I think we all agree on the field; here are the top twelve
teams from the PWR on USCHO:
 
 1 *+ Michigan (C)         2 + Clarkson (E)
 3 *+ North Dakota (W)     8 *+ Boston University (H)
 4 Minnesota (W)           5 New Hampshire (H)
10 Miami (C)               6 Vermont (E)
11 Denver (W)              9 * Cornell (E)
12 Colorado College (W)
13 Michigan State (C)
 
* Tournament Champion        + Regular Season Champion
 
Note that teams 5-9 are all in the East, and 10-13 all in the West.
Also note that with Maine's ineligibility and BU's automatic bye,
there are effectively no teams between #6 UVM and #9 Cornell.
 
Michigan, NoDak and BU all get automatic byes, and it's pretty clear
Clarkson gets the other one.  And Michigan and Clarkson clearly get
the top seeds.  A straight swap of the bottom teams gives:
 
Plan A:
 
 1 Michigan (C)            2 Clarkson (E)
 3 North Dakota (W)        8 Boston University (H)
 4 Minnesota (W)           5 New Hampshire (H)
 9 Cornell (E)             6 Vermont (E)
10 Miami (C)              12 Colorado College (W)
11 Denver (W)             13 Michigan State (C)
 
But of course that has the all-WCHA bracket, plus possible
second-round matchups in the other three conferences.  I'm assuming,
based on last year, that the NC$$ will send different teams to
different regionals to avoid first-, and possibly second-round
matchups, but will not alter the relative seeding within a regional.
 
They have to break up the Minnesota-Denver pairing, and the only way
to do that would be to send one of those two East, or to slip Michigan
State in below DU.  I'm sure the NC$$ wants to do the latter anyway
for attendance purposes.  Based on PWR, Denver is the next best team
to send away, but sending Miami eliminates the potential
Miami-Michigan matchup.  So switching MSU and Miami gives:
 
Plan B:
 
 1 Michigan (C)            2 Clarkson (E)
 3 North Dakota (W)        8 Boston University (H)
 4 Minnesota (W)           5 New Hampshire (H)
 9 Cornell (E)             6 Vermont (E)
11 Denver (W)             10 Miami (C)
13 Michigan State (C)     12 Colorado College (W)
 
        Okay, now the West regional has only the potential
Minnesota-NoDak matchup, and with seven Western teams, a second-round
matchup is basically inevitable.  But in the East, we have two
possible matchups in the second round: Clarkson-Vermont and BU-UNH.
There is one way to reduce this to only one, if they really want to be
f*ckers: send UNH West instead of Cornell:
 
Plan C:
 
 1 Michigan (C)            2 Clarkson (E)
 3 North Dakota (W)        8 Boston University (H)
 4 Minnesota (W)           6 Vermont (E)
 5 New Hampshire (H)       9 Cornell (E)
11 Denver (W)             10 Miami (C)
13 Michigan State (C)     12 Colorado College (W)
 
        Then there's only one second-round matchup in the East,
Cornell-Clarkson.  (Interesting how both "raw" 2-3 matchups are
rematches of conference finals, and getting rid of one of those would
mean setting up another one.)  This would be a dreadful thing for them
to do: a team which would have had a bye based on the PWR being sent
to the other region.  (And I don't want Cornell to play Clarkson again
in the regionals; tonight should close the book on that battle for
this season.)
 
        At this point, we should consider the other unthinkable
possibility: what if Minnesota goes East instead of CC?
 
Plan D:
 
 1 Michigan (C)            2 Clarkson (E)
 3 North Dakota (W)        8 Boston University (H)
 9 Cornell (E)             4 Minnesota (W)
10 Miami (C)               5 New Hampshire (H)
11 Denver (W)              6 Vermont (E)
12 Colorado College (W)   13 Michigan State (C)
 
Now there are three matchups, although two of them involve upsets, and
only one is a pairing that actually occurred in the conference
tournaments.  But it's worse that Plan B in that the #4 team in the
country has to swap regions, and in that Minnesota and Michigan State
would be playing out of the region (can you say attendance?).
 
Plan B seems like the least of evils to me (although the rematches of
conference finals if the #3 seeds win seems pretty icky), but knowing
the NC$$, I wouldn't be surprised by Plan C.  How big a draw is UNH?
 
We'll know in a little more than twelve hours...
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: Back-to-back ECAC and Ivy League Champions
 
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