It’s a Monday, and it’s now time to formally start the process known as Bracketology—predicting the teams that will make up March’s NCAA Tournament field.
Here are the facts:
• Sixteen teams are selected to participate in the national tournament.
• There are four regional sites (East — Providence, R.I.; Northeast — Manchester, N.H.; Midwest — Toledo, Ohio; West — Grand Rapids, Mich.).
• A host institution which is invited to the tournament plays in the regional for which it is the host and cannot be moved. There are four host institutions this year: Brown in Providence, New Hampshire in Manchester, Bowling Green in Toledo and Michigan in Grand Rapids.
• Seedings will not be switched, as opposed to years past. To avoid undesirable first-round matchups, including inter-conference games (see below), teams will be moved among regionals, not reseeded.
Knowing those, let’s give you the top twenty teams in the latest iteration of the Pairwise rankings. They are, in order: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Miami-Ohio, Yale, Boston College, Western Michigan, UMass-Lowell, St Cloud State, North Dakota, Boston University, Alaska-Fairbanks, Denver, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Minnesota State, Niagara, Union, Colgate, and finally, Northern Michigan.
We have to include our five conference champions among the top sixteen, and since Niagara is a conference champion, they would replace Minnesota State. All other conference champions are in the top sixteen. That makes our entry list simpler: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Miami-Ohio, Yale, Boston College, Western Michigan, UMass-Lowell, St Cloud State, North Dakota, Boston University, Alaska-Fairbanks, Denver, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, and Niagara.
Let’s assign the seeds, in groups:
1 Seeds: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Miami-Ohio
2 Seeds: Yale, Boston College, Western Michigan, UMass-Lowell
3 Seeds: St Cloud State, North Dakota, Boston University, Alaska-Fairbanks
4 Seeds: Denver, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Niagara
Now, let’s assign the top seeds to their regionals. First, we must place #3 New Hampshire in its home regional in Manchester. Next, #1 Quinnipiac goes to Providence. #2 Minnesota would be placed in Grand Rapids ending with #4 Miami-Ohio going to Toledo.
The way our bracket sets up, we have seeds 1, 8, 9, and 16 in one region. Our second region consists of seeds 2, 7, 10, and 15. Our third region sees seeds 3, 6, 11, and 14 with our final region seeing seeds 4, 5, 12, and 13.
Let’s place the two seeds keeping this system in mind. #5 Yale would be sent to #4 Miami-Ohio’s regional in Toledo. #6 Boston College would go to #3 New Hampshire’s regional in Manchester. #7 Western Michigan would go to #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids, with #8 UMass-Lowell being sent to #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Providence.
Let’s now place the three seeds the same way. #9 St Cloud State would go to #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Providence. #10 North Dakota would go to #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids. #11 Boston University would go to #3 New Hampshire’s regional in Manchester while #12 Alaska-Fairbanks would go to #4 Miami-Ohio’s Toledo regional.
Finally, the four seeds. #13 Denver would go to #4 Miami-Ohio’s regional in Toledo with #14 Notre Dame going to #3 New Hampshire’s regional in Manchester. #15 Dartmouth would be placed in #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids while #16 Niagara would be placed in #1 Quinnipiac’s Providence regional.
That gives you a bracket like this:
East Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Niagara
#8 UMass-Lowell vs. #9 St Cloud State
Northeast Regional
#3 New Hampshire vs. #14 Notre Dame
#6 Boston College vs. #11 Boston University
Midwest Regional
#4 Miami-Ohio vs. #13 Denver
#5 Yale vs. #12 Alaska-Fairbanks
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 Dartmouth
#7 Western Michigan vs. #10 North Dakota
From that, you can see there is one matchup we must avoid. See it? It is #6 Boston College vs. #11 Boston University. They play in the same conference. So, we move #11 BU to Toledo (Midwest) to replace #12 Alaska-Fairbanks, moving UAF in BU’s spot. That gives us this:
East Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Niagara
#8 UMass-Lowell vs. #9 St Cloud State
Northeast Regional
#3 New Hampshire vs. #14 Notre Dame
#6 Boston College vs. #11 Alaska-Fairbanks
Midwest Regional
#4 Miami-Ohio vs. #13 Denver
#5 Yale vs. #12 Boston University
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 Dartmouth
#7 Western Michigan vs. #10 North Dakota
No inter-conference games. But, we could make one more tweak for attendance. I’m hoping you see it. Let’s move #14 Notre Dame to the West regional to replace #15 Dartmouth, with Dartmouth taking the spot in the Northeast. That leaves us with:
East Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Niagara
#8 UMass-Lowell vs. #9 St Cloud State
Northeast Regional
#3 New Hampshire vs. #14 Dartmouth
#6 Boston College vs. #11 Alaska-Fairbanks
Midwest Regional
#4 Miami-Ohio vs. #13 Denver
#5 Yale vs. #12 Boston University
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 Notre Dame
#7 Western Michigan vs. #10 North Dakota
No inter-conference games, and attendance is great in all four regions. I like the way this looks. Until next time…
Geoff Discher is Examiner.com's National College Hockey Examiner as well as the Minnesota Golden Gophers Hockey Examiner. Leave a comment below, or feel free to reach him at Disch61@hotmail.com with comments, story ideas, or any general talk surrounding college hockey. You can find him on Facebook as well by clicking here and here, joining the conversation from the social media side as well. He's always chock full of fact and opinion.
Until next time, I’ll see you at the rink!
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