This would obviously be awesome (though I'd keep the Frozen Four how it is now). The only way something like this would happen is if the money drives it there. Is there enough viewership for big time TV money to roll in with all of these games? I don't think it's likely.

I would settle for the baby step of having first and second round games being at home campus sites of the higher seed.

I went to the Ferris-Denver regional final game last year in St. Paul and there were maybe 1,000 people in an 18,000-seat NHL arena. The atmosphere was...not great. 

All of these proposals are better than the current format, but if the NCAA insists on keeping the current format, they really need to look at pricing.  Last year, Michigan was in Cincy and I didn't think twice about paying a premium to see them.  This year, I didn't go even though I love college hockey because regional tickets are pricey if you don't have a rooting interest.  Drop that price though and I would gladly head downtown and hope for an entertaining game.  Maybe they need a dynamic pricing model that drops the price as the game gets closer.  I don't think partisans would hold out too long and you'd at least get some locals in the door if attendance sucks.

Hey guys, thanks for hopping over to my wheelhouse.

I have written extensive polemics about the NCAA tournament (three years running I started and perpetuated lengthy USCHO threads about this, inspired in part by guys like Alton) and griped about it excessively here as well. Here's a highlight from a diary I wrote last year that touches on the injustice of the current format:

I used the word "unjust" advisedly, because the reason the regional system persists as it does is that it actually well serves two important constituents: Small, low-money schools, which predominantly exist in the East; and larger, bigger-money schools that are also in the East.

It serves the small schools well because an empty arena is an easier place to pull an upset, especially against a #1 seed that had to fly hundreds of miles because the closer arena happens to be reserved for the hosting team. And it serves the larger Eastern schools well because most of them are clustered in such close proximity that they have not one but two regionals that they may attend in easy driving distance.

Seriously. Since the four-regional system was introduced in 2003, all "Eastern" regionals save one (there are two per year; the sole exception is Rochester in 2007) have been located within in a quadrilateral encompassed by Albany, Bridgeport, Providence, and Manchester. (The favorite regional location, Worcester, is right in the middle of that space). The longest driving distance between those cities is 2.5 hours, between Manchester and Bridgeport; all other distances are shorter.

The result is that a team like Boston College almost never has to travel far for the NCAA tournament. In fact, since the four-regional system debuted, BC has attended a regional within an hour's drive of Boston in every season except two: 2011, when they had to travel to St. Louis, and 2009, when they did not make the tournament.

In contrast, teams like Minnesota-Duluth and Michigan Tech can NEVER hope for a Regional closer than 2.5 hours away and if they make the tournament almost invariably have to travel much further. The Colorado teams only have a hope of a close regional in those rare instances one is placed in Colorado, and a team like Minnesota State can have a dream season ruined by a "luck of the draw" regional where the only available "Western" Regional is in South Bend, 8 hours away. And in this context regionals have been awarded to places like St. Louis and Cincinnatti, cities with zero college hockey support.

I quote so much because the East-West imbalance isn't touched on much in this post but is a huge driver of the problems with the tournament. Just last week the Duluth News Tribune ran an editorial decrying the fact that UMD almost never gets to play a tournament game in driving distance. There was one regional in Minneapolis, which of course subjects them to the risk of being a road team against Minnesota, and this year they played in Fargo and UMD fans had little chance of going because North Dakota fans bought all the tickets four months ago.

Yes, I believe change is necessary.

I don't necessarily agree with David's proposals. This is already long, so I think I'll examine them in a separate comment.

And apparently it's been so long since I've upvoted an OP that i no longer know how to. So I'm writing a message to say kudos to you. As someone who mostly discovered the wonderful world of hockey as an undergrad at Yost, I have much more love for college hockey than the NHL or even college basketball (I was a student during the Amaker era, so hockey was amazing at the time). I'd love to see college hockey get its share of the sun. I feel like this is a great solution.

Also liked Brian's idea of the GLI being a Michigan Championship in the fall.

A critique of some of the proposals:

Regarding the first two rounds, playing the games at the home venues of the higher seeds is a no-brainer. However, while I would enjoy best-of-3 series, I think single games are more practical. In part this is due to television, the one element that would be seriously harmed by the abandonment of regionals--it's one thing to say that ESPN can stream all 36 games that might be necessary to reduce the field to four, but it's not likely that they'll want to do it. Single games are a bit more palatable.

More importantly, single games are much easier to schedule. One can schedule them over the course of a weekend to minimize conflicts, allowing people to watch more games on fewer channels. Just as important, teams whose home venues may have scheduling conflicts (a high school sports tournament or a concert, for example) would have an easier time finding a slot that would allow them to play once than getting an entire weekend. Tickets are moderately easier to sell, too.

Regarding the Frozen Four, keep it the way it is. I like the set rotation idea and with Detroit getting a proper arena and thus being qualified to host the event again I think this is a good solution. I would quibble that there might be some push from Eastern schools to move the Pittsburgh FF a bit closer to them, and while I am rather harsh on them regarding regionals they would have a valid argument there, since Detroit is considered "Western" in college hockey. 

A round robin tournament would basically be a stripped-down version of the Memorial Cup, and that wouldn't be the same kind of event with the same kind of fanbase at all. The Memorial Cup is typically played in arenas that seat less than 10,000 people (it's in Windsor this year) and it's not the sort of thing that people block out time to attend every season wherever it is in large numbers the way people do for the Frozen Four. Lengthening the event like that is a recipe for a sharp drop in attendance for no actual gain in drama or quality.

And playing it later would lengthen what is already the longest season in college sports, unless they move the start of the season back into October (which I could tolerate). I think it would still get lost a bit in the opening of the NHL playoffs.

Just moving to single home site games for the first two rounds is relatively simple and fixes most of the biggest problems. Teams like UMD deserve home games.

And, you know, so do small schools that have a good season and get a top-8 seed.

for each session.  It didn't hit 4000 for either session this year.

Such happens when your "closest" regional team is 400+ miles away.  And neither do you get the benefit of a Michigan or North Dakota (both travel well), as happened in 2016 (got both) and 2014 (North Dakota alone).

Definitely time for a change ....

My self and most of my hockey team was at Joe Louis.

It helped that we were all given copious amounts of free tickets...

but I enjoyed the game...  well I do have one story:

The stupid Pedabear of Penn St. was going around talking to children and offered my son and his friends to see the lockeroom.  I was like Fuck No!  If you are dressed in that stupid costume AND you represent a school that abused children, you probably shouldn't offer to take kids into the locker room.

jdon

being held on campus of the higher seed. I too am tired of watching these games from arenas, where the fans are disguised at empty seats. Put the games on campus and play in front of a packed house that is rocking the joint. Also like the idea of a 2 out of three 3 series. Get more great playoff hockey and I feel it would generate even more money as you could have a sold out arena for 3 games.

When you do something like having home series, then you only have 8 teams that have to travel instead of 16.

Like the idea of the rotation between the cities you mention for the FF. Need to do something to generate more interest in college hockey.

Things here I agree with:  Home sites for first and second rounds.

Things here I disagree with:  Just about everything else.

Keep the single elimination.  Best-of-three is nice, but the NCAA won't pay for that and ESPN won't show it.  Television doesn't want to show hockey; there is no way they would show 16-24 games in a weekend, when they get better ratings with women's basketball regionals.  Keep the bracket--no re-seeding.  Every college team sport has a bracket.  Make sure teams from the same conference don't meet in the first round, because that's an NCAA rule.  Regionalize the first round a little bit; maybe even the second round.  The frozen four round robin is a terrible idea for so many reasons.  (Although you should go to Saturday semifinals-Monday final, like basketball, instead of Thursday-Saturday).  Hockey is already the longest season of any NCAA sport; they aren't extending it by 2 weeks.  Also, no need to "rotate" the frozen four; just keep the current bid system in place.  There is absolutely no reason that any city or region should claim a right to host just because it's "their turn."

Instead of inventing these things that have no chance of being adopted, why not go to a format that the NCAA already uses--the lacrosse format?  First round at home sites, quarterfinal doubleheaders in 2 different places, and a Saturday-Monday final the third week of the tournament?  There is no argument the NCAA can make against it, because they already use that exact format in another sport.

Second best:  the field hockey format.  4 regionals hosted by #1, #2, #3 and #4.  Four teams advance to the finals.  Simple, and again there is no argument the NCAA could make against it.