Brackets, One Day Away

Current PairWise 
1. Quinnipiac
2. St. Cloud
3. North Dakota
4. Providence
5. Boston College
6t. Denver
6t. Michigan 
8t. Lowell
8t. Boston University 
10. Yale
11. Harvard
12. Notre Dame
13. Minnesota Duluth
14. Northeastern
15. Cornell
16. Michigan Tech
17. Minnesota
19. Robert Morris 
21. Mankato
30. Ferris State
36. RIT

Every league in the NCAA must have one team in the field and we are down to championship Saturday across the country. Teams that 100% have to win their league title to get into the tournament include Minnesota, Robert Morris, RIT, Mankato and Ferris State. Mankato and Ferris state play in the WCHA championship and Robert Morris and RIT in Atlantic Hockey. Minnesota must beat Michigan in the Big 10 final, otherwise they are out. For this bracket, I will assume the team with the higher PWR rank has won their league title. 

The Field
1. Quinnipiac
2. St. Cloud
3. North Dakota
4. Providence

5. Boston College
6. Denver
7. Michigan 
8. Lowell

9. Boston University 
10. Yale
11. Harvard
12. Notre Dame

13. Minnesota Duluth
14. Northeastern
15. Robert Morris
16. Mankato

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 matter 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. Mankato
8. Lowell vs 9. Boston University

St. Paul
2. St. Cloud vs 15. Robert Morris
7. Michigan vs 10. Yale

Cincinnati  
3. North Dakota vs 14. Northeastern
6. Denver vs 11. Harvard

Albany
4. Providence vs 13. Minnesota Duluth
4. Boston College vs 12. Notre Dame

There are two intra-conference match ups: BC-Notre Dame and BU-Lowell. In the BU-Lowell game, Lowell gets to stay because they are the higher seed. BU could go to St. Paul and flip with Yale. Notre Dame goes to Cincinnati and pushes Harvard to Albany. 

Now, how about attendance? Denver and Michigan is an easy flip and since there are so many teams that are close to Worcester in the Albany Regional, let's go ahead and just switch those two. 

Final Bracket

Albany 
1. Quinnipiac vs 16. Mankato
8. Lowell vs 10. Yale

St. Paul
2. St. Cloud vs 15. Robert Morris
6. Denver vs 9. Boston University

Cincinnati  
3. North Dakota vs 14. Northeastern
7. Michigan vs 12. Notre Dame

Worcester
4. Providence vs 13. Minnesota Duluth
4. Boston College vs 11. Harvard

A lot can change with just the results of tonight's games. For BU to get in the east, Harvard must win the ECAC title game vs Quinnipiac and Northeastern has to beat Lowell. 

Selection Sunday is tomorrow at 11:30. I'll have my final bracket up tonight after all the games.