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I think we all agree on the field; here are the top twelve teams from the PWR on USCHO: 1 *+ Michigan (C) 2 + Clarkson (E) 3 *+ North Dakota (W) 8 *+ Boston University (H) 4 Minnesota (W) 5 New Hampshire (H) 10 Miami (C) 6 Vermont (E) 11 Denver (W) 9 * Cornell (E) 12 Colorado College (W) 13 Michigan State (C) * Tournament Champion + Regular Season Champion Note that teams 5-9 are all in the East, and 10-13 all in the West. Also note that with Maine's ineligibility and BU's automatic bye, there are effectively no teams between #6 UVM and #9 Cornell. Michigan, NoDak and BU all get automatic byes, and it's pretty clear Clarkson gets the other one. And Michigan and Clarkson clearly get the top seeds. A straight swap of the bottom teams gives: Plan A: 1 Michigan (C) 2 Clarkson (E) 3 North Dakota (W) 8 Boston University (H) 4 Minnesota (W) 5 New Hampshire (H) 9 Cornell (E) 6 Vermont (E) 10 Miami (C) 12 Colorado College (W) 11 Denver (W) 13 Michigan State (C) But of course that has the all-WCHA bracket, plus possible second-round matchups in the other three conferences. I'm assuming, based on last year, that the NC$$ will send different teams to different regionals to avoid first-, and possibly second-round matchups, but will not alter the relative seeding within a regional. They have to break up the Minnesota-Denver pairing, and the only way to do that would be to send one of those two East, or to slip Michigan State in below DU. I'm sure the NC$$ wants to do the latter anyway for attendance purposes. Based on PWR, Denver is the next best team to send away, but sending Miami eliminates the potential Miami-Michigan matchup. So switching MSU and Miami gives: Plan B: 1 Michigan (C) 2 Clarkson (E) 3 North Dakota (W) 8 Boston University (H) 4 Minnesota (W) 5 New Hampshire (H) 9 Cornell (E) 6 Vermont (E) 11 Denver (W) 10 Miami (C) 13 Michigan State (C) 12 Colorado College (W) Okay, now the West regional has only the potential Minnesota-NoDak matchup, and with seven Western teams, a second-round matchup is basically inevitable. But in the East, we have two possible matchups in the second round: Clarkson-Vermont and BU-UNH. There is one way to reduce this to only one, if they really want to be f*ckers: send UNH West instead of Cornell: Plan C: 1 Michigan (C) 2 Clarkson (E) 3 North Dakota (W) 8 Boston University (H) 4 Minnesota (W) 6 Vermont (E) 5 New Hampshire (H) 9 Cornell (E) 11 Denver (W) 10 Miami (C) 13 Michigan State (C) 12 Colorado College (W) Then there's only one second-round matchup in the East, Cornell-Clarkson. (Interesting how both "raw" 2-3 matchups are rematches of conference finals, and getting rid of one of those would mean setting up another one.) This would be a dreadful thing for them to do: a team which would have had a bye based on the PWR being sent to the other region. (And I don't want Cornell to play Clarkson again in the regionals; tonight should close the book on that battle for this season.) At this point, we should consider the other unthinkable possibility: what if Minnesota goes East instead of CC? Plan D: 1 Michigan (C) 2 Clarkson (E) 3 North Dakota (W) 8 Boston University (H) 9 Cornell (E) 4 Minnesota (W) 10 Miami (C) 5 New Hampshire (H) 11 Denver (W) 6 Vermont (E) 12 Colorado College (W) 13 Michigan State (C) Now there are three matchups, although two of them involve upsets, and only one is a pairing that actually occurred in the conference tournaments. But it's worse that Plan B in that the #4 team in the country has to swap regions, and in that Minnesota and Michigan State would be playing out of the region (can you say attendance?). Plan B seems like the least of evils to me (although the rematches of conference finals if the #3 seeds win seems pretty icky), but knowing the NC$$, I wouldn't be surprised by Plan C. How big a draw is UNH? We'll know in a little more than twelve hours... John Whelan, Cornell '91 <[log in to unmask]> <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html> Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: Back-to-back ECAC and Ivy League Champions HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.