I loved Mike Machnik's last post.  I'll add one consideration, however.
 
Mike said:
 
        west                east
1       CC (2)              BU (1)
2       minnesota (3)       michigan (5)
3       western mich (4)    lssu (7)
4       msu (6)             vermont (8)
5       clarkson (10)       denver (9)
6       lowell (11)         bowling green (12)
 
would be "by the book" in that if the higher seed always won, you'd have the
best match-ups each round, culminating in a #1 vs #2 in the title game.
HOWEVER, the regional play doesn't have to be associated with the Phrozen
Phour seedings.  There are basically 4 "brackets" leading to the
championship.  Going "by the book", the brackets are:
 
#1 vs winner of #8 vs #9   (BU vs UVt/DU)
#2 vs winner of #7 vs #10  (CC vs LSSU/CU)
#3 vs winner of #6 vs #11  (UMn vs MSU/UML)
#4 vs winner of #5 vs #12  (WMU vs UMi/BGSU)
 
Why couldn't any two of those brackets be declared "east", as long as it was
"understood" (=written?) that one national semifinal would feature the
winner of the WMU game vs the winner of the BU game?  Then "they" can
declare that BU and CC get to stay "home" by earning it, keep bracket #4
(coincidently and all CCHA bracket, which may either upset non-CCHA'ers
because the CCHA is guaranteed one rep in the Phrozen Phour {and why not,
since one of their schools is the host?} and may upset CCHA'ers because they
won't get to play different teams or put more than two CCHA teams in the
national semis) in the west and let bracket #3, with the only other eastern
team, play out east.  For "home ice" considerations, you could switch the #5
and #6 to let MSU stay and send UMi to play out east in bracket #3.  However,
 as it stands (here's where I *really* pi&&-off the MSU fans), having
Western, UMich, AND BGSU there should still almost guarantee great
attendance, _especially_ if they know they won't be playing MSU.
 
But remember, the main thrust of this post isn't to pi&&-off anyone, but to
point out that the committee isn't bound by which brackets go where, so
there is some flexibility that may lead to a solution that optimizes
regional attendance and booster participation.
 
Steve G
 
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