The first full week of the 2024-2025 Division III men’s basketball season is in the books and in a lot of ways the preseason Top 25 picture has been completely blown up. As we did in last week’s show, we take a look at some of the big results involving Top 25 teams and other games that caught our eye this past week. We are still a week away from the first in-season D3hoops.com Top 25 poll but Matt put together a mock bracket to give his updated outlook on the Top 25 picture.

We also look back at how we did against our week two picks slate and make our decisions on a new five-game slate for week three picks, then wrap up with a look at some ranked teams who have important games against unranked opponents this week and check in with our viewers in the mailbag.

Related Episodes:

Top 50 D3 Basketball Games in November 2024 - Episode 90: https://youtu.be/wmPIxcmBxjI

Related Links:

Efficiency Ratings: https://d3datacast.com/efficiency-ratings/

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Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

The 2024-2025 Division III men’s basketball season got off to a fast start over the weekend and it is already having an impact on the Top 25 picture. Join us this week as we react to the biggest wins, surprising losses and best games and how that makes us think about the national rankings moving forward.

We also look back at how we did against our week one picks slate and make our decisions on a new five-game slate for week two picks, then wrap up with a look at some ranked teams who have important games against unranked opponents this week.

Related Episodes:

Top 50 D3 Basketball Games in November 2024 - Episode 90: https://youtu.be/wmPIxcmBxjI

Related Links:

Efficiency Ratings: https://d3datacast.com/efficiency-ratings/

Show Links:

▶ Website: https://d3datacast.com/

▶ Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@d3datacast

▶ Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/d3datacast

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Show hosts:

Matt Snyder: https://twitter.com/FFTMAG

Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

The first week of the 2024-2025 Division III basketball season is finally here! We dive right back into the comfort of our familiar weekly show. Back again this season are discussions about Matt’s Top 25 ballot and the Top 25 poll as a whole, a main show topic, a five game slate we pick against the efficiency ratings computer line and our weekly mailbag.

We are also bringing back upset watch but in a slightly different format. Rather than trying to predict an upset we will take a weekly look at some of the most compelling “ranked vs. unranked” matchups.

Join us this week as we have some fun with bold predictions and hot takes as we enter the season - both from our great viewers and ourselves. And is the supposed “AI revolution” coming for D3 hoops? We have some fun looking at reasons to believe it is not.

Related Episodes:

Conference Champion Draft! - Episode 88: https://youtu.be/9COFVWtfU9o

Unpacking NPI - New Tournament Selection Metric for Division 3 Sports - Episode 83: https://youtu.be/xrKp8McryUA

Top 50 D3 Basketball Games in November 2024 - Episode 90: https://youtu.be/wmPIxcmBxjI

Related Links:

Efficiency Ratings

D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll

Show Links:

▶ Website: https://d3datacast.com/

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Show hosts:

Matt Snyder: https://twitter.com/FFTMAG

Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

The Division III men’s basketball season gets off to a hot start when play begins on November 8. It seems more and more teams are out in search of high-level non-conference competition and we get great games as a result!

As has been our tradition since the creation of The D3 Datacast, we prepare for the turn of the calendar from October to November by taking a look at what we consider to be the top 50 games in November. We exclude any conference games and don’t project any games that may take place depending on tournament results. Add in a bunch of other games we just couldn’t fit in our list and we are in for a heck of an opening month of play.

We see every year how big games early in the season are just as important as big games late in the season. That means these 50 games are likely to be some we not only look at with anticipation now but look back at later in the year in shaping the national picture heading into NCAA tournament play.

We trust that everyone is ready for another great season but this week’s show should really get the D3 blood pumping through your veins!

Related Episodes:

Conference Champion Draft! - Episode 88: https://youtu.be/9COFVWtfU9o

Unpacking NPI - New Tournament Selection Metric for Division 3 Sports - Episode 83: https://youtu.be/xrKp8McryUA

Show Links:

▶ Website: https://d3datacast.com/

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▶ D3 Datacast Merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/d3-datacast/

Show hosts:

Matt Snyder: https://twitter.com/FFTMAG

Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

It’s the time of the year when more and more focus shifts onto the national picture as Division III football fans try to make sense of the developing playoff picture. In the past that meant trying to filter through weekly regional rankings but that system is gone, replaced by the NCAA Power Index, also known as NPI.

We have been digging into the details of NPI going back to last summer and while we may not be equipped to break down the teams on the field we are equipped to break down the teams in the data. Sport committees had three seasons of data they looked through in their process to set the initial dials for NPI. By replicating NPI and applying it to those years we can get a historical look at NPI to build in some expectations and a framework as we watch the actual first year of NPI play out.

While we can’t say for certain which teams will finish as top 8 seeds or make the tournament as an at-large selection, we can get a pretty good idea of what the teams that ultimately do will look like.

Related Episodes:

Unpacking NPI - New Tournament Selection Metric for Division 3 Sports - Episode 83: https://youtu.be/xrKp8McryUA

Related Links:

D3 Datacast Football NPI: https://d3datacast.com/npi/football/

Show Links:

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Show hosts:

Matt Snyder: https://twitter.com/FFTMAG

Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

The weeks leading into a new Division III basketball season is the perfect time for previews and predictions and we’re putting those two things together in our second-annual conference champion draft contest! Friends of the program Karl Barkley (D3Direct), Bob Quillman (Q-cast) and Ryan Whitnable (Great Lakes Invitational) are back to take part once again. The cast remains the same and so do the rules: each participant makes a pick to win the regular season conference champion as we snake through the draft order. Once a pick is made, that conference is off the board so that all 40 picks come from 40 different conferences. With five participants and 8 rounds, those 40 picks means a couple conferences will get left on the board - as will the Coast-to-Coast conference because they do not have a regular season league schedule. Join us as we make the picks then stick around afterward as we open it up for some post-draft discussion of the picks and the conference races that we are most unsure about. Show Links: ▶ Website: https://d3datacast.com/ ▶ Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@d3datacast ▶ Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/d3datacast ▶ Follow on Facebook: https://facebook.com/d3datacast ▶ Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1twRPsVN00cCOxnFMldaw1?si=96c775bee5904b8e ▶ Become our Teammate on Patreon: https://patreon.com/D3Datacast ▶ D3 Datacast Merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/d3-datacast/ Show hosts: Matt Snyder: https://twitter.com/FFTMAG Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

We typically leave the coach interviews to other great Division III basketball content creators but we can’t resist the chance to get in a pre-season conversation with Calvin men’s basketball coach Bill Sall.

Coming off a solid season that saw an Elite 8 finish for the Knights, we take a quick look back to hear from Bill on what the tournament run meant to him and his team. It was then time to turn our eyes forward looking ahead to the new season and the new landscape that comes with the change in NCAA ranking and tournament selection, with topics ranging from adjusting to changes in personnel, a look at a difficult non-conference schedule, scheduling philosophies, the resurgence of the MIAA and team culture.

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Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder

What started as a simple tweet grew into a full episode of The D3 Datacast! D3Hoops.com columnist Ryan Scott once wondered about a fairly simple question: what if every team made the Division III men’s basketball tournament?

That question struck a chord with Matt and it’s one that has been rattling around in the back of his mind ever since. In this week’s show we take an honest effort at answering the question, each taking a different approach to trying to make a full national tournament with every team participating and bring it to life. What might that look like? How would it work?

Since the idea originated with Ryan it was only natural for him to join us as a special guest for this episode to add his own ideas into the mix and for a discussion on just how feasible a tournament like this might be, the strengths, the weaknesses, the positives and the negatives.

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Show hosts:

Matt Snyder: https://twitter.com/FFTMAG

Zac Snyder: https://twitter.com/ZacSnyder