I've played HD for a while, and always here "Well, it's not really the same format as RL DII or DIII". So, for my own knowledge, I did a little research today into how the DIII and DII NCAA worlds work.
IRL- DIII has 43 conferences, and 10 independents (in 2010-11). 40 of those conferences' champions earn automatic bids. The next two bids are allocated to independent teams, or teams from the 3 "conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification". The last 19 spots (total of 61) are allocated to teams from the 40 conferences that received automatic berths.
The criteria to be in pools B/C (At large) are as follows (not in order):
W-L record against schools in your region (4 regions across America. Short summary is New England, Midwest/South, New York/Penn and Everything west of the Mississippi.)
SOS (2/3rds Opponents W/L %, 1/3 Opponents opponents W/L %)
In region results vs. regionally ranked teams.
If that doesn't determine a bid, they open it up to all DIII games, instead of just in region.
The bracket is constructed purely based on Geography, over seeding. You can play conference foes in the second round (it can happen in the first if needed for geography). The 3 first round byes come from the groups where geography makes an odd number, not the highest seeded teams.
IRL DII- 22 Conferences with 22 independents (2009-10). Each conference champion receives a bid. The at 42 At-large teams are determined on a regional basis from the following 8 regions: Atlantic, East, Central, Midwest, S. Central, South, Southeast, and West. The regions are determined by conferences (Example, the Midwest is members of the GLIAC and GLV Conferences).
Selection criteria is:
Above .500 record, with at least 22 games against DII or DI, and at least 16 games vs. DII
DII W-L
DII SOS
Head to head
In-region DII (conference and specific states- too much to list quickly) W-L
In-region DII SOS
Results vs. common foes
Results vs. DII ranked teams
"Significant wins and losses (including, but not limited to, the evaluation of results versus
Division II opponents at and above .500; Division II road results (i.e. away or neutral
sites)."
In 7 of the 8 regions (Atlantic is the exception), all 8 teams travel to the #1 seed for games on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, with the winner advancing to the Elite Eight. In the event a team has a no-play Sunday policy, the dates are adjusted to Fri/Sat/Mon.
In the Atlantic region, the 1 and 2 seeds host 1st and 2nd round games, with the higher seed hosting the 3rd round game (unless neither a 1 or 2 advance, then the NCAA determines the location.)
It was interesting reading and research, especially when you go to compare HD DII or DIII NT results to RL- as the formats are so different, you can't even say "No 1 would lose to a 16 in DII", because the formats are so different. I also found it odd/interesting that between the two divisions, there were only 2 possible bids for independent teams.
As for my thoughts to what may come up- Should HD mirror RL DII or DIII more? If HD was just starting out, sure, it would be neat to basically play in two conferences for 8 bids, and have to worry about scheduling in-region games to get an at-large bid. But the change and the level of programming complexity leads me to think it will never happen, as you would need all sorts of things to be changed (conferences with odd numbers of teams, tracking "regional" records, home games in the tourney (and site selection), 20+ teams in DII that can't make the postseason...)
Sources of my information:
d3hoops.com
d2basketball.com
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/champ_handbooks/basketball/2010/10_2_mbasketball.pdf
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/champ_handbooks/basketball/2010/10_3_mbasketball.pdf