As NCAA Tournament time approaches, we're posting the first update of our strength of schedule calculations.

The overarching Division III philosophy stresses in-region competition, and while there are a few ways a game can be classified as in-region, in the end it's those games which matter most. Our numbers, produced in conjunction with D3sports.com partner PrestoSports, include all regional games played through Sunday night.

Check out the latest men's and women's strength of schedule numbers: the opponents' winning percentage and opponents' opponents' winning percentage. In other words, how good are the teams you played? And how good are the teams they played?

&&g-boxr&&While this may not help Carthage, or Coast Guard, or The College of New Jersey get into the playoffs, a strong schedule and a strong winning percentage are two of the criteria which seem to come into play most often in NCAA Tournament selection discussions.

Historically, it seems to be more valuable to have a decent in-region winning percentage and a strong schedule than to have a strong winning percentage and a weak schedule. Consider last year, when Chapman and Wheaton (Ill.) were both eligible for the final at-large spot in the men's tournament. Chapman had a .706 regional winning percentage but their OWP was .468, 307th among Division III men's basketball programs in 2008. Wheaton had a .682 winning percentage and a .572 OWP, 26th-best.

Just don't ask us how Moravian got in ahead of Chapman in the Pool B discussions. The numbers still don't bear that out no matter how many times we look at them.