Bracketology: 2/25/11

The Pairwise Rankings remained remarkably consistent last week, despite a number of major upsets including Michigan Tech beating Denver, which was their first win since October. The only team to fall out of standing for an at-large bid was Dartmouth, after losing two games to Colgate and Cornell over the weekend, as they were passed by Western Michigan, who also went 0-2 on the weekend, but lost their games to Michigan. As such, here are the teams in the tournament as the Pairwise stands today, along with their overall seed and conference:

1. Yale (ECAC)
2. North Dakota (WCHA)
3. Boston College (HE)
4 (4t)*. Merrimack (HE)
5 (4t)*. Denver (WCHA)
6. Michigan (CCHA)
7. Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA)
8 (8t)*. Union (ECAC)
9 (8t)*. Nebraska-Omaha (WCHA)
10. Notre Dame (CCHA)
11 (11t)*. New Hampshire (HE)
12 (11t)*. Miami (CCHA)
13 (11t)*. Rensselaer (ECAC)
14. Wisconsin (WCHA)
15. Western Michigan (CCHA)
16. RIT (Projected AH Champ)
Rankings adapted from http://uscho.com/

*All ties in the Pairwise traditionally go to the team with the higher RPI.
Per usual, we will begin by simply employing straight seeding to create an initial bracket:

East Regional-Bridgeport
1 (1). Yale (ECAC)*
4 (16). RIT (AH)**
2 (8). Union (ECAC)**
3 (9). Nebraska-Omaha (WCHA)

Midwest Regional-Green Bay
1 (2). North Dakota (WCHA)
4 (15). Western Michigan (CCHA)**
2 (7). Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA)**
3 (10). Notre Dame (CCHA)**

Northeast Regional-Manchester
1 (3). Boston College (HE)**
4 (14). Wisconsin (WCHA)
2 (6). Michigan (CCHA)
3 (11). New Hampshire (HE)*

West Regional-St. Louis
1 (4). Merrimack (HE)
4 (13). Rensselaer (ECAC)
2 (5). Denver (WCHA)
3 (12). Miami (CCHA)**

*Denotes host school. Host schools that qualify for the tournament are automatically placed in the regional that they are hosting. This year, Yale will automatically be placed in Bridgeport and New Hampshire will automatically be placed in New Hampshire.
**Denotes team within 400 miles of site, thus allowing them to avoid flying per NCAA rules.

This bracket is actually extraordinarily good for an introduction. There are no intra-conference first round matchups to work around, few teams have to fly, and the setup is such that attendance looks to be decent at most of the regionals, with St. Louis being the only problem spot. We do want to move Rensselaer east, which we can accomplish by removing Wisconsin from Manchester. This leaves us with our only dilemma of this bracket, namely what to do with Wisconsin. On one hand, we could simply place them in the now vacated 4-seed slot in St. Louis. On the other, we could work to put them in Green Bay, thus creating a modest attendance boost. As putting Wisconsin in Green Bay would, however, force Western Michigan to fly while putting Wisconsin in St. Louis allows both teams to drive, a straight swap of Rensselaer for Wisconsin makes more sense in this case. Thus, we are left with a remarkably easy-to-produce final bracket:

East Regional-Bridgeport

1 (1). Yale (ECAC)*

4 (16). RIT (AH)**

2 (8). Union (ECAC)**

3 (9). Nebraska-Omaha (WCHA)

Midwest Regional-Green Bay

1 (2). North Dakota (WCHA)

4 (15). Western Michigan (CCHA)**
2 (7). Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA)**

3 (10). Notre Dame (CCHA)**

Northeast Regional-Manchester

1 (3). Boston College (HE)**

4 (14). Rensselaer (ECAC)**

2 (6). Michigan (CCHA)

3 (11). New Hampshire (HE)*

West Regional-St. Louis

1 (4). Merrimack (HE)

4 (14). Wisconsin (WCHA)**

2 (5). Denver (WCHA)

3 (12). Miami (CCHA)**

*Denotes host school.

**Denotes team within 400 miles of site, thus allowing them to avoid flying per NCAA rules.