This talk of a Zweet Zixteen in college hockey got me to thinking
about how such a tournament might be seeded this year. (This is kind
of a silly hypothetical, since I'm assuming the existence of a
Metro-Atlantic champion, when none of the initial MAAC teams are even
eligible for the tourney this year, but let's try it anyway.)
We know who twelve of the teams would be, of course, plus the MAAC
champion would get an automatic bid, leaving three additional at-large
spots to fill. The bubble teams in competition for those spots are as
follows:
1 NorthEastern 3 .519 SC__MeMD
2 St Cloud 3 .535 __ NMMeMD
3 Northern Mich 2 .528 NE__ Me__
4 Maine 1 .527 ______ MD
5 Minn-Duluth 1 .514 ____NM__
No matter how you slice it, Northeastern, St. Cloud and NMU should get
the last three at-large bids (although if the RPI numbers were
different, that would be less clear-cut). The field of sixteen would
thus be:
WCHA CCHA ECAC Hockey East MAAC
NORTH DAKOTA MICH STATE Clarkson BOSTON UNIV CHAMPION
WISCONSIN Michigan YALE BOSTON COLL
Colorado Coll Ohio State PRINCETON N Hampshire
Minn-Duluth Northern Mich NorthEastern
We should swap four of the eight teams in each region to the other
regional. Let's start with the four teams the committee swapped this
year, plus the four extra teams we've added. This gives us:
WEST EAST
1 Mich State 7 .621 NDMiOSYaPnNEMC | 1 Boston Univ 7 .595 BCCkWiNHCCSCNM
2 North Dakota 6 .616 MiOSYaPnNEMC | 2 Boston Coll 6 .581 CkWiNHCCSCNM
3 Michigan 5 .583 __ OSYaPnNEMC | 3 Clarkson 5 .570 __ WiNHCCSCNM
4 Ohio State 4 .565 ____ YaPnNEMC | 4 Wisconsin 4 .560 ____ NHCCSCNM
5 Yale 3 .543 ______ PnNEMC | 5 New Hampshire 3 .559 ______ CCSCNM
6 Princeton 2 .518 ________ NEMC | 6 CO College 2 .548 ________ SCNM
7 NorthEastern 1 .519 __________ MC | 7 St Cloud 1 .535 __________ NM
8 [MAAC Champ] 0 n/a ____________ | 8 Northern Mich 0 .528 ____________
Assume the regionals are in St. Paul, Ann Arbor, Albany and
Providence.
The natural brackets for the four regionals would be
3 Yale (E) \ /3 CO College (W)
2 Ohio State (C) /\ /\2 Clarkson (E)
>-----+-----<
4 [MAAC Champ] (M)\/ | \/4 St Cloud (W)
1 Mich State (C) / | \1 Boston Coll (H)
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|
3 Princeton (E) \ | /3 New Hampshire (H)
2 Michigan (C) /\ | /\2 Wisconsin (W)
>-----+-----<
4 NorthEastern (H)\/ \/4 Northern Mich (C)
1 North Dakota (W)/ \1 Boston Univ (H)
There are a few second-round intraconference matchups, but no more
than dictated by the placement of teams in regionals that was chosen.
It's obvious in the East which regional is held in Providence and
which in Albany. There's a problem in the West, in that Michigan, as
host, has to play in the Ann Arbor regional, but that would put two
CCHA teams in the regional in St. Paul. So for attendance purposes,
we could switch the 2/3 sub-brackets in the Western regionals. That
would give
Midwest Regional East Regional
(Ann Arbor) (Albany)
3 Princeton (E) \ /3 CO College (W)
2 Michigan (C) /\ /\2 Clarkson (E)
>-----+-----<
4 [MAAC Champ] (M)\/ | \/4 St Cloud (W)
1 Mich State (C) / | \1 Boston Coll (H)
|
|
3 Yale (E) \ | /3 New Hampshire (H)
2 Ohio State (C) /\ | /\2 Wisconsin (W)
>-----+-----<
4 NorthEastern (H)\/ \/4 Northern Mich (C)
1 North Dakota (W)/ \1 Boston Univ (H)
West Regional New England Regional
(St. Paul) (Providence)
Of course, with one of the regionals in Minnesota, the committee might
opt to keep Wisconsin in the West after all, giving regions of
1 Mich State 7 .621 NDMiWiYaPnNEMC | 1 Boston Univ 7 .595 BCOSCkNHCCSCNM
2 North Dakota 6 .616 MiWiYaPnNEMC | 2 Boston Coll 6 .581 OSCkNHCCSCNM
3 Michigan 5 .583 __ WiYaPnNEMC | 3 Ohio State 5 .565 __ CkNHCCSCNM
4 Wisconsin 4 .560 ____ YaPnNEMC | 4 Clarkson 4 .570 ____ NHCCSCNM
5 Yale 3 .543 ______ PnNEMC | 5 New Hampshire 3 .559 ______ CCSCNM
6 Princeton 2 .518 ________ NEMC | 6 CO College 2 .548 ________ SCNM
7 NorthEastern 1 .519 __________ MC | 7 St Cloud 1 .535 __________ NM
8 [MAAC Champ] 0 n/a ____________ | 8 Northern Mich 0 .528 ____________
and natural brackets of
3 Yale (E) \ /3 CO College (W)
2 Wisconsin (W) /\ /\2 Ohio State (C)
>-----+-----<
4 [MAAC Champ] (M)\/ | \/4 St Cloud (W)
1 Mich State (C) / | \1 Boston Coll (H)
|
|
3 Princeton (E) \ | /3 New Hampshire (H)
2 Michigan (C) /\ | /\2 Clarkson (E)
>-----+-----<
4 NorthEastern (H)\/ \/4 Northern Mich (C)
1 North Dakota (W)/ \1 Boston Univ (H)
This is not great, in that Clarkson is in the regional with the two
Hockey East teams, plus only six of the eight first-round games are
East-vs-West. The simple remedy is to switch the 2 seeds in the
Eastern regionals. Also, to prevent unneccessary intraconference
meetings in the second round, we switch the two 4-seeds as well,
giving:
West Regional East Regional
(St. Paul) (Albany)
3 Yale (E) \ /3 CO College (W)
2 Wisconsin (W) /\ /\2 Clarkson (E)
>-----+-----<
4 [MAAC Champ] (M)\/ | \/4 Northern Mich (C)
1 Mich State (C) / | \1 Boston Coll (H)
|
|
3 Princeton (E) \ | /3 New Hampshire (H)
2 Michigan (C) /\ | /\2 Ohio State (C)
>-----+-----<
4 NorthEastern (H)\/ \/4 St Cloud (W)
1 North Dakota (W)/ \1 Boston Univ (H)
Midwest Regional New England Regional
(Ann Arbor) (Providence)
These look pretty good to me: only one possible intraconference game
in a regional final, the BU-UNH game to decide the season series.
Michigan plays at home along with the defending champions, Wisconsin
and MSU play in Minnesota, Clarkson and BC in Albany, and BU and UNH
in Providence.
Of course, this does bring up a problem with a 16-team tournament: the
two Eastern regionals are neccessarily going to be close to each other
(unless one is in Buffalo and the other in Boston), so they might
split the draw in the East.
Another question is whether you want to translate the automatic bye
rule into letting that team play in their conference's regional. With
the regional host also guaranteed of that, though, it would
neccessitate a potential intraconference regional final. We could
just promise double-champions (MSU this year) a 1-seed, for whatever
that's worth. (The brackets above do have all of the teams that
wouldn't make a 12-team tourney competing as 4-seeds, so I guess it
means something.)
And finally, note that the committee has more judgement calls to make
in a sixteen-team tournament than a twelve-team one. Kind of gives
you a sense of what the basketball committee has to contend with.
John Whelan, Cornell '91
<[log in to unmask]>
<http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
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