The way the rules used to work:

        #1 East was the best Eastern team, #2 East was the second-best Eastern
team.
        #1 West was the best Western team, #2 West was the second-best Western
team.
        The brackets were created to match #1 East and #2 West, #1 West and #2
East.
        #1 and #2 East were automatically in the East, #1 and #2 West were
automatically in the West.

Now the way the rules work:

        #1 to #4 are the best four teams, in order. The brackets are created to
match #1 and #4, #2 and #3.
        Now the travel rule applies. If you have two Western and two Eastern teams,
there you are.
        If you have three Western and one Eastern, or vice versa, move one team
from the three-team set to the other regional.  In this case, the host
school would stay put (BU and Michigan this year). Also, if one of the three
is outside of the 400-mile zone, they would move. It's not clear who moves
if both remaining teams have the same travel status.
        Then fill out the brackets using the travel rules primarily, along with the
rule of avoiding first round matchups of conference teams.

Note that there are no longer #1 West, etc. but rather #1 through #4.

So this resolves John's example, by keeping UNH and BU as the top seeds in
Worcester. Assuming that Minnesota and Denver hold on to the top two seeds
in the West, the rest of the Worcester bracket would be Maine, Cornell,
Alaska-Fairbanks, and Northern Michigan, with Ann Arbor getting Michigan,
Michigan State, Mercyhurst, and Colorado College. This of course assumes no
upsets.

Two Cornell wins produces one of those "Pairwise Paradoxes" where they lose
to BU in the direct comparison, but beat some other teams that BU will not
(unless they win out as well). This could lead to some discussion on the
committee as to exactly how to apply the comparison rules. My guess is that
they use the direct comparison and give the bye to BU.

-----Original Message-----
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of John T. Whelan
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 6:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Question about bye seeding and travel restrictions


Dear Tom Jacobs,

I wonder if you or someone on the selection committee could clear up a
question that has arisen in connection with the Division I Men's Ice
Hockey Tournament.

Currently, the top four teams according to the selection criteria are
1. New Hampshire 2. Minnesota 3. Denver 4. Boston University.
According to the Division I Championships Manual, page 12,

     The top four-seeded teams will be placed in the bracket so
     that if all four teams advance to the Men's Frozen Four, the
     No. 1 seed will play the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed will
     play the No. 3 seed in the semifinals.

This would seem to indicate that New Hampshire and Boston University
have to be placed in different regionals in order to be properly
bracketed.  Although it's not mentioned in the Championships Manual,
it's also my understanding that BU, as the host institution, must play
in the East Regional if the qualify, which means according to the
current criteria, New Hampshire would be the #1 West seed and BU the
#2 East seed, with either Minnesota or Denver taking the #1 seed in
the East.

I realize that after the championships manual was published, the NCAA
made some changes in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
My information on the details of this policy comes from the documents
http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/governance/division_I/docs/champ_cabinet/200
202_d1_ccc_meeting/Supp_5_MEM-Fall_Champs_Adjust_2-02.htm
and
http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/governance/division_I/docs/champ_cabinet/200
202_d1_ccc_meeting/200202_d1_ccc_report/Report_to_MC.htm
In the latter document I read the following:

     For championships that have been given approval to seed
     teams and that have a bracket size of less than 64 teams,
     the number of seeded teams shall not exceed a ratio of one
     to four.  [Note: This does not permit sports committees to
     seed more teams than they currently are approved to seed.]
     Once teams have been seeded, the remaining teams shall be
     placed in the bracket based on geographic considerations.
     The only exceptions for being able to seed more than a one
     to four ratio would be provided for men's ice hockey and
     men's lacrosse.  These two championships have a bracket size
     of 12 teams each.  Seeding twenty-five percent of the
     bracket would result in the ability to seed only three
     teams, therefore, these two championships will retain the
     ability to seed four teams each.

My interpretation of this, along with the statements "Seeded
teams will be placed in the bracket first" and "Teams seeded
Nos. 5-16 will be placed geographically to minimize flight
travel." from the former document is that the original
guidelines still hold with respect to placing the bye teams
in the bracket, and the Sept 11 modifications only apply to
the placement of the non-bye teams.

Is this correct?

Also, is there any mechanism for disseminating the results
of the weekly or bi-weekly telephone conference calls?
Since my impression is that these conference calls often
lead to clarifications in the selection and seeding
procedures, it would be useful to have a summary of rulings
and clarifications on the web in some central place rather
than waiting for a newspaper story to turn up somewhere in
the country.
                                Thanks,
                                          John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                                 [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.amurgsval.org/joe/

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