INDIANAPOLIS- In the first edition of the NCAA's region rankings, Carson-Newman found itself listed amongst ten teams in alphabetical order in the Southeast Region as announced by the NCAA on Wednesday evening.
Carson-Newman is one of five South Atlantic Conference schools listed in the region rankings, joined by Anderson, Catawba, Coker, and Wingate.
The Peach Belt is represented by North Georgia and Columbus State, while Conference Carolinas has Chowan, Francis Marion and UNC Pembroke listed alphabetically.
Among the teams listed under consideration, C-N has played ten games against those teams and is 5-3. The Lady Eagles still have a contest with Coker left in the regular season.
The Lady Eagles have the fifth best RPI at .579, just behind UNC Pembroke's .585 RPI. C-N has played the eighth toughest schedule in the Southeast region and is 19-6 in those contests. Carson-Newman has the fourth highest performance indicator at 0.212. Only Coker, Columbus State and North Georgia have better performance indicators.
The selection committee uses these rankings as a guideline to make up the NCAA Tournament field. The top eight teams in the region make the NCAA Tournament with three automatic bids going to the winners of the conference tournaments from the South Atlantic Conference, Conference Carolinas and the Peach Belt Conference. The other five spots will consist of at-large bids.
For the No. 1 team in the region, that school gets to host the Southeast Region tournament from March 14-17. Three wins are needed to advance to the National Quarterfinals which will be played March 24-28 in Pittsburgh, PA at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
The NCAA will release region rankings every Wednesday leading up to the selection show on March 9, 2025.
The Lady Eagles aim for a fifth straight win this evening versus Emory & Henry at 5:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 5:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A live stream of the contest is available with a subscription to FloSports.
