The weekend of October 20th, 2006 has been set aside as a "Challenge" weekend. The need for a "Challenge Weekend" grew out of Midwest Pool Play. As teams participating in Midwest Pool Play are required to use two weeks of their fall schedule to participate in Pool Play Matches, they are generally unable to compete in a full Local Area Union (LAU) fall league. In order that these teams may have the opportunity to advance to Midwest Playoffs, Challenge Weekends were set-aside to facilitate these teams "Challenging-In" to Midwest Playoffs.
Under current Midwest Guidelines, a system of Pool Play has been created for Division I and Potential Division I Teams. The Top 12 teams in the Midwest (the 4 Division I Teams and the top 8 Division II Teams) are divided into four three team pools. The results of this "Pool Play" determine which teams are considered Divsion I and which teams are considered Division II.
Teams that finish 2-0 in Pool Play are declared Division I by default and are seeded into the Midwest Division I Playoffs on Saturday, November 11th and Sunday, November 12th, 2007.
Teams that finish 1-1 in Pool Play are declared Division II by default. They are seeded into Midwest Division II Playoffs as Playoff Pool hosts for the Round of 16 and the Round of 8 to occur on Saturday, October 27th and Sunday, October 28th, 2007.
Teams that finish 0-2 in Pool Play are considered LAU Bid contenders and must qualify for the Midwest Playoffs through their LAU (i.e. Wisconsin R.F.U.). Thus the "Challenge Weekend."
In general, the Midwest R.F.U. awards playoff bids to the Division II Playoffs to each LAU in a seeding process known as the Midwest Collegiate Seeding Conference Call - this is an extremely political and parochial process.
There are two types of Bids available to an LAU - Automatic and At-Large. There are 16 seeds available for Midwest Playoffs. Four (4) of these seeds are granted to the 1-1 finishers in the Midwest Pool Play - Leaving twelve (12) seeds available for the Seeding Call. Each of the nine (9) LAU's are granted one (1) Automatic Bid, leaving three (3) At-Large Bids available to be argued over. If an LAU Collegiate Coordinator can produce a preponderance of information to demonstrate that they have an exceptionally strong Division II contender for the At-Large Bid, that LAU may be granted an At-Large Bid. If you've been paying attention, that means that there's just a 33% chance that any LAU will advance 2 non-pool play teams to Midwest Playoffs.
So...it pays to be prepared, and it pays to play hard on the field.
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