I agree with almost everything Keith said.  One or two fine points:
 
> 5. What fiddling was done to improve the match-ups?
>
> a. Boston College and Denver were swapped: 4E and 4W. This fixes two
> possible 2nd round league match-ups at once. I do not recall this
> happening before. In the past I thought the committee protected the
> 4th seeds more by letting them stay in their own region. I guess
> being the 4th best team in your region does not mean much this year.
 
In fact, Lake Superior was sent East in 1996 despite being the #3 team
in their region.  See
http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?seeds
 
What is strange is that as far as I know this is the first time a
regional has had three teams from each region.  Typically (eg 1997)
with a 7/5 split the regionals are 5/1 and 4/2, even though this means
an unavoidable second-round intraconference possibility.
 
> b. Technically, after BC's move to the west, the Eagles should have
> been bumped up to the #3 seed, since they beat CC on the criteria.
> This was overlooked, since it would put Colorado in North Dakota's
> bracket.
 
Or if you like the natural seeds were 3.BC 4.CC 5.SLU 6.NMU but 3/4
and 5/6 were switched to avoid second round WCHA and CCHA matchups,
respectively.  At any rate, the first-round pairings are preserved by
this double-switch, which is something the committee also likes to do.
 
> Maine should be ecstatic, getting to face perhaps the last team in,
> then a team that is ranked below them. I am not saying it is an easy
> path to the semis on the ice, but it is on paper.
 
Although they do miss out on a bye because of Clarkson's double-title.
But they knew that before the seeds were announced.
 
                                          John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                                  [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.amurgsval.org/joe/
 
Play along at home at http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?tourney
 
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