Hockey Bracket Update (through 2/26 games):
CCHA Regular Season Champs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pairwise:
1. Yale (EC) - 31
2. North Dakota (WC) - 30
3. Boston College (HE) - 29
4. Michigan (CC) - 28
5. Denver (WC) - 27
6. Union (EC) - 25
7. Merrimack (HE) - 25
8. Nebraska-Omaha (WC) - 23
9. Notre Dame (CC) - 22
10. Miami (CC) - 22
11. Minnesota-Duluth (WC) - 21
12. New Hampshire (HE) - 21
13. RPI (EC) - 19
14. Colorado College (WC) - 17
15. Boston University (HE) - 16
16. Atlantic Hockey (AH)
Bridgeport:
1. Yale (EC)
8. Nebraska-Omaha (WC)
10. Miami (CC)
16. Atlantic Hockey (AH)
Green Bay:
2. North Dakota (WC)
7. Merrimack (HE)
11. Minnesota-Duluth (WC)
15. Boston University (HE)
Manchester:
3. Boston College (HE)
6. Union (EC)
12. New Hampshire (HE)
13. RPI (EC)
St. Louis:
4. Michigan (CC)
5. Denver (WC)
9. Notre Dame (CC)
14. Colorado College (WC)
*If Air Force wins Atlantic Hockey, move them to Green Bay and Boston University to Bridgeport.*
February 27th, 2011 at 12:57 AM ^
Awesome! I'd take that bracket for sure. I'd also attend, obviously ;)
February 27th, 2011 at 12:57 AM ^
I just looked at USCHO's PWR rankings, and they look different then what you have here. Are they not updated there yet?
Being in a bracket with CC, Denver, and ND sounds interesting. But anything is better than playing BC on the east coast or something along those lines.
February 27th, 2011 at 1:01 AM ^
Yes. The battle of Alaska is still going on. When Alaska-Anchorage wins (up 4-0 in the third), what I have will be accurate. I didn't want to wait untl 2 AM for a result that shouldn't change.
February 27th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
because they are within bus range? I'd rather face them than Miami if we both advanced, but still.
February 27th, 2011 at 1:15 AM ^
Well, both ND and Miami are within the bus range to St. Louis. I guess they could be interchangable. Its also possible that both ND and Miami stay west and Minnesota-Duluth gets sent to Bridgeport (then UNO and Union would switch sites also).
February 27th, 2011 at 1:23 AM ^
I have a bad taste in my mouth from last year's Miami game (who doesn't) and I don't think we'd get past them this year. At some point, those guys are going to figure it out and they are waaaay to skilled. Notre Dame, well, it just depends on the day for them. Love your signature, by the way.
February 27th, 2011 at 3:31 AM ^
MSU is a freakin' TUC somehow. Wow. That gives us two more losses to TUC, yet 2 more wins to TUC so it sort of balances... however:
it gives us another win in the comparisons, so we are tied for 4th with Merrimack. Unfortunately, Merrimack wins that tiebreaker because of their TUC percentage, which sucks because we have 13 wins to their 7, but 8 losses to their 4. To me, our record is more impressive but percentages don't lie, no matter how close. Damn you, sparty. Always trying to freakin' blow it for us, aintcha?
Welp, you know what this means. Pull for sparty as our opponent in two weeks. It'll mean they are still a TUC probably, but we will smoke them and C-Ya/FYS their asses all the way off the ice after a nice little sweep. That'll make our comparison with Merrimack nice and neat, hopefully. I don't know anything about that school, but it's starting to annoy me for some reason... ahh hockey
February 27th, 2011 at 3:36 AM ^
KRACH has us at 4th, and Merrimack at a full and satisfying ELEVENTH. But they don't look at that at all, as far as I know.
One of these polls has to be un-updated right? Is the PWR even updated from the scores tonight?
February 27th, 2011 at 3:47 AM ^
Michigan State was a TUC until Alaska-Anchorage beat Alaska-Fairbanks. This brought MSU's RPI back below .5000, dropping them from TUC status.
At any rate, MSU being a TUC at the moment doesn't make a tremendous amount of difference to Michigan. If MSU loses their series to Alaska, they will drop below the TUC cliff and be of no concern to us. If MSU wins their series, then they will play us in the next round, giving us the opportunity to improve our TUC record beyond what it would be if MSU were not included. The only ways this can go badly for us are if MSU beats Alaska and then wins one or more against us, if MSU beats Alaska (unlikely) and BGSU beats NMU (highly unlikely), which would screw us over pretty badly, or if MSU loses 2-1 to Alaska and then gets a perfect set of results to get them over the TUC cliff (extremely unlikely).
February 27th, 2011 at 3:39 AM ^
Bridgeport
1. Yale (ECAC)*
16. AH Champ**
7. Merrimack (HE)*
11. Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA)
Green Bay
2. North Dakota (WCHA)
15. Boston University (HE)
5. Denver (WCHA)
9. Notre Dame (CCHA)*
Manchester
3. Boston College (HE)*
13. Rensselaer (ECAC)*
6. Union (ECAC)*
12. New Hampshire (HE)*
St. Louis
4. Michigan (CCHA)
14. Colorado College (WCHA)
8. Nebraska-Omaha (WCHA)*
10. Miami (CCHA)*
*Indicates that the team does not have to fly.
**Flip the AH champ with BU if Air Force or some other team that would have to fly wins the Atlantic Hockey Tournament.
This bracket has the advantage of allowing fewer teams to fly by sticking Nebraska-Omaha in St. Louis and Merrimack in Bridgeport. In redwings8831's bracket, 8 teams avoid flying. In my bracket, 10 teams avoid flying. I also moved around some 2-seeds and 3-seeds to avoid intra-conference first round matchups. Incidentally, Notre Dame and Miami can be switched without a problem in my bracket. I put the teams where they are to reduce travel distance because the teams are currently tied in the Pairwise (Notre Dame wins the tiebreaker, making them the nominal 9-seed) and as both teams are in the same seeding band, bracket integrity is a negligible concern when differentiating between the two.
February 27th, 2011 at 8:52 AM ^
February 27th, 2011 at 9:31 AM ^
why are better than half of all college hockey teams TUC's? I know this has been discussed but seriously. 32 out of 59(?) teams?
February 27th, 2011 at 9:31 AM ^
I guess things will probably change after conference play-offs, but man that line-up would be fun. Us and one of our biggest rivals and. DU and their biggest rival.
February 27th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
Not playing any conference teams would be great with me.
February 27th, 2011 at 1:15 PM ^
Hopefully good ol' RPI can do well enough in the ECACs to stay in the tourney. That's my Alma Mater.... :)
February 27th, 2011 at 4:01 PM ^
GO WHITE!
February 27th, 2011 at 3:30 PM ^
February 27th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
You can go to uscho.com to fish around for an explanation to the pairwise rankings. The likes of this information, if I'm not mistaken, is provided as a footnote to the actual rankings on that site's D-I page. Should you be lazy like I usually am, I'm providing the basics like a hockey fiend experiencing cocaine-induced mania:
-16 teams get in.
-After "x" autobids are determined via conference tourneys, the best remaining "16-x" teams are given at-large bids in a way that closely parallels all tourney formats.
-Bracket anatomy: 16 teams, 4 regionals of 4 teams; single elimination hockey. Generally speaking, #1 typically faces #16 in the first round and #8 & #9 often facing off in that same regional...and so on and so forth.
-Sometimes the nice-n-neat aformentioned format isn't feasible, though. Instances in which it isn't include times wherein subjective concerns--like travel concerns that are otherwise avoidable (sorry Alaska, I'm not talking about you) or worries of low regional attendance--both the committee. When that happens, the committee can strategically alter the match-ups--in the fairest way they find--by moving teams from one bracket to another in exchange for closely seeded teams the likes of whom will presumably blunt or allay the original concerns.
-Now for the "Pairwise rankings," which are said to be the main determinant of seeding:
This is a ranking system predicated on the way in which each "Team-Under-Consideration" (aka TUC; this has been redefined to mean "RPI > 0.500" in the last year) algorithmically compares to every other TUC. There are four criteria involved in every TUC-to-TUC comparison: (1) Record against all TUCs in the form of a win% [not applicable if either team has played fewer than 10 TUCs], (2) Head-to-head record between the two teams in the comparison in the form of a win%, (3) Record against common opponents in the form of a win%, and (4) RPI. Each team can get 1 point for "beating" the team it's being compared against in each of those four comparisons. Notably, RPI is the tie breaker should there by a 1-to-1 or 2-to-2 tie.
Singular PW comparison example: Michigan's RPI = 0.5577, Denver's RPI = 0.5562; Michigan's TUC record = 0.6250, Denver's TUC record = 0.6481; Michigan's Common Opponent Record = 0.7500, Denver's = 0.6000; Denver and Michigan have not played one another. Michigan wins the comparison 2-to-1.
Anyway: After all of the comparisons for all teams are done, the rankings work such that the team with the most comparisons won is in first place, the least in last, and so on and so forth. The final ranking effectively determines the NCAA field as per the tidbits typed at the top.
Hope that helps, and I think it will.