The Rocky Top Rumble featured Florida State, Miami of Ohio and QC Carolinas, along with Southern Mississippi and Tennessee Tech. The Southern Regional have not happened yet, (Augusta, GA on the weekend of March 2 and 3)
Miami did not qualify for the World Cup, coming in 13th in the Midwest, whereas QC Carolinas grabbed a spot at the Quid-Atlantic Regional. The interesting part is that Miami beat QCC at Rocky Top. If you look at QCC's opponents at the Mid-Atlantic regionals and see the scores, you'll see that QCC puts up a lot of points. QCC crushed Franklin and Marshall, Kutztown and Lock Haven and beat Virginia Tech twice, 110-100* and 100*-50. Clearly QCC's chaser game is impressive.
Miami's performance in the Midwest was perhaps stunted by a difficult group and elimination game matchup. While Miami took care of Grand Valley State and St. Mary's in pool play, Ball State and Central Michigan were better than Miami. Still though, large wins against GVSU and St. Mary's earned Miami a +120 point differential for 13th place overall. To get to the World Cup, Miami played Ohio State, a team that is very strong and plays Miami frequently. The experience probably allowed Luke Changet, a quidditch strategy mastermind to develop a gameplan that left Miami in the dust and eliminated.
Also, one has to consider Florida State, Tennessee Tech and Southern Miss' prospects at the Southern Regional. The U and USF are guarantees, and WC5 runner-up Florida will likely take a spot due to the talent of Dr. Dre, but that still leaves 3 spots. Other regional contenders include, Ringling, who was quite impressive at the Bae Cup going 3-0. FGCU had a decent showing at the Wolf Pack Classic in October in Louisiana. While the only they beat was New Orleans, they played a close game with USF in the Semifinals, 40*-30.
At Rocky Top, Florida State, Tennessee Tech and Southern Mississippi were added to this list. USM beat QCC twice and Tennessee Tech beat out USM on point differential for third. Florida State truly shined though. Going 5-0, the Seminoles beat the aforementioned Miami of Ohio in the finals 80*-20.
So which region is best? I would say the Midwest is deepest by far, but the South and Mid-Atlantic have QWC Championship contenders in Villanova, Maryland and Miami. Only one team is on that level in the Midwest in my opinion, Marquette.
The poll to the right is also a great chance to show regional pride!!
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