket formats. Below are the three tournament formats currently in use. The game breakdowns assume the higher seed advances, except when noted. If an upset occurs, swap the teams' seeds and continue through the tournament. There are also "two-team tournaments" used in CMEL super regionals and the championship series; these are simple best-of-three series. 8-Team Bracket Day 1: #1 vs. #8, #2 vs. #7, #3 vs. #6, #4 vs. #5. The 1-4 seeds win and remain unbeaten; the 5-8 seeds lose for the first time. Day 2: #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3, #5 vs. #8, #6 vs. #7. The 1-2 seeds win and remain unbeaten. The 3-4 seeds lose for the first time. The 5-6 seeds win and remain once-beaten. The 7-8 seeds lose and are eliminated. Day 3: #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #5, #4 vs. #6. The 1 seed wins and remains unbeaten. The 2 seed loses for the first time. The 3-4 seeds win and remain once-beaten. The 5-6 seeds lose and are eliminated. Day 4 (CASE 1 -- #1 wins day 4): #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3. The 1 seed wins and remains unbeaten. The 2 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 3 and 4 seeds lose and are eliminated. Day 5 (CASE 1): #1 vs. #2. If the 1 seed wins, it is the champion. If it loses, the two teams play again on day 6 to determine the champion in a winner-take-all match. Day 4 (CASE 2 -- #1 loses day 4): #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3. The 1 seed loses and falls into the losers bracket. The 2 and 4 seeds win and remain once-beaten. The 3 seed is eliminated. Day 5 (CASE 2): #2 vs. #4. The 2 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 4 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 6 (CASE 2): #1 vs. #2. Both teams have lost once, so the winner of this game is the tournament champion. 6-Team Bracket Day 1: #1 vs. #6, #2 vs. #5, #3 vs. #4. The 1-3 seeds win and remain unbeaten; the 4-6 seeds lose for the first time. Day 2 (CASE 1 -- #1 wins day 2): #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3, #5 vs. #6. The 1 and 2 seeds win and remain unbeaten. The 3 seed loses for the first time. The 5 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 4 and 6 seeds lose and are eliminated. Day 3 (CASE 1): #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #5. The 1 seed wins and remains unbeaten. The 2 seed loses for the first time. The 3 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 5 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 4 (CASE 1): #2 vs. #3. The 2 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 3 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 5 (CASE 1): #1 vs. #2. If the 1 seed wins, it is the champion. If it loses, the two teams play again on day 6 to determine the champion in a winner-take-all match. Day 2 (CASE 2 -- #1 loses day 2): #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3, #5 vs. #6. The 2 seed wins and remains unbeaten. The 1 and 3 seeds lose for the first time. The 4 and 5 seeds win and remain once-beaten. The 6 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 3 (CASE 2): #1 vs. #3, #4 vs. #5. The 1 and 4 seeds win and remain once-beaten. The 3 and 5 seeds lose and are eliminated. Day 4 (CASE 2a -- #1 wins day 4): #1 vs. #2. The 1 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 2 seed loses for the first time. Day 5 (CASE 2a): #2 vs. #4. The 2 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 4 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 6 (CASE 2a): #1 vs. #2. The winner is the champion. Day 4 (CASE 2b -- #1 loses day 4): #1 vs. #2. The 2 seed wins and remains unbeaten. The 1 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 5 (CASE 2b): #2 vs. #4. If the 2 seed wins, it is the champion. If it loses, the two teams play again on day 6 to determine the champion in a winner-take-all match. 4-Team Bracket Day 1: #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3. The 1 and 2 seeds win and remain unbeaten; the 3 and 4 seeds lose for the first time. Day 2: #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #4. The 1 seed wins and remains unbeaten. The 2 seed loses for the first time. The 3 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 4 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 3: #2 vs. #3. The 2 seed wins and remains once-beaten. The 3 seed loses and is eliminated. Day 4: #1 vs. #2. If the 1 seed wins, it is the champion. If it loses, the two teams play again on day 5 to determine the champion in a winner-take-all match. Football Instead of tournaments, football has only two sets of single games: conference championships and bowl games. Conference championship games are played only in split conferences (Big 12, SEC, and MAC), between the team at the top of the standings in each division. For other conferences, the team atop the standings after the regular season is the conference champion. All conference champions get automatic bowl bids, with other bowls filled by taking the best-ranked teams from assigned conferences. There is a BCS-like system, which takes the top two teams in the BCS rankings, plus the champions of five or six Tier I conferences and up to five at-large teams. All teams playing in bowl games receive prestige rewards of 15 points (equal to one press bonus), and winners receive an additional 15. For the BCS championship game, the loser receives 25, and the winner 75. DEL college football also includes division I-AA. The I-AA football postseason is separate from I-A, which means that I-AA schools will never go to the BCS. Instead, there is a 16-team tournament. Eight seeds go to the champions of the eight strongest conferences. The other eight seeds go to at-large schools selected by the computer. The tournament is a single-elimination tournament, with all games except for the championship played at the higher-seeded team's campus. Hockey Each hockey conference has slightly different conference tournament rules. The CCHA, ECAC, and WCHA have 10-team tournaments; HEA has an 8-team tournament. The bracket is then cut in half by a best-of-three play-in (#1 vs. #10, #2 vs. #9, etc. in the 10-team system) and the surviving teams reseeded. This group of teams then plays a single-elimination tournament to determine the champion. CHA and MAAC do not have the play-in system; they only have the single-elimination round. CHA's tournament has five teams while MAAC's has 8. Following this is the 16-team ECHL tournament. The six conference tournament champions all go to the ECHL tournament, with the other ten teams selected based on their pairwise ratings. The selection process is thus not terribly subjective; the committee's only option is to skip over a bottom-tier team in favor of the next available top-tier team, since the pairwise ratings don't necessarily compare top-tier and bottom-tier teams accurately. This option will always be invoked unless the bottom-tier team has proven that it can compete with good programs. In practice, this means that a bottom-tier team would have to schedule many of its non-conference games against good top-tier teams and win enough to establish a credible case for selection. Note that the RPI and PWR were changed this season to make schedule strength more important in the rankings; this tier rule may be relaxed if deemed appropriate. Note that teams below 0.500 are not considered, while those exactly at 0.500 are considered; however the PWR's heavy reliance on record makes it unlikely that a 0.500 team would be selected. Seedings are also made fairly objectively. Pairwise comparisons of the 16 tournament teams are made, creating a ranking order (1-16). The top four teams are the 1-seeds, the second four are 2-seeds, the third four are 3-seeds, and the last four are 4-seeds. The bracket is arranged to avoid first-round conference rematches, but otherwise the committee is free to seed teams as it wishes. In real-life, there are geographical considerations in the seeding process. Four regional venues are predetermined, with two in the northeast and two in the midwest. First, the four regional host teams are put into those regions if they were selected. Second, the #1 seeds are put as close to campus as possible. Remaining teams are seeded to get them close to home as well, avoiding conference rematches. This generally means that ECAC, HEA, and MAAC teams will tend to go into the two east regions, while CCHA, CHA, and WCHA teams tend to go into the midwest regions. All 16 teams in the hockey tournament receive 15 prestige points (equivalent to one press bonus); each team earns 15 additional points for tournament game it wins (including first-round byes for the top 4 teams). The champion thus receives a total of 75 points.