[ColoradoTree]

Once again, Stanford advances despite being underseeded-- #1 UF is playing #4 Vandy, and #3 tOSU is playing #7 Stanford.

I seem to remember that the underseeding generally stems from Stanford's absence at indoor nationals, generally held in the fall.  That has to be it right?  Why else would the tennis world continue to embarrass all these respectably-seeded teams by having a lowly-seeded Stanford rip through their ranks?

I think that's right, though they were in February this year (not sure when they usually are).  We also missed the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The rankings are determined in part based on quality opponents and overall record, so whereas UNC entered this match 33-2, Stanford was 24-2.  The weeks of ITA Kick-Off Weekend and ITA Indoors, for example, UNC played Oregon, Texas, Yale, Cal, Ohio State, and Florida (going 4-1).  Stanford, by contrast, played San Jose State, Sacramento State, and St. Mary's on those dates.  The rankings system isn't too impressed by beating those teams, so not playing Indoors hurts the team's ranking.  Totally reasonable that it affects the ranking, but you'd think the NCAA would correct for that when seeding teams for the NCAA tournament, but the NCAA actually went the other direction with Stanford this year (ranked 6th, seeded 7th) for some reason. 

[ColoradoTree]

Once again, Stanford advances despite being underseeded-- #1 UF is playing #4 Vandy, and #3 tOSU is playing #7 Stanford.

I seem to remember that the underseeding generally stems from Stanford's absence at indoor nationals, generally held in the fall.  That has to be it right?  Why else would the tennis world continue to embarrass all these respectably-seeded teams by having a lowly-seeded Stanford rip through their ranks?

I think that's right, though they were in February this year (not sure when they usually are).  We also missed the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The rankings are determined in part based on quality opponents and overall record, so whereas UNC entered this match 33-2, Stanford was 24-2.  The weeks of ITA Kick-Off Weekend and ITA Indoors, for example, UNC played Oregon, Texas, Yale, Cal, Ohio State, and Florida (going 4-1).  Stanford, by contrast, played San Jose State, Sacramento State, and St. Mary's on those dates.  The rankings system isn't too impressed by beating those teams, so not playing Indoors hurts the team's ranking.  Totally reasonable that it affects the ranking, but you'd think the NCAA would correct for that when seeding teams for the NCAA tournament, but the NCAA actually went the other direction with Stanford this year (ranked 6th, seeded 7th) for some reason.