Brakets, My Final Take

Ah yes, we finally know the field. All the games have been played. Now it is time to once again try and predict what the committee will do on Selection Sunday. Here's what I got:  

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. Northeastern
14. Duluth
15. Ferris State
16. RIT

Every league in the NCAA must have one team in the field and that is determined by league title winners. So, Northeastern (HE), RIT (AHA), Ferris State (WCHA), Michigan (Big 10), St. Cloud (NCHC) and Quinnipiac (ECAC) get auto bids. The rest of the field is made up of at large bids based off the PWR. 

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). 

Albany
1. Quinnipiac  vs 16. RIT
8. Lowell vs 9. Boston University

St. Paul
2. St. Cloud vs 15. Ferris State
7. Michigan vs 10. Yale

Cincinnati
3. North Dakota vs 14. Minnesota Duluth
6. Denver vs 11. Harvard

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

There are a slew of intra-conference match ups. First, all four teams in Worcester are from Hockey East. In addition to that, North Dakota and Duluth both come from the NCHC and BU and Lowell are stilled paired. BU can flip with Yale, Notre Dame and Harvard will switch and NU and Duluth can flip. Also for attendance, Michigan and Denver will probably be swapped.  

So what do we have?

Albany

1. Quinnipiac  vs 16. RIT
8. Lowell vs 10. Yale

St. Paul
2. St. Cloud vs 15. Ferris State
6. Denver vs 9. Boston University

Cincinnati
3. North Dakota vs 13. Northeastern
7. Michigan vs 12. Notre Dame

Worcester
4. Providence vs 14. Minnesota Duluth
5. Boston College vs 11. Harvard 

  

The real, actual bracket comes out tomorrow at 12noon.