At D3, you can have relatively equal overall talent (deep in the playoffs), but still have "gaps" in individual areas. Example: one team may have what amounts to a significant advantage in TECH, or ATH, or GI. Most teams will be pretty equal when it comes to STR on STR, BLK on TKL, and SPD on SPD.
The higher you go, the "individual attribute gaps" begin to disappear. Those other factors of ATH, TECH, GI and FIQ begin to "count more" in the mathematical equations.