I have reverse-engineered an explanation of how the committee
did this...but this is only a theory.
>Here's the field in PWR order:
>
> 1. * MSU (Michigan State)
> 2. * BC (Boston College)
> 3. * StC (St. Cloud)
> 4. ND (North Dakota)
> 5. Mi (Michigan)
> 6. CC (Colorado College)
> 7. Mn (Minnesota)
> 8. Me (Maine)
> 9. Wi (Wisconsin)
>10. PC (Providence)
>12. * Mh (Mercyhurst)
>14. * StL (St. Lawrence)
>Hopefully we'll learn how and why the teams were seeded the way they
>were! Your ideas?
Let's switch St. Lawrence & Mercyhurst (using the "conference RPI" rule):
1. * MSU (Michigan State)
2. * BC (Boston College)
3. * StC (St. Cloud)
4. ND (North Dakota)
5. Mi (Michigan)
6. CC (Colorado College)
7. Mn (Minnesota)
8. Me (Maine)
9. Wi (Wisconsin)
10. PC (Providence)
11. * StL (St. Lawrence)
12. * Mh (Mercyhurst)
* == Conference tournament champion and auto-bid.
Let's also agree (almost everybody did) on the seeding and placement of the
top 4 teams:
EAST
1. Boston College
2. North Dakota
WEST
1. Michigan State
2. St. Cloud St.
So we have 8 teams to place in the brackets...let's set up some ground rules:
(1) Two teams from the same conference can not play in the first round [from
the NCAA Hockey manual]
(2) Exactly 2 East teams will be sent to the West Regional, and exactly 2
West teams will be sent to the East Regional [from past experience]
(3) Absolutely no "flip-flops" of teams to avoid second round conference
matchups--if team A has a better "PWR" than team B, and they are in the
same regional, team A will be seeded above team B. [this is new...but
it is the best explanation for what happened]
(4) *If possible*, 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 matchups will not be from the same
conference. [from past experience]
So...taking rules 1, 2 and 3, we know what seed each team can have:
#3 seed: Michigan and [Colorado College or Minnesota]
#4 seed: [Colorado College or Minnesota] and [Maine or Wisconsin]
#5 seed: [Maine or Wisconsin] and [Providence or St. Lawrence]
#6 seed: [Providence or St. Lawrence] and Mercyhurst
(I don't particularly care to show my work here, but I just looked at all
36 permutations of sending 2 West teams East and 2 East teams West, given
the current PWR.)
Since a WCHA team must have a #3 seed, and both #2 seeds are from the same
conference, we need not waste any time trying to avoid that particular
second-round matchup. We do need to make sure Maine is not the #4 seed
in the East, to avoid the #1-#4 matchup with Boston College.
They are concerned about attendance in the West regional (only 3000 tickets
have been sold so far), especially for the first round, so we will keep
Michigan West.
Since 2 teams--St. Lawrence and Mercyhurst--were invited only because of
automatic bids, let's give them both #6 seeds, and keep St. Lawrence East
because we have them rated higher.
So...
Following all of the guidelines above, there are only 4 possible results:
POSSIBILITY A:
WEST EAST
#3 Michigan Colorado College
#4 Minnesota Wisconsin
#5 Maine Providence
#6 Mercyhurst St. Lawrence
POSSIBILITY B:
WEST EAST
#3 Michigan Minnesota
#4 Colorado College Wisconsin
#5 Maine Providence
#6 Mercyhurst St. Lawrence
POSSIBILITY C:
WEST EAST
#3 Michigan Colorado College
#4 Maine Minnesota
#5 Wisconsin Providence
#6 Mercyhurst St. Lawrence
POSSIBILITY D:
WEST EAST
#3 Michigan Colorado College
#4 Wisconsin Minnesota
#5 Providence Maine
#6 Mercyhurst St. Lawrence
Perhaps D was chosen because it was the only one that had Maine in the East
and Providence in the West, improving East regional first round attendance.
Perhaps D was chosen because Maine had a better PWR than Providence, so it
was more fair to send Providence East than to send Maine.
Perhaps D was chosen over A&B because it kept Wisconsin in the West, improving
attendance there, and was chosen over C because of East attendance or
travel fairness.
Perhaps I made all this up...
Alton
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