On March 3rd, it was announced that the MAWPC championship would be cut down to three teams due to Covid-19 complications. Originally it was planned that there would be 8 teams included in the tournament, six MAWPC-East teams and the top two MAWPC-West teams. The MAWPC Championship was to be held March 6th and 7th at the U.S. Naval Academy, with the winners of it receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA championship tournament. However, a week before the tournament the U.S. Naval Academy had to drop out due to a campus shutdown. Later that day it was announced that Fordham University would have to drop out also due to Covid-19, leaving 6 teams left in the tournament. Later in the week, Bucknell University was announced as the new host site for the championship after “49 pools” were contacted. Due to Covid-19 Bucknell was not allowing more than two off campus teams to play at their facility. This would mean that the field for the tournament would be cut down to only 3 teams. Unfortunately, there was a tie for third place in a recent poll, with the two teams being McKendree University and La Salle University. Both McKendree and La Salle were tied in the latest national poll as well, despite a 7-0 record for McKendree and a 2-4 record for La Salle. Ultimately, the third spot was given to La Salle based upon won/loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, and wins against a higher seed.

·        McKendree posted a 7-0 record going undefeated and winning the MAWPC-West championship game by a 13 goal deficit, also outscoring opponents 138-66 in the season.

·        La Salle posted a 2-4 record beating winless Iona twice in the season.

·        A strength of schedule was undeterminable due to no shared opponents between the two schools, basing the “strength of competition” on what side of the conference each team was on. Each of side of the conference is based on location and location only.

·        McKendree and La Salle did not play each other during the season but McKendree has won 2 of the 3 meetings in the past.

·        McKendree had wins vs. Gannon and Mercyhurst, both consistently ranked higher than McKendree throughout the season.

·        La Salle had 2 wins vs. Iona, who is ranked below McKendree in the National and MAWPC polls.

We, the McKendree University Men’s Water Polo team, are asking the CWPA and the CWPA governance council to reconsider us being in the tournament. If the CWPA does not, then we would like to be able to play against the winner of the tournament for the automatic bid into the NCAA championship tournament. We believe that this is a fair compromise that would determine what team deserves the bid and find who the champion of the MAWPC is.