Tonight, our Briar Cliff women's volleyball team completed a season sweep of "that school across town", however, even though this occurred and BCU also finished the regular season with a higher position in the GPAC standings, the Morningside Lady Chiefs will be the host school for the NAIA National Volleyball Tournament when it comes to the Tyson Events Center in November.
Now before you start asking about the GPAC Tournament, you are right. IF Briar Cliff can win the GPAC Tournament, they would take the host bid away from Morningside. But, with no offense intended at Coach Muhe or the Charger players, that is a very small possibility due to the competition that Briar Cliff would have to face in order for that to happen, including three teams ranked in the Top 25.
I'm sure you're asking how can this be? Well that's why I'm here to give you the answer.
The first criteria used to determine the host bid is a simple one: The host team must have an overall record above .500. This is the only criteria required by the NAIA because they don't want a team below that mark to qualify and get the crap beat out of them by the competition. This is one condition that I agree with and it's for the same reasons the NAIA has stated. The last thing I would want is for Briar Cliff to qualify for the Tournament and then go down in the group stage with embarrassing scores (and yes Charger fans, it can get worse than that Northwestern game at the NFC this year).
The second criteria used, and these were agreed upon by BCU and Morningside, the NAIA and GPAC did not have any say in these conditions when the tournament arrived in Sioux City a few years ago, is the two teams records against six "common opponents". What this means is that the GPAC, who although they didn't have any say in the condition serves as a neutral supervisor to keep track of the criteria, keeps track of six conference games where both schools had the same opponent in the same home/away situation. For example, if Briar Cliff hosted Dordt and Morningside also hosted Dordt then those games could be considered common opponents. If BCU hosted Dordt but Morningside played Dordt in Sioux Center, then those games could not be used against each other. Another condition is that head-to-head doesn't count as common opponent.
This common opponent rule was the one that gave Morningside the host bid because they finished with a record of 5-5 while Briar Cliff was only 3-7.
When I saw the criteria that was used to determine the host bid, the first thing I said was "What about head-to-head, shouldn't the matches between two teams battling for the bid have authority over common opponents?"
The answer I got came from the fact that the criteria was made years ago when the GPAC had two additional teams than it does now (Sioux Falls left for NCAA Division II, and Dana College in Blair, Nebraska closed suddenly a couple years ago). Back then, there was a chance that Briar Cliff and Morningside would only face each other once in volleyball, so the schools didn't want the host bid to come down to a "sudden death" game.
While this made sense then, that rule should've been amended after the two schools left the conference and the GPAC moved to a home/home regular season where all the teams face each other twice.
So now that I've explained the current rules and conditions, I'm gonna give you what I think the criteria should be for the host bid:
1) The host team must have an overall record about .500. This is a rule that the NAIA put in and it is a good one for the reasons I explained earlier.
2) HEAD-TO-HEAD: If one school sweeps the other school in the two matches where we square off, then that school should earn the bid as long as they fulfill the first condition. If the two teams split the season series and then face each other in the GPAC Tournament, that game would serve as a "sudden death" match to determine the bid.
3) GPAC STADINGS: If the two schools split the head-to-head match-ups, and there is no match in the GPAC Tournament, the school that finishes higher in the GPAC should be the one to earn the host bid.
4) COMMON OPPONENTS: If both schools finish tied in the GPAC standings, THEN you go to the Common Opponents that are currently used.
So in conclusion, I'm asking, no BEGGING, Briar Cliff President Bev Wharton, Athletic Director Steve Gast, and head coach Jill Muhe, along with their contemporaries over at Morningside, to amend their rules for the host bid and put in criteria that ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE!!!!!!
I'm DK and that the 411!
