48 Teams in Women's CRC Divisions
48 Teams in Women's CRC Divisions
Here's a look at the women's divisions at this coming weekend's NCR.
Women's Premier
This is a knockout bracket with consolation games for teams that are knocked out.
Brown vs Kutztown
Northern Iowa vs Indiana
Brown is a varsity program with plenty of talent. While UNI is probably favored over Indiana, Brown has to be favored to make it to the semis out of these teams. Even so, we might see Kutztown do well in the consolation rounds.
Michigan vs Iowa State
Navy vs Texas A&M
Michigan is the defending NCR D1 champions from the fall and their strength has been their pace. What will Navy bring to combat them?
Army vs Aquinas
Iowa vs Southern Nazarene
Southern Nazarene, a new program, is an interesting contender, but most will expect Army to cruise through to the semis.
Virginia Tech vs Michigan State
Penn State vs Montana State
Penn State would be our favorites to make the semis here, but you know we dig Virginia Tech.
D1
Pool A: Baylor, UMass, Colgate, Wisconsin
Pool B: Cornell, Pittsburgh, Boise State, Clemson
This is a pretty competitive group made up of relatively large schools with competitive club teams.
D2
Pool A: UW-Eau Claire, Temple, IUPUI
Pool B: Roger Williams, UT San Antonio, Shippensburg
Pool C: Grand Valley State, Coastal Carolina, IUP
Pool D: Colorado School of Mines, Wayne State, Salisbury
This group has several teams that were in the CRC last year in one way or another—there was only a Women's Premier and Women's D1 Club in 2022. So this is a little new.
GVSU, Stevens Point, and Eau Claire all did well in 2022. Keep an eye on Temple and also Wayne State.
Small College
Four pool of three populates the Small-College bracket.
Pool A: Endicott, South Dakota, Colby
Pool B: York, Ohio Wesleyan, Cannon
Pool C: Lee, Marywood, Colorado College
Pool D: UW-Platteville, St. Bonaventure, Missouri S&T
The 2022 15s finalists Lee and Endicott have to be the favorites, but York and Colby could be contenders too.
So that's four divisions a total of 48 teams. Many of these divisions are really tossups. But we do think in the Premier Bracket there is a fairly strong likelihood that Brown, Penn State, Army, and Michigan will be the semifinalists.
But ... please note that in 2022 GRR took the Bracket Challenge and was nowhere near correct.
