PairWise Rankings (PWR)<\/a>, and the conference leaders (through all games of Feb. 23): <\/p>\n1 Miami \n2 Denver \n3 Wisconsin \n4t St. Cloud State \n4t Bemidji State \n6 Yale \n7 Boston College \n8 North Dakota \n9 New Hampshire \n10 Michigan State \n11 Alaska \n12t Minnesota-Duluth \n12t Ferris State \n12t Cornell \n15t Union \n15t Maine \n— RIT<\/p>\n
Current conference leaders based on winning percentage: \nAtlantic Hockey: RIT \nCHA: Bemidji State \nCCHA: Miami \nECAC: Yale \nHockey East: New Hampshire \nWCHA: Denver<\/p>\n
Step One<\/h4>\n From the committee’s report, choose the 16 teams in the tournament. <\/p>\n
We break ties in the PWR by looking at the individual comparisons among the tied teams, and add in any current league leaders that are not currently in the top 16. The only team that is not is RIT.<\/p>\n
From there, we can start looking at the bubble in a more detailed fashion.<\/p>\n
The bubbles consist of St. Cloud State and Bemidji State at 4, Minnesota-Duluth, Ferris State and Cornell at 12, and Union and Maine at 15.<\/p>\n
Looking at the head-to-head PairWise comparisons and the RPI we break all of our ties. <\/p>\n
Therefore the 16 teams in the tournament, in rank order, are:<\/p>\n
1 Miami \n2 Denver \n3 Wisconsin \n4 St. Cloud State \n5 Bemidji State \n6 Yale \n7 Boston College \n8 North Dakota \n9 New Hampshire \n10 Michigan State \n11 Alaska \n12 Minnesota-Duluth \n13 Ferris State \n14 Cornell \n15 Union \n16 RIT<\/p>\n
Step Two<\/h4>\n Now it’s time to assign the seeds.<\/p>\n
No. 1 Seeds — Miami, Denver, Wisconsin, St. Cloud State \nNo. 2 Seeds — Bemidji State, Yale, Boston College, North Dakota \nNo. 3 Seeds — New Hampshire, Michigan State, Alaska, Minnesota-Duluth \nNo. 4 Seeds — Ferris State, Cornell, Union, RIT<\/p>\n
Step Three<\/h4>\n Place the No. 1 seeds in regionals. Following the guidelines, there are no host teams in this grouping, so that rule does not need to be enforced. <\/p>\n
We now place the other No. 1 seeds based on proximity to the regional sites. <\/p>\n
No. 1 Denver is placed in the West Regional in St. Paul, Minn. \nNo. 2 Miami is placed in the Midwest Regional in Fort Wayne, Ind. \nNo. 3 Wisconsin is placed in the East Regional in Albany, N.Y. \nNo. 4 St. Cloud State is placed in the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.<\/p>\n
Step Four<\/h4>\n Now we place the other 12 teams so as to avoid intra-conference matchups if possible. <\/p>\n
Begin by filling in each bracket by banding groups. Remember that teams are not<\/I><\/b> assigned to the regional closest to their campus sites by ranking order within the banding (unless you are a host school, in which case you must be assigned to your home regional). <\/p>\n
If this is the case, as it was last year, then the committee should seed so that the quarterfinals are seeded such that the four regional championships are played by No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5.<\/p>\n
So therefore:<\/p>\n
No. 2 Seeds<\/i> <\/p>\n
No. 8 North Dakota is placed in No. 1 Denver’s Regional, the West Regional. \nNo. 7 Boston College is placed in No. 2 Miami’s Regional, the Midwest Regional. \nNo. 6 Yale is placed in No. 3 Wisconsin’s Regional, the East Regional. \nNo. 5 Bemidji State is placed in No. 4 St. Cloud’s Regional, the Northeast Regional.<\/p>\n
No. 3 Seeds<\/i> <\/p>\n
Our bracketing system has one Regional containing seeds 1, 8, 9, and 16, another with 2, 7, 10, 15, another with 3, 6, 11, 14 and another with 4, 5, 12 and 13.<\/p>\n
Therefore:<\/p>\n
No. 9 New Hampshire is placed in No. 8 North Dakota’s Regional, the West Regional. \nNo. 10 Michigan State is placed in No. 7 Boston College’s Regional, the Midwest Regional. \nNo. 11 Alaska is placed in No. 6 Yale’s Regional, the East Regional. \nNo. 12 Minnesota-Duluth is placed in No. 5 Bemidji’s Regional, the Northeast Regional. <\/p>\n
No. 4 Seeds<\/i> <\/p>\n
One more time, taking No. 16 vs. No. 1, No. 15 vs. No. 2, etc. <\/p>\n
No. 16 RIT is sent to No. 1 Denver’s Regional, the West Regional. \nNo. 15 Union is sent to No. 2 Miami’s Regional, the Midwest Regional. \nNo. 14 Cornell is sent to No. 3 Wisconsin’s Regional, the East Regional. \nNo. 13 Ferris State is sent to No. 4 St. Cloud’s Regional, the Northeast Regional.<\/p>\n
The brackets as we have set them up:<\/p>\n
Northeast Regional: <\/p>\n
Ferris State vs. St. Cloud State \nMinnesota-Duluth vs. Bemidji State<\/p>\n
Midwest Regional: <\/p>\n
Union vs. Miami \nMichigan State vs. Boston College<\/p>\n
East Regional: <\/p>\n
Cornell vs. Wisconsin \nAlaska vs. Yale<\/p>\n
West Regional: <\/p>\n
RIT vs. Denver \nNorth Dakota vs. New Hampshire<\/p>\n
Our first concern is avoiding intra-conference matchups. We have none.<\/p>\n
Do we like the way this looks?<\/p>\n
We have to look at attendance, especially in the Northeast and West Regionals. The East and Midwest Regionals should be just fine. <\/p>\n
We would be better off served by just switching the whole bracket. <\/p>\n
We would dramatically improve St. Paul’s attendance, and slightly improve Worcester’s attendance.<\/p>\n
So we have to do that.<\/p>\n
Our new brackets:<\/p>\n
West Regional: <\/p>\n
Ferris State vs. St. Cloud State \nMinnesota-Duluth vs. Bemidji State<\/p>\n
Midwest Regional: <\/p>\n
Union vs. Miami \nMichigan State vs. Boston College<\/p>\n
East Regional: <\/p>\n
Cornell vs. Wisconsin \nAlaska vs. Yale<\/p>\n
Northeast Regional: <\/p>\n
RIT vs. Denver \nNorth Dakota vs. New Hampshire<\/p>\n
So if I were the committee, that’s what I would put out as the bracket.<\/p>\n
Check the Bracketology Blog<\/a> for other items and we’ll see you here next week for the next Bracketology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Jayson Moy’s weekly look at what the NCAA tournament selection process would look like if it took place right now, the results are fairly straightforward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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