Bracket Projections Week 5

Current PairWise
1. Quinnipiac
2. St. Cloud State
3. Boston College
4. North Dakota
5. Providence
6. Michigan
7. Yale
8t. Denver
8t. Notre Dame
8t. Boston University
11. Nebraska Omaha
12. Harvard
13. Lowell
14. Cornell
15. Penn State
16t. Minnesota 
16t. Miami
16t. Michigan Tech (WCHA)
23. Robert Morris (AHA)

Every league in the NCAA must have one team in the field and here I am assuming the highest rated team in the PairWise has won their respected conference tournament. So, Robert Morris and Michigan Tech get in and Penn State, Minnesota and Miami are out. RPI tiebreakers put Denver at 8, Notre Dame 9 and BU 10. 

The Field 
1. Quinnipiac
2. St. Cloud State
3. Boston College
4. North Dakota
5. Providence
6. Michigan
7. Yale
8. Denver
9. Notre Dame
10. Boston University
11. Nebraska Omaha
12. Harvard
13. Lowell
14. Cornell
15. Michigan Tech 
16. Robert Morris

The field is then broken into four groups or the four regional with the goal of "bracket integrity", i.e 1vs16, 2vs15 and so on. There can not be inter-conference match-ups in the first round and hosts of regionals must be placed in their host city no mater what their ranking is. Holy Cross hosts in Worcester, Union in Albany, Minnesota in St. Paul and Miami in Cincinnati. Teams can also be moved to "boost attendance" (see Providence playing in Providence last year). 

Regionals

Worcester
1. Quinnipiac vs 16. Robert Morris
8. Denver vs 9. Notre Dame

St. Paul 
2. St. Cloud vs 15. Michigan Tech
7. Yale vs 10. Boston University 

Albany
3. Boston College vs 14. Cornell
6. Michigan vs 11. Nebraska Omaha

Cincinnati
4. North Dakota vs 13. Lowell
5. Providence vs 12. Harvard

While there are no inter-conference match up, we can still try and attempt to make attendance better. Moving BU and Notre Dame is an easy flip. BU to Worcester and ND to St. Paul. We could also take Yale and move them to Worcester and send Denver to St. Paul. Essentially we just flipped the location of the first round match ups in those two brackets. We could do the same with the other two brackets but that would torch any idea of keeping bracket integrity. Cincinnati attendance as it is would be awful if we didn't change anything. Providence to Albany and Michigan to Cincinnati would help a bit.    

Final Bracket

Worcester
1. Quinnipiac vs 16. Robert Morris
7. Yale vs 10. Boston University 

St. Paul 
2. St. Cloud vs 15. Michigan Tech
8. Denver vs 9. Notre Dame

Albany
3. Boston College vs 14. Cornell
5. Providence vs 11. Nebraska Omaha

Cincinnati
4. North Dakota vs 13. Lowell
6. Michigan vs 12. Harvard

New This Week: Cornell

Out This Week: Penn State