At 1:22 PM -0400 3/16/97, Mike Machnik wrote:
> Figuring that the committee will try to avoid conference matchups that
> would result in the second round if the "favorites" all win the first
> night, the regionals could look like this:
>
> WEST              EAST
> 1  Michigan       2  Clarkson
> 3  North Dakota   8  BU
> 9  Cornell        6  Vermont
> 4  Minnesota      5  New Hampshire
> 10 Miami          11 Denver
> 13 MSU            12 CC
>
> WEST
> MSU-Cornell winner plays North Dakota
> Miami-Minnesota winner plays Michigan
>
> EAST
> CC-Vermont winner plays BU
> Denver-UNH winner plays Clarkson
>
> This does have a possible Miami-Michigan second round meeting, but the
> committee doesn't have to avoid ALL conference matchups.  I surmised that
> the matchups the committee wanted to avoid the most were the first round
> ones and the second round matchups between BU-UNH,
> Vermont/Cornell-Clarkson, and Minn-NoDak.
 
BTW, note that you can avoid the Miami-Michigan matchup by sending Miami to
the East instead of CC or Denver.  But then you have a first round WCHA
matchup.
 
You can avoid the Miami-Michigan matchup and the WCHA matchup by putting
MSU in the East.  But remember what I said about shifting the bottom team
in the region with 7 teams.  If MSU "stays" East, then two of the five
"true" East teams have to go West, and that is extremely unlikely.
 
One other note.  The order of the teams as I have them above (WEST/EAST) is
really inconsequential.  What really matters is the brackets.  So it looks
strange to have #5 UNH below #6 Vermont, and #4 Minnesota below #9 Cornell,
but you almost have to forget the rankings at that point.  The committee
can juggle the brackets however they wish to do things like avoiding
conference matchups.  What I have above is what I believe to be the least
painful way of doing this, but there are other ways.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
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