The NCAA Hockey tournament has 16 spots. A slot is guaranteed to the five conference tournament winners. The remaining slots are filled with the highest ranked teams in the Pairwise. Each team is given an overall seed based on their rank in the Pairwise. Then, the teams are then divided into four seeding bands, that is to say the top 4 teams are given 1-seeds, the next four teams are given 2-seeds, and so on and so forth. These teams are then mixed and matched to form a bracket based on a variety of considerations including geography, attendance concerns, and bracket integrity. For instance, the NCAA tournament committee strives to keep schools within 400 miles by road from their tournament site, as NCAA rules mandate that teams fly to regionals over 400 miles away. Another important rule is that the school hosting a regional is guaranteed to play at that regional if they make the tournament. Finally, the NCAA cannot allow intra-conference first round games unless there are more than 5 teams from a conference in either the 1 and 4 seeding bands or the 2 and 3 seeding bands. All that said, I will now attempt to put together a bracket:
Overall Seeds based on Pairwise Rankings (Conference in Parenthesis)
1. Yale (ECAC)
2. Boston College (HE)
3 (3t)*. Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA)
4 (3t)*. New Hampshire (HE)
5 (5t)*. North Dakota (WCHA)
6 (5t)*. Denver (WCHA)
7 (7t)*. Rensselaer (ECAC)
8 (7t)*. Wisconsin (WCHA)
9 (9t)*. Union (ECAC)
10 (9t)*. Merrimack (HE)
11 (11t)*. Notre Dame (CCHA)
12 (11t)*. Michigan (CCHA)
13. Western Michigan (CCHA)
14. Nebraska-Omaha (WCHA)
15 (15t)**. Dartmouth (ECAC)
16 (NR). RIT (Projected AH Champion)
*These teams are tied in the Pairwise. Ties in the Pairwise are traditionally broken by overall RPI rank.
**Dartmouth currently is slotted into the 15th slot despite being tied with Miami and Boston U based on their slightly higher RPI rank. It should, however, be noted that Miami currently leads the CCHA standings and it would not be remotely surprising if they were to win the CCHA championship.
We can use this to form the following simple bracket:
Bridgeport
1 (1). Yale* (ECAC)
4 (16). RIT** (AH)
2 (8). Wisconsin (WCHA)
3 (9). Union** (ECAC)
Manchester
1 (4). New Hampshire* (HE)
4 (13). Western Michigan (CCHA)
2 (5). North Dakota (WCHA)
3 (12). Michigan (CCHA)
St. Louis
1 (2). Boston College (HE)
4 (15). Dartmouth (ECAC)
2 (7). Rensselaer (ECAC)
3 (10). Merrimack (HE)
Green Bay
1 (3). Minnesota-Duluth** (WCHA)
4 (14). Nebraska-Omaha (WCHA)
2 (6). Denver (WCHA)
3 (11). Notre Dame** (CCHA)
*Denotes that school is the host of the regional.
**Denotes that school is within 400 miles of the regional, thus allowing them to avoid flying.
This bracket is rife with issues. First of all, there is an intra-conference matchups in the Green Bay regional. Secondly, numerous regionals in this setup will simply not draw fans. For instance, it is highly doubtful that teams from New England and upstate New York will be able to draw a large number of fans to St. Louis for a college hockey game. And it should be noted that the NCAA demonstrated last year that attendance is of the utmost importance, when overall 12-seed Michigan was placed in the Fort Wayne regional to face overall 8-seed Bemidji State, just so that Fort Wayne could draw a crowd. Bearing this in mind, we can make a number of immediate changes to the bracket by sending eastern schools east wherever possible and keeping western schools west whenever possible:
Bridgeport
1 (1). Yale* (ECAC)
4 (16). RIT** (AH)
2 (8). Wisconsin (WCHA)
3 (9). Union** (ECAC)
Manchester
1 (4). New Hampshire* (HE)
4 (15). Dartmouth** (ECAC)
2 (7). Rensselaer** (ECAC)
3 (10). Merrimack** (HE)
St. Louis
1 (2). Boston College (HE)
4 (14). Nebraska-Omaha** (WCHA)
2 (5). North Dakota (WCHA)
3 (12). Michigan (CCHA)
Green Bay
1 (3). Minnesota-Duluth** (WCHA)
4 (13). Western Michigan** (CCHA)
2 (6). Denver (WCHA)
3 (11). Notre Dame** (CCHA)
*Denotes host school.
**Denotes that school is within 400 miles of the regional, thus allowing them to avoid flying.
This bracket is much improved. Instead of having only six teams within driving distance, we now have 11. Manchester is looking to be a great region attendance-wise, as three teams are within 100 miles of Manchester, and Rensselaer, the school with the farthest trek, is only 160 miles out. Furthermore, no first round intra-conference matchups. However, this is not to say that there can't be improvement. For instance, it would be quite beneficial to put Wisconsin in Green Bay for attendance purposes, as Wisconsin can easily draw fans there. So we'll switch Wisconsin and Denver. It also would be beneficial to have a second team in St. Louis that is within a reasonable driving distance to help boost attendance. There are no reasonable options among the 1 or 2 seeds and the 4-seed in the region is already within driving distance. However, we could switch Notre Dame with Michigan, as Notre Dame is approximately 6 1/2 hours away from St. Louis, whereas Michigan is about 9 hours away from St. Louis. As Green Bay has no real attendance concern with Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin in the regional, it makes sense to switch Notre Dame and Michigan. This results the following final bracket:
Bridgeport
1 (1). Yale* (ECAC)
4 (16). RIT** (AH)
2 (6). Denver (WCHA)
3 (9). Union** (ECAC)
Manchester
1 (4). New Hampshire* (HE)
4 (15). Dartmouth** (ECAC)
2 (7). Rensselaer** (ECAC)
3 (10). Merrimack** (HE)
St. Louis
1 (2). Boston College (HE)
4 (14). Nebraska-Omaha** (WCHA)
2 (5). North Dakota (WCHA)
3 (11). Notre Dame (CCHA)
Green Bay
1 (3). Minnesota-Duluth** (WCHA)
4 (13). Western Michigan** (CCHA)
2 (8). Wisconsin (WCHA)
3 (12). Michigan (CCHA)
*Denotes host school.
**Denotes that school is within 400 miles of the regional, thus allowing them to avoid flying.
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