GLI Championship open thread: UM vs. MSU

Unlike other sports, the NCAA Hockey Committee has an open selection process--no smoke-filled rooms for the selection of the at-large teams.  Their selection rules are replicated by something called the Pairwise Ratings:

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/ncaapwcr.php

If the season ended today, and assuming no major upsets in the conference tournaments...

#1 seeds:  Ohio State, Minnesota-Duluth, Boston College, Minnesota

#2 seeds:  Boston University, Notre Dame, Merrimack, Massachusetts-Lowell

#3 seeds:  Northern Michigan, Michigan State, Colgate, Western Michigan

#4 seeds:  Michigan, Cornell, Lake Superior, AHA tournament champion (Air Force?)

Notice that there are 7 CCHA teams that would qualify right now.  Since there are no non-conference games remaining in the CCHA, these 7 teams will start knocking each other out of the top 16 and we will probably be left with only 5 or so teams in the tournament.  The key for Michigan will be to make sure that they beat the teams near them in the standings--next weekend's series against Lake Superior, plus series against MSU and Northern on back-to-back weekends in mid-February are the key games on the schedule.