Harvard's first-ever loss to Columbia on Saturday brought about the same, immediate knee-jerk reaction from many parties: Harvard should plummet in the rankings and miss the tournament.
That reflex is completely right in the former assumption, completely wrong in the latter.
Harvard did plummet in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll, right behind--you guessed it--Brown and Boston College, two teams that did not make the tournament. Luckily for Harvard, a poll did not determine its NCAA fate.
So What Happened?
While most so-called bubble teams are forced to play all their tourney games on the road, Harvard's tournament will begin with a home game against the mighty Braves of Quinnipiac tomorrow, a team that had to win a play-in game just to make the tourney.
Not only that, the Crimson's potential second-round opponent is Hartford, the lowest-ranked team to receive a bye into the second round.
The placement suggests that Harvard was much more than a bubble team.
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