March 17, 2016
COLUMBIA 300 MUSIC CITY CLASSIC FACT SHEET
Here are details for this weekend’s Columbia 300 Music City Classic, hosted by Vanderbilt University at the Smyrna Bowling Center, Smyrna, Tennessee. Admission is free to the public.
There are 30 teams in the field, making this the largest NCAA tournament of the regular season. Here are the competing teams in alphabetical order:
Adelphi, Alabama A & M, Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman, Central Missouri, Elmhurst, Fairleigh Dickinson, Felican, Florida A & M, Franklin Pierce, Howard, Jackson State, Louisiana Tech, Long Island-Brooklyn, Maryland-Eastern Shore, McKendree, Monmouth, Nebraska, North Carolina A & T, Prairie View, Sacred Heart, Saint Francis College, Saint Francis University, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Tulane, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Twenty-two of the Top 25 teams in the latest NTCA poll will be competing.
To avoid the randomness of a team playing either a power-packed set of opponents or an agenda of lesser ranked foes, the field has been calibrated mathematically so that every team will have the same approximate degree of difficulty in the Friday and Saturday matches.
Play begins Friday at 9:40 a.m. (CDT) with six, 5-game Baker matches, broken up by a 75 minute intermission after three games. Saturday will feature six traditional team games starting at 9:30 a.m. and again having an intermission midway. Sunday’s championship bracket has three Baker games in a best-of-seven format, starting at 8:30.
March NTCA Top 25
Nebraska (19) 973
Arkansas State (5) 919
Vanderbilt (2) 900
Sam Houston State (1) 825
Stephen F. Austin 743
Central Missouri 710
McKendree 655
North Carolina A&T 607
Fairleigh Dickinson 589
Wisconsin-Whitewater 565
Maryland-Eastern Shore
Long Island-Brooklyn
Delaware State
St. Francis University
Kutztown
Sacred Heart
Monmouth
Saint Francis College
Tulane
Norfolk State
Adelphi
Valparaiso
Elmhurst
Prairie View A&M
Jackson State
Mother Nature will hopefully cooperate better this year. A year ago, a late snowstorm forced some teams to cancel travel plans and others to arrive late so technically there is no official defending champion. Vanderbilt led the pin count over Central Missouri among the teams that were able to attend.
Follow Vanderbilt’s play on its cube video livestream and on its Twitter account.