Lots of judgement calls to be made this time. Assuming bonuses of
.003/.002/.001, the field is, from
http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pwr.php?roadbon=.003&neutbon=.002&homebon=.001&grid=1
1. Boston College (BC)
2. Colorado College (CC)
3. Denver (DU)
4. Minnesota (Mn)
------------------------------------------
5. Cornell (Cr)
6. Michigan (Mi)
7t North Dakota (ND)
7t New Hampshire (NH)
------------------------------------------
9. Harvard (Ha)
10. Ohio State (OS)
11t Wisconsin (Wi)
11t Boston University (BU)
------------------------------------------
11t Maine (Me)
14. Colgate (Cg)
22t Bemidji State (BS)
28. Mercyhurst (Mh)
I'm assuming they break all ties by indivudual comparisons.
A few things are known. Minnesota must play in Minneapolis, BU must
play in Worcester. Keeping the top four close to home puts BC in
Worcester, CC in Grand Rapids, and DU in Amherst, which makes the
regionals
1E Boston Coll 1M Colorado Co 1N Denver 1W Minnesota
2E 2M 2N 2W
3E Boston Univ 3M 3N 3W
4E 4M 4N 4W
We can fill in the 4-seeds without trouble, pairing the worst overall
#1 overall etc:
_Worcester_ _Grand_Rapids_ _Amherst_ _Minneapolis_
1E Boston Coll 1M Colorado Co 1N Denver 1W Minnesota
2E 2M 2N 2W
3E Boston Univ 3M 3N 3W
4E Mercyhurst 4M Bemidji St 4N Colgate 4W Maine
For the 2 and 3 seeds it gets tricky. Cornell, as #5 overall, should
be bracketed with #4 Minnesota and #12 BU, but only one of those is
possible. And #8 New Hampshire can't go in the bracket with #1 BC
because that would give a first-round matchup with BU. How this goes
probably depends on whether Cornell gets sent to Minneapolis or not.
If they do, UNH has to go to Grand Rapids or Amherst. From an
attendance point of view, you probably want to do that like this:
_Worcester_ _Grand_Rapids_ _Amherst_ _Minneapolis_
1E Boston Coll 1M Colorado Co 1N Denver 1W Minnesota
2E North Dakota 2M Michigan 2N UNH 2W Cornell
3E Boston Univ 3M 3N 3W
4E Mercyhurst 4M Bemidji St 4N Colgate 4W Maine
Now Harvard can't go to Minneapolis and OSU can't got to Grand Rapids,
so the obvious thing to do is
_Worcester_ _Grand_Rapids_ _Amherst_ _Minneapolis_
1E Boston Coll 1M Colorado Co 1N Denver 1W Minnesota
2E North Dakota 2M Michigan 2N UNH 2W Cornell
3E Boston Univ 3M Wisconsin 3N Harvard 3W Ohio State
4E Mercyhurst 4M Bemidji St 4N Colgate 4W Maine
On the other hand, if we start with Cornell in Worcester instead, we
probably want the UNH/Harvard pairing to stay in New England so the
Northeast Regional doesn't have only one Eastern team in it:
_Worcester_ _Grand_Rapids_ _Amherst_ _Minneapolis_
1E Boston Coll 1M Colorado Co 1N Denver 1W Minnesota
2E Cornell 2M Michigan 2N UNH 2W North Dakota
3E Boston Univ 3M Wisconsin 3N Harvard 3W Ohio State
4E Mercyhurst 4M Bemidji St 4N Colgate 4W Maine
Another possibility is that the committee will follow their
geographically loose attitude from 2003 (where they decided Providence
and Worcester were approximately equidistant from Cornell) and send BC
to Amherst instead:
_Worcester_ _Grand_Rapids_ _Amherst_ _Minneapolis_
1E Denver 1M Colorado Co 1N Boston Coll 1W Minnesota
2E 2M 2N 2W
3E Boston Univ 3M 3N 3W
4E Colgate 4M Bemidji St 4N Mercyhurst 4W Maine
Then the only departure needed from the 1-16 seeding would be a swap
of BU for Wisconsin:
_Worcester_ _Grand_Rapids_ _Amherst_ _Minneapolis_
1E Denver 1M Colorado Co 1N Boston Coll 1W Minnesota
2E Michigan 2M North Dakota 2N UNH 2W Cornell
3E Boston Univ 3M Ohio State 3N Harvard 3W Wisconsin
4E Colgate 4M Bemidji St 4N Mercyhurst 4W Maine
That's decent attendance-wise, as long as the BU fans show up. Plus
there are Michigan fans everywhere. But it may not be fair to BC, who
should have earned their fans a shorter road trip.
I'd say option #2 if they want to adhere to the geography, or #3 if
they're willing to fudge it in the name of seeding.
At any rate this year is an indication of how the seeding of the
16-team tournament can come down to judgement calls.
John Whelan, Cornell '91
[log in to unmask]
http://www.amurgsval.org/joe/
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