The York College of Pennsylvania men’s basketball team received word that they’re heading back to the DIII National Tournament! I am extremely proud to say that my alma mater has had a very successful year so far. The Spartans finished the regular season with a 19-6 overall record and an in-conference record of 12-2. York’s in-conference record was good enough to claim a share of the regular season conference championship. This is the second year in a row the Spartans won the regular season championship!
The Spartans cruised through the first two rounds of the CAC conference tournament, winning in convincing fashion. Unfortunately, York lost the CAC Championship game to nationally ranked CNU in front of a sold-out crowd in Newport News, Virginia. However, because of the success the Spartans had throughout the season, they received an at-large bid. In Division III, there are 44 automatic bids which are teams that have won their respective conference tournament. So, that leaves only 20 spots left for at-large bids. The at-large bids are mainly determined by regional rankings and strength of schedule. York finished the season at one of the top spots in the mid-Atlantic region.
York received a somewhat unfavorable seeding in the tournament. DIII sets up its tournament by regions and it breaks it down into four quadrants, similar to Division I. This year, the Spartans will be facing DeSales University in the first round. If they advance, they will play the winner of Randolph-Macon vs. Morrisville State. It is actually pretty coincidental because fellow Victory Scholar, Dan played at Randolph-Macon. Hopefully York will get to play RMC in the second round so I can do a bit of trash-talking.
Out of the 16 teams in the “bottom left quadrant” this year, 5 of them were home to current Victory Scholars. Amherst, Swarthmore, Skidmore, Randolph-Macon, and York all made the tournament this year. Johnny and Mike went to Amherst, Zack went to Swarthmore, Royce went to Skidmore, Dan went to Randolph-Macon and of course I went to York. Needless to say, Sport Changes Life has some pretty good ballers from some pretty good DIII schools this year!
