Matthew Latham, who covers hockey for Michigan State's Rivals.com site has an excellent weekly breakdown of what the NCAA tournament would like if the season was over.
You can check out his methodology(which has proven incredibly accurate over the years), or if you're interested in seeing the finished product, here are the brackets:
West Regional (Denver, Colorado. Host: Denver U)
1. St. Cloud State (14-4-4)
2. Denver U (17-7-2)
3. Boston U (10-4-6)
4. Michigan (15-9-0)
Northeast (Manchester, New Hampshire. Host: New Hampshire)
1. New Hampshire (17-3-1) *auto*
2. Michigan State (14-8-1)
3. Boston College (12-6-1)
4. R.I.T. (13-7-2) *auto*
East (Rochester, NY. Host: ECACHL)
1. Notre Dame (19-4-1) *auto*
2. Maine (14-5-2)
3. Miami (17-8-1)
4. St. Lawerence (13-8-3) *auto*
Midwest (Grand Rapids, Michigan. Host: Midwest)
1. Minnesota (20-2-3) *auto*
2. Clarkson (13-5-3)
3. Colorado College (14-9-1)
4. Niagara (13-8-3) *auto*
Sunday, January 14, 2007
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10 comments:
Chris I would be willing to bet that there will not be two teams from the EZAC, that league is a complete joke. I am surprise they don't have Cornell with a spot sowed up in the toruney already.
Just to show how assine the NCAA selection is UND has played 3 EZAC teams in the non conference play but has not lost a game, in fact I don't think they won by any less than three goals. So we are to believe that UND isn't as good as SLU and Clarkson.
well goon...clarkson sure handed it to wisconsin...and wisconsin took quite a few points from Nodak so what does that say...
...albiet over the WJC break
Can't put too much stock in it since R.I.T. isn't eligible for the NCAA's this year
I did adjust for the RIT thing this morning on our website. Before we were just putting teams in with automatic bids, but all you needed to do was put in the Atlantic conference leader (by winning % is the method we use until the tournaments are here).
Also, I have no doubts that if North Dakota keeps winning in the WCHA, they'll move into the NCAA tournament. It's still early, and the PWR will change drastically with each game.
Clarkson is on about an 11 game unbeaten streak that includes wins at Wisconsin, vs. Miami, and they've beaten LSSU twice. They are beating teams in major conferences which is helping their PWR standing.
By North Dakota beating ECAC teams, the only comparison they are helping themselves with is common opp and possibly TUC. Also, the Sioux are only a .500 team. Start winning more games, and you'll move up (they are the first team out in these projections).
I do believe the PWR is the best post season selection process out there (not that it has high standards to beat).
Figures that SCSU would get Michigan in the first round again!! LOL
Only problem I see is that attendance isn't taken into account. Even though Minnesota is closer to Grand Rapids than Rochester, GR is still over a 9 hour drive away from Minneapolis. I can't see many people showing up to a Minny/Clarkson/CC/Niagara regional at Van Andel.
I think it would work out a lot better if you switch East and Midwest. You'd have two CCHA schools in the Midwest (one of which is very close, the other one relatively close). Then you'd have Clarkson and Niagara, which I'm assuming would be close enough to Rochester to draw some kind of crowd.
Minnesota should technically get the closest regional, but since it's a plane ride for them/their fans to any regional, it makes more sense to give Grand Rapids to Notre Dame.
Given the teams as of today 1/15/2007 I can see SCSU and MI moving from out west to the midwest in GR. UMTC and Niagra then moving out west. This gives GR a Michigan school for revenue, and gives UMTC an easier travel with a major airport at Denver.
Any bracket that doesn't have Michigan or MSU in the GR regional is going to be wrong. No way the NCAA doesn't put one (or both) there, that's been demonstrated time after time.
His methodology might be better if he used the proper RPI bonus. 3-2-1 is gone this year.
In the event that MSU and UM both end up in a bracket with NH or Denver U, they will not be in the midwest. The pairings are the top priority now, and attendance has moved down the top reasons lists.
Also, I was at the regional in Grand Rapids a couple years ago with Minnesota, UMD, MSU, and Notre Dame. The Irish do not have a strong hockey following, but Minnesota does. Putting Minnesota over ND in the Midwest is a much more logical choice than putting ND there over Minnesota.
In the meantime, if you follow the link above, the pairings were updated again for Sunday's games and I took out the 2-1 bonus points. I did forget that the bonus point factor only applies to road games now, so I fixed it.
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