While the press release from the WCHA didn't include the new playoff format, it didn't take long for the new format to hit the Twitter-verse and this is what the new playoff format is going to look like. The top team in the nWCHA is going to get a first round bye and the rest of the eight teams in the league are going to play in the first round but that's not all of it.
Right out of the gate, the new format is a bit of a buzz kill, or at least what I would just call it a ill conceived idea - the first round of the playoffs is a potential money maker for the program that hosts the first round event.
There is also another great twist - per the beat writer of the Bemidji Pioneer Jack Hittinger - the Alaska Schools are going to play each other each season in the nWCHA playoffs unless one of them is the number one seed - number one seed in the nWCHA will get a first round bye. When I first saw this tweet on Twitter.com I thought it was a joke, but here is the confirmation of this.
