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, Miami-Ohio, UMass-Lowell, New Hampshire, Boston College, North Dakota, Minnesota State, Denver, St. Cloud State, Western Michigan, Yale, Niagara, Notre Dame, RPI, Alaska-Fairbanks, Union, Boston University, Dartmouth, and Wisconsin.
We check to see if all five conference leaders, and or, winners (in the CCHA’s and Atlantic Hockey’s case) are in the top sixteen in the Pairwise, and they are, so here are your sixteen eligible teams: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, Miami-Ohio, UMass-Lowell, New Hampshire, Boston College, North Dakota, Minnesota State, Denver, St. Cloud State, Western Michigan, Yale, Niagara, Notre Dame, RPI, and Alaska-Fairbanks.
Let’s assign the seeds, in groups:
1 Seeds: Quinnipiac, Minnesota, Miami-Ohio, UMass-Lowell
2 Seeds: New Hampshire, Boston College, North Dakota, Minnesota State
3 Seeds: Denver, St. Cloud State, Western Michigan, Yale
4 Seeds: Niagara, Notre Dame, RPI, Alaska-Fairbanks
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.
Knowing this, we place the top seeds in their respective regionals. #1 Quinnipiac will go to Providence. #2 Minnesota will go to Grand Rapids. #3 Miami-Ohio will go to Toledo, and #4 UMass-Lowell goes to Manchester.
Let’s place the two seeds. We must place #5 New Hampshire first because they are a host, and it works out that they go to #4 UMass-Lowell’s regional in Manchester. #6 Boston College would head to #3 Miami-Ohio’s Toledo regional. #7 North Dakota would head to #2 Minnesota’s Grand Rapids regional. #8 Minnesota State would head to #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Providence.
Time to place the three seeds. #9 Denver goes to #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Providence. #10 St. Cloud State would head to #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids. #11 Western Michigan would head to #3 Miami-Ohio’s regional in Toledo while #12 Yale would go to #4 UMass-Lowell’s regional in Manchester
Let’s finally place the four seeds. #16 Alaska-Fairbanks would head to #1 Quinnipiac’s regional in Providence. #15 RPI would go to #2 Minnesota’s regional in Grand Rapids. #14 Notre Dame would actually get a good draw by going to #3 Miami-Ohio’s Toledo regional while #13 Niagara gets put in #4 UMass-Lowell’s regional in Manchester.
Our bracket as it sets up, looks like this:
East Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Alaska-Fairbanks
#8 Minnesota State vs. #9 Denver
Midwest Regional
#3 Miami-Ohio vs. #14 Notre Dame
#6 Boston College vs. #11 Western Michigan
Northeast Regional
#4 UMass-Lowell vs. #13 Niagara
#5 New Hampshire vs. #12 Yale
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 RPI
#7 North Dakota vs. #10 St. Cloud State
We have two inter-conference games we must avoid—one in Grand Rapids, and one in Toledo. Let’s first move #9 Denver to Manchester, swapping them with #12 Yale. Next, let’s move #10 St. Cloud State to Toledo, swapping them with #11 Western Michigan. Finally, let’s move #14 Notre Dame to Grand Rapids, swapping them with #15 RPI.
Our bracket, as of now:
East Regional
#1 Quinnipiac vs. #16 Alaska-Fairbanks
#8 Minnesota State vs. #9 Yale
Midwest Regional
#3 Miami-Ohio vs. #14 RPI
#6 Boston College vs. #11 St. Cloud State
Northeast Regional
#4 UMass-Lowell vs. #13 Niagara
#5 New Hampshire vs. #12 Denver
West Regional
#2 Minnesota vs. #15 Notre Dame
#7 North Dakota vs. #10 Western Michigan
No inter-conference games: Check. Attendance? Looks fine to me. There’s our bracket for the week. Until next time, when moving and shaking really gets going in the CCHA and in Atlantic Hockey.
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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