Colgate played its way in.

Army and Navy might have played their way out.

And that's just in the Patriot League.

This bracket is designed with the NCAA's travel limitations in mind. If it was seeded 1 through 16, the bottom nine teams would be in this order: Notre Dame, Princeton, UMBC, Army, Colgate, Loyola, Drexel, Providence.

The last at-large spot went to Army over Navy, Ohio State, Hofstra and Denver. Army can still play its way out with a loss to Penn, and Ohio State and Denver play in the GWLL semifinals on Friday.

(1) Duke vs. MAAC/Providence

* Whoever wins the MAAC tournament should go ahead and book their flight to RDU.

(8) Georgetown vs. GWLL/Notre Dame

* A case can be made to play this game in South Bend, as well. There appear to be seven solid seeded teams at this juncture, and the Hoyas might earn the final seed with a victory over Penn State despite their strength of schedule issues.

(5) North Carolina vs. AMERICA EAST/UMBC

* Expect the Tar Heels to receive a visitor from the Baltimore area (UMBC, Loyola, even Navy) for the first round --- unless the committee sees fit to ship a team from out west to Chapel Hill.

(4) Johns Hopkins vs. ECAC/Loyola

* Not a fan of immediate rematches, and this is one of two in this projection (Syracuse-Colgate the other).

(3) Virginia vs. CAA/Drexel

* The Cavaliers are in the clubhouse at 12-3 and seem like a pretty safe bet for a No. 3 seed. Drexel needs to win the CAA tournament to make it into the field.

(6) Maryland vs. IVY/Princeton

* Cottle-Tierney in the postseason for the third time in five years? It could happen if the Tigers wrap up the Ivy AQ with a victory over Brown.

(7) Cornell vs. Army

* If Hofstra wins the CAA title, it could set off a chain reaction for the unseeded teams; perhaps the Pride goes to Cornell, Loyola goes to Virginia and Army heads to Hopkins. Cornell should be seeded if it can defeat Hobart on Friday.

(2) Syracuse vs. PATRIOT/Colgate

* Another immediate rematch, and another team that could get shuffled around. The Raiders can escape a trip to the Dome (and probably land at Cornell) with an upset of the Orange this weekend.

--- Patrick Stevens