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. Also, with conference titles on the line this weekend, anything can happen, and so this will be the final Bracketology before the field is announced on Sunday night, March 24th.
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, teams will be moved among regionals and 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, Miami-Ohio, Boston College, Yale, UMass-Lowell, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Notre Dame, Minnesota State, Niagara, St. Cloud State, Denver, Western Michigan, Union, Wisconsin, Providence, Boston University, RPI, and Alaska-Fairbanks.
In the conference tournaments so far, the predictable has happened, so from those twenty, let’s give you the sixteen entries: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, Miami-Ohio, Boston College, Yale, UMass-Lowell, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Notre Dame, Minnesota State, Niagara, St. Cloud State, Denver, Western Michigan, Union, and finally, Wisconsin is the last team in.
Let’s assign the seeds, in groups:
1 Seeds: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, Miami-Ohio, Boston College
2 Seeds: Yale, UMass-Lowell, North Dakota, New Hampshire
3 Seeds: Notre Dame, Minnesota State, Niagara, St. Cloud State
4 Seeds: Denver, Western Michigan, Union, Wisconsin
Remember that our bracketing system requires one regional with the 1, 8, 9, and 16 seeds. Our second regional sees teams 2, 7, 10, and 15 in a group. The third regional consists of seeds 3, 6, 11, and 14 while our fourth regional consists of seeds 4, 5, 12, and 13.
Let’s place the #1 seeds closest to home starting with #1 Quinnipiac, who will be placed in the Manchester regional (you’ll see why in a moment). #2 Minnesota heads to Grand Rapids, while #3 Miami-Ohio heads to Toledo. Finally, #4 Boston College would head to Providence.
Let’s move onto the two seeds. Because #8 New Hampshire is a host, we must place them in #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Manchester. #5 Yale would head to Providence while #6 UMass-Lowell would head to #3 Miami-Ohio’s regional in Toledo. Finally, #7 North Dakota would go to #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids.
Let’s place the three seeds. #9 Notre Dame would fit in #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Manchester, while #10 Minnesota State would be placed in #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids. #11 Niagara would fit in #3 Miami-Ohio’s Toledo regional while #12 St. Cloud State would go to #4 Boston College’s regional in Providence.
Finally, the four seeds have their places. #16 Wisconsin would go to #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Manchester while #15 Union would go to #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids. #14 Western Michigan would be placed in #3 Miami-Ohio’s regional in Toledo while #13 Denver would be placed in #4 Boston College’s regional in Providence.
Our bracket, as it sets up:
Northeast Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Wisconsin
#8 New Hampshire vs. #9 Notre Dame
Midwest Regional
#3 Miami-Ohio vs. #14 Western Michigan
#6 UMass-Lowell vs. #11 Niagara
East Regional
#4 Boston College vs. #13 Denver
#5 Yale vs. #12 St. Cloud State
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 Union
#7 North Dakota vs. #10 Minnesota State
From those games, we have two matchups we must avoid, and they’re the lower seed games in Toledo and Grand Rapids. Let’s get moving. Let’s move #14 Western Michigan to Grand Rapids, swapping them with #15 Union. Next, let’s move #11 Niagara to Providence, replacing #13 Denver. Finally, we move #10 Minnesota State to Manchester, replacing #9 Notre Dame. That gives you this bracket:
Northeast Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Wisconsin
#8 New Hampshire vs. #9 Notre Dame
Midwest Regional
#3 Miami-Ohio vs. #14 Western Michigan
#6 UMass-Lowell vs. #11 Niagara
East Regional
#4 Boston College vs. #13 Denver
#5 Yale vs. #12 St. Cloud State
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 Union
#7 North Dakota vs. #10 Minnesota State
Because there are an uneven number of teams from east to west in the second band, I really don’t think I can do much more damage to this bracket. Plus, attendance is as good as it could get. We’ll go with this for the week. Until Sunday, when the field is announced…
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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