Bracketology: A Work in Progress

My field of 42:
ASC - UT Tyler
CAC - Salisbury
Centennial - Johns Hopkins
CUNYAC - Hunter
Colonial States AC - Neumann
Commonwealth Coast - Salve Regina
Commonwealth - Elizabethtown
Empire 8 - Stevens
Freedom - Wilkes
Heartland Collegiate AC - Transylvania
IIAC - Luther
Landmark - Drew
Little East - UMass Dartmouth
MIAA - Kalamazoo
Midwest - Grinnell
MIAC - Gustavus
NESCAC - Middlebury
NCAC - Kenyon
Northern Athletics - Concordia Wisconsin
NWC - Whitman
Ohio AC - Mount Union
ODAC - Hampden-Sydney
Skyline - St Josephs LI
SCIAC - Cal Lutheran
SCAC - Trinity (TX)
USA South - NC Wesleyan
UAA - Wash U

Pool B
1. Santa Cruz
2. Vassar
3. MIT
4. Skidmore
5. TCNJ
6. Eau Claire
7. Whitewater
8. Lacrosse
9. Carthage


Pool C
1. CMS
2. Emory
3. Amherst
4. Carnegie Mellon
5. Williams
6. Bowdoin


I am stumped. This year is very tricky to do without Gustavus being a #1 seed. They have to host a regional because there are so many teams around them.

Including only ranked teams...here's what I have right now...

1: Middlebury*, Bowdoin, MIT
2: Wash U*, Trinity (TX), Luther
3: Emory, Gustavus*,
4: Cal Lutheran*, CMS, Santa Cruz, Whitman, UT-Tyler
5: Kenyon*, Kalamazoo
6: Hopkins*, Salisbury, TCNJ
7: Amherst*, Williams, Vassar
8: NC Wesleyan*, Carnegie Mellon, Hampden-Sydney

* denotes host

Note: Assume Bowdoin gets 6th Pool C spot and Williams gets 5th. Assume Trinity wins SCAC, Salisbury wins CAC and Hampden-Sydney wins ODAC. Also assume Gustavus wins MIAC.

My first instinct is to send Emory to Gustavus since they aren't close to anyone in Atlanta, but why should Emory get such a weak 2 seed when Midd would have to play Bowdoin? The problem is to give Emory a strong 2 seed, you'd have to fly Trinity (TX) up to Minnesota as well and maybe send Whitman to St. Louis only leaving 4 teams in the West Regional. Then I remembered that Emory hosted a regional last year with NCW, HSC and UMW all traveling to Atlanta. It's not out of the question that this could happen again if Mary Wash makes the tournament, but should NCW have to face Emory in the Sweet 16 when they are ranked 10 and it's avoidable? Too many thoughts going on for me to put down all of them but I would love to discuss with anyone who has ideas to improve this. Feedback on this would be much appreciated...it's a first draft and needs a ton of improvement.