So you’re a fan of a team on the bubble, who do you root for?
The teams on the bubble at the moment are:
Cornell
Western Michigan
Michigan State
Northern Michigan
Merrimack
Who do you root for? Here are the simplest ways to root.
Cornell
No one but your own Big Red. A win or tie and the Big Red are in. A loss, the Big Red finish the season.
Western Michigan
A win by your team. That guarantees the autobid and doesn’t leave anything else to chance. If that doesn’t work and your team loses, then you’re rooting for Union. Why? Because then Harvard is knocked out and Western can finish no lower than 15th in the PairWise, thus guaranteeing an at-large bid.
Merrimack
Merrimack fans, you need RIT, Colgate and Union to win. If neither of these happens, Merrimack is eliminated. So you need to root for these three teams.
Michigan State and Northern Michigan
It’s really the same scenario for both teams. With only three spots left, you want to eliminate at least three teams from contention.
You know that a Cornell loss drops Cornell from contention. So you’re rooting for Colgate to beat Cornell.
An Air Force win eliminates Merrimack. Or a Cornell win. Or a Harvard win. Thus you’re rooting for Air Force and/or Cornell and/or Harvard. Of course, a Harvard win makes it a little more difficult for your teams. So maybe you want to root like below instead.
You know that a Union win eliminates Harvard. So you’re rooting for Union.
There are other combinations that get you in, but you have to wait and see.
