Brackets Week 8

Current PairWise
1. North Dakota
2. Quinnipiac
3. St. Cloud State
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. Michigan Tech
16. Cornell
17. Minnesota
19. Robert Morris 

Every league in the NCAA must have one team in the field and here I am assuming the current leaders of each conference have won their league championship. Winners of league titles get auto bids. So, Boston College (HE), Robert Morris (AHA), Michigan Tech (WCHA), Minnesota (Big 10), North Dakota (NCHC) and Quinnipiac (ECAC) get auto bids. The rest of the field is made up of at large bids based off the PWR. Tie breakers are determined by RPI. Denver 6, Michigan 7. Lowell 8, BU 9. 

The Field
1. North Dakota
2. Quinnipiac
3. St. Cloud State
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. Michigan Tech
15. Minnesota
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 matter what their ranking. 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

St. Paul
1. North Dakota vs 15. Minnesota
8. Lowell vs 9. Boston University

Albany
2. Quinnipiac vs 16. Robert Morris
7. Michigan vs 10. Yale

Cincinnati
3. St. Cloud vs 14. Michigan Tech
6. Denver vs 11. Harvard

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

There are two intra-conference games: BC-Notre Damme and Lowell-BU. The committee is going to do everything possible to get Notre Dame to Cincinnati, so that's an easy switch. As for the BU-Lowell game, the switch is not so easy. Flipping BU and Yale would make some sense, but since Lowell is the higher seed, they theoretically should deserve to come east more than BU does. So, here's another idea. Lowell goes to Albany, Michigan goes to Cincinnati and Denver heads to St. Paul. 

There is another scenario. Since Hockey East has five teams in the field intra-conference match-ups are permitted. BU and Lowell could play and in that situation, I think they would both be in Albany. 

Bracket integrity is shot, but that's what happens when you run a tournament with a selective fan base, charge through the roof for tickets and have to somehow make a profit. Seed them 1-16 with the higher seed hosting a best of three series and all of this is avoided. There are more games, more tickets sold and more games on TV. 

Final Bracket 
1. North Dakota vs 15. Minnesota
6. Denver vs 9. Boston University

Albany
2. Quinnipiac vs 16. Robert Morris
8. Lowell vs 10. Yale

Cincinnati
3.St. Cloud vs 14. Michigan Tech
7. Michigan vs 12. Notre Dame

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

Selection Sunday is this weekend.