The problem here is that there are 3 different provisions in the Championships Manual that may be mutually exclusive.

(1)  The bracket in the appendix, which shows 1W-2E and 1E-2W semifinals.

(2)  Under "seedings and pairings", the rule "If more than two teams that are seeded within the top four are from the same region, teams will be moved to the other region in order to receive the first-round bye", which implies that if 2 teams from each region are in the top 4, they will not be moved out of their region.

(3)  Lower under "seedings and pairings", the rule "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."

If #1 and #4 in the pairwise comparisons are from one region and #2 and #3 in those comparisons are from the other region, it will not be possible to follow all three of the above rules at the same time.

"John T. Whelan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>However, the tournament bracket in the appendix of the Championships
>Manual clearly spells out the existing bracketing, so I don't see
>how they can change it.  (And in general, I think the cdommittee
>changing the rules in mid-season, even if we don't like the old
>rules , is a Bad Thing.)