"Bracketology" is fun reading, but pretty much is just practice.

The NCAA Men's D-I Ice Hockey tournament has 16 invited teams.  Five of 
those invited are the winners of each of the five conference 
tournaments.  All games between eligible D-I opponents right through the 
conference championships are counted.

The NCAA Selection Committee does not use PWR, but its system yields the 
same set of teams as PWR (aka "Pairwise Ranking").  Unlike basketball 
and other sports that use RPI and then adjourn to a smoke-filled room, 
the ice hockey selection is done via mathematics (screwy though it may 
be) only.  Seeding the 16 selections does tend to vary from year to 
year, both in rules and methods, as the NCAA tries to be fair, while 
maximizing tournament revenue.

Both uscho.com and collegehockeynews.com have excellent descriptions of 
the ranking systems, selection and seeding on their web sites.

cheers, wane

Bill Dewkett wrote, in part:
> I am confused but reading Bracketology and NCAA websites I thought all 
> that counted was up thru the quarterfinals?