I listened in on the conference call with Rick Comley as he
took questions from the press yesterday. One thing he made
EXTREMELY clear was that the regions were going to be preserved
when awarding the byes. That is, only true eastern teams will
get the byes in the eastern region, likewise for the west.
 
So, neither Michigan nor LSSU will be getting a bye in Albany!
 
He also made it clear that the other 4 teams in each region could
come from anywhere and be assigned to just about any bracket. The
committee will seriously consider a team's DRAW (aka MONEY) when
assigning the non-bye positions. In essence, he was saying they can
shuffle everyone else but the top 2 in each region as much as they want.
 
Finally, he said they will try hard to avoid having two teams from
the same conference play in the first round. But he said they would
NOT fiddle around to avoid intra-league matchups in the SECOND
round. So, you could see Minnesota face a CCHA team in the first
round, with the winner playing Colorado College.
 
That's about it regarding seedings that Comley mentioned.
 
 
Keith
 
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