NCHC Hockey: Taking a look at the KRACH and Pairwise Rankikngs

By Eric Burton

3	Minnesota-Duluth	562.6	.8067	16	12-6-0	0.6667	2.000	1	281.3
5	Miami	443.8	.7722	9t	14-6-0	0.7000	2.333	6	190.2
6	North Dakota	438.8	.7705	6	13-4-2	0.7368	2.800	9	156.7
7	Nebraska-Omaha	435.4	.7693	13t	12-5-3	0.6750	2.077	3	209.6
13	Denver	287.3	.7010	12	11-5-1	0.6765	2.091	20	137.4
21	St. Cloud State	164.5	.5980	37t	7-10-1	0.4167	0.714	2	230.4
29	Western Michigan	107.2	.5137	36	7-9-2	0.4444	0.800	21	133.93
48	Colorado College	28.76	.2687	56	3-13-1	0.2059	0.259	30	110.9

Here’s the NCHC teams from the KRACH rankings. You can see that Minnesota-Duluth has the hardest strength of schedule to date. St Cloud State University has the second toughest SOS. Nebraska-Omaha comes in with the third toughest.  

You can also see from the Pairwise Rankings that the NCHC is doing pretty well right now and that the top-10 is full of NCHC teams. This weekend's match-up between UMD and UND is going to be important for the Pairwise Rankings. While a weekend doesn't make a season, a sweep for either team would be huge. 

3	Minnesota-Duluth	56	12-6-0	.6667	16	.5983*	3
4	Miami	55	14-6-0	.7000	9t	.5899*	4
6	Nebraska-Omaha	53	12-5-3	.6750	13t	.5861*	6
8	North Dakota	51	13-4-2	.7368	6	.5805	8
15	Denver	44	11-5-1	.6765	12	.5587	15
26	St. Cloud State	33	7-10-1	.4167	37t	.5180	26
36	Western Michigan	24	7-9-2	.4444	36	.4919	36
46	Colorado College	13	3-13-1	.2059	56	.4445	46

College Hockey top 20 Strength of Schedule

Today, I took the top 20 teams for strength of schedule in NCAA for Division I college hockey. If you look at the numbers you can see that Miami, UND, SCSU and Minnesota have played some of the toughest schedules to date. I got these numbers from the KRACH. You can draw your own conclusions from the numbers if you want.

Related articles

• NCAA Hockey: Lucia Wants to Revisit the Gentleman's Agreement (hockeywilderness.com)
• UND Hockey: Making the Case for Dave Hakstol (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: Age is Just a Number (thehockeywriters.com)
• NCHC Hockey: UND Hockey Players Love Shootout Option (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: Age Not a Factor for Dillon Simpson (thehockeywriters.com)

Looking at strenght of schedule

Looking at the KRACH you will see that the Fighting Sioux have played the toughest schedule to date. Yale and Union on the other hand have played one of the weakest schedules to date.

1 Minnesota-Duluth 28.1962
2 Nebraska-Omaha 33.5532
3 Yale 112.6900 18.7817
4 North Dakota 52.9412
5 Notre Dame 39.3082
6 New Hampshire 31.5811
7 Michigan 49.1701
8 Boston University 30.5876
9 Maine 30.1576
10 Boston College 36.0261
11 Miami 33.2945
12 Alaska 37.0023
13 Denver 31.5491
14 Union 17.1503
15 Wisconsin 35.2400
16 Merrimack 30.3300
17 Minnesota 26.0761
18 Western Michigan 19.5535
19 Rensselaer 20.6242
20 Lake Superior 32.8237