Let me first begin by welcoming back USCHO’s long-time bracketologist Jayson Moy and giving him a cap tip/apology as last week his bracket and reasoning were missing because I didn’t check the spam folder in my email and thus never found what he had sent.
This week, without incident, Jayson is back and ready to give you his rationale to accompany mine.
Last week, we had some issues with bracket integrity that were unavoidable because of both the need to avoid conference matchups in the opening round and the desire to protect attendance in Bridgeport by moving Quinnipiac from Allentown and a potential second-round matchup with host Penn State and allowing the Bobcats to play less than 30 miles from campus.
Let’s see how this week plays out.
First, here is Jayson’s rationale and his bracket.
Let me start out by putting everyone into bracket integrity.
That means:
1 Minnesota
8 Penn State
9 Ohio State
16 RIT
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
10 Western Michigan
15 Minnesota State
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
4 Michigan
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
Looking at the brackets, let’s start this time by placing teams in regional sites first, without regards to host schools – it will become clear later why I do this.
Fargo
1 Minnesota
8 Penn State
9 Ohio State
16 RIT
Bridgeport
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
10 Western Michigan
15 Minnesota State
Manchester
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
Allentown
4 Michigan
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
Now we can take into consideration all of our rules.
Penn State is a host school, and at the same time is in an intra-conference matchup with Ohio State.
We can do one of two things here – move the entire bracket to Allentown and swap, or just move Penn State to the Allentown regional.
As Minnesota is the number one seed, I prefer to move Penn State to Allentown, so I will swap with St Cloud.
Fargo
1 Minnesota
5 St Cloud
9 Ohio State
16 RIT
Bridgeport
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
10 Western Michigan
15 Minnesota State
Manchester
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
Allentown
4 Michigan
8 Penn State
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
There are two things which I might consider doing and that is not having two ECAC teams in Bridgeport and two Big Ten teams in Allentown.
But I don’t want to swap Quinnipiac and Michigan, because Quinnipiac is closest to Bridgeport. I could swap Michigan and Denver though, but that would give me a Michigan-Notre Dame matchup, so I would have to swap the entire matchup of Denver-Notre Dame and Michigan-Cornell. But that gives me two Big Ten teams in Allentown again.
So I don’t make the move.
I could swap Harvard and Boston University. But, do I take the only Hockey East team away from a regional hosted by a Hockey East team?
I don’t think I make the move.
Thus, my bracket this week is:
Fargo, N.D.
1 Minnesota
5 St Cloud
9 Ohio State
16 RIT
Bridgeport, Conn.
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
10 Western Michigan
15 Minnesota State
Manchester, N.H.
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
Allentown, Pa.
4 Michigan
8 Penn State
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
Here’s is Jim’s version of his bracket:
Like Jayson’s I’ll duplicate the first step and simply seed the field based on bracket integrity:
1 Minnesota
8 Penn State
9 Ohio State
16 RIT
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
10 Western Michigan
15 Minnesota State
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
4 Michigan
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
Before assigning regions to each bracket, I’m going to eliminate conference matchups in the opening round. We have Penn State vs. Ohio State as the only issues. Penn State is an 8 seed, so it would be ideal to switch them with the 7 seed, Harvard. But that will likely move an eastern team west in a tournament where there aren’t a ton of eastern teams to begin.
So my first switch will be to swap the 9 seed Ohio State and 10 seed Western Michigan.
That gives us the following:
1 Minnesota
8 Penn State
10 Western Michigan
16 RIT
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
9 Penn State
15 Minnesota State
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
4 Michigan
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
Now let’s assign the regions based on, first, if any hosts are participating, which is the case for Penn State in Allentown, and then using geographic proximity for the highest seeds.
That would leave us with the following:
Allentown, Pa.
1 Minnesota
8 Penn State
10 Western Michigan
16 RIT
Bridgeport, Conn.
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
9 Ohio State
15 Minnesota State
Fargo, N.D.
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
Manchester, N.H.
4 Michigan
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
With that, I’ve found too many things I don’t like. I don’t want Minnesota, the top seed, so far away from campus. I don’t want Boston University, the only Hockey East team, so far away from Manchester. So how can we get Minnesota to Fargo and get BU to Manchester? Well, I like the thought of switch entire first-round matchup locations. Move Minnesota and RIT to Fargo, swapping with Denver and Notre Dame. Then do the same for the BU-Michigan Tech matchup swapping with St. Cloud and Alaska
Allentown, Pa.
3 Denver
8 Penn State
10 Western Michigan
14 Notre Dame
Bridgeport, Conn.
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
9 Ohio State
15 Minnesota State
Fargo, N.D.
1 Minnesota
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
16 RIT
Manchester, N.H.
4 Michigan
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
13 Cornell
What we’ve done is maintain as much bracket integrity in the opening round while also making sure that all four regions will have the strongest attendance possible. That’s my bracket for the week.
So, in summary:
Jayson’s bracket
Fargo, N.D.
1 Minnesota
5 St Cloud
9 Ohio State
16 RIT
Bridgeport, Conn.
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
10 Western Michigan
15 Minnesota State
Manchester, N.H.
3 Denver
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
14 Notre Dame
Allentown, Pa.
4 Michigan
8 Penn State
12 Alaska
13 Cornell
Jim’s Bracket
Allentown, Pa.
3 Denver
8 Penn State
10 Western Michigan
14 Notre Dame
Bridgeport, Conn.
2 Quinnipiac
7 Harvard
9 Ohio State
15 Minnesota State
Fargo, N.D.
1 Minnesota
5 St Cloud
12 Alaska
16 RIT
Manchester, N.H.
4 Michigan
6 Boston University
11 Michigan Tech
13 Cornell
