The NCAA Bracket Projections

This is the bracket projection from College Hockey News.

Midwest Region, South Bend, Ind.
1. Minnesota State vs. 16. RIT
8. UNO vs. 10. Minnesota

West Region, Fargo, N.D.
2. North Dakota vs. 15. Providence
7. Michigan Tech vs. 12. St. Cloud State

Northeast Region, Manchester, N.H.
3. Boston University vs. 14. Quinnipiac
6. Duluth vs. 11. Boston College

East Region, Providence, R.I.
4. Miami vs. 13. Yale
5. Denver vs. 9. Harvard

Here's what SBN College Hockey is projecting.

Northeast Regional
Verizon Center
Manchester, NH
1. Miami
2. Denver
3. St. Cloud State
4. Yale

West Regional
Scheels Arena
Fargo, ND
1. North Dakota
2. Michigan Tech
3. Minnesota
4. Providence

Midwest Regional
Compton Arena
South Bend, Ind.
1. Minnesota State
2. Nebraska-Omaha
3. Harvard
4. RIT

East Regional
Dunkin Donuts Center
Providence, RI
1. Boston University
2. Minnesota Duluth
3. Boston College
4. Quinnipiac

Betting Lines and Odds for the NCAA Hockey Tournament

The University of North Dakota Hockey team comes in at  -125 and the Wisconsin Badgers are  -115.  

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• NCAA Hockey: Attendance Issues Plague NCAA Regional Tournaments

Tweaking the Pairwise and other NCAA Hockey issues

Todd Milewski Executive Editor of USCHO has a couple of interesting blog posts that are posted up on USCHO and think there are a couple of points that are worth addressing… They are as follows.

Minor discussions on rules

The rules committee is in the middle of a two-year rule book cycle, so no changes can be made this offseason. There were some small discussions, however, on giving on-ice officials the ability to use video to review major penalties and ways to increase offense.

Anastos, the rules committee chair, said the most prominent idea presented to increase scoring opportunities was to not allow players to intentionally leave a skating position (i.e., kneel or lay down) to block shots.

First off, shot blocking is part of the game of hockey and any talk of taking shot blocking out of hockey should immediately be dismissed and discredited. I can't see that going anywhere and any talk of this needs to stop. This would be a good way for college hockey to lose the top blue chip recruits to the CHL immediately.

To quote BSU head coach Tom Serratore, shot blocking is part of the game of hockey. “You got to block shots,” Serratore said. “That’s hockey; that’s not a key, that’s automatic, that’s non-negotiable, that’s part of being a hockey player, that’s sacrifice.

As far as tweaking the criteria for the Pairwise Ranking for road wins. I am all for it. Bravo! Let’s do it. There are teams that for whatever reason, that refuse to travel, that’s a fact. The teams that travel for nonconference games should be rewarded for their travel; it’s harder to play in another team’s rink. That team should get a bump in the pairwise, especially when they get a quality win against a top-ten opponent.

I still think that there is going to be a movement by some to get the NCAA regionals back to campus. Starting in September 2013, UND Athletic Director Brian Faison is going to be part of the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules committee, so there will be an advocate of moving the NCAA Division I Hockey regionals back to campus.

Earlier this month, the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee heard ideas from coaches on changes to improve the regional atmosphere, but there was no consensus. The movement to return NCAA games to campus sites has its supporters but there also has been a good amount of pushback. [USCHO]

I am interested in seeing what others think about some of these issues. I would love to see what schools actually pushed back against bringing the NCAA regionals back on campus. I have not heard yet, but I have my suspicions.

My NCAA Bracket

Mine looks the same every year so, go ahead and post your picks as well.

Related articles

• The Brackets are set, UND going to Grand Rapids (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

Why wouldn't a best of three series work in the first round of the NCAA tourney?

Huskier Mike's blog post got me thinking about this subject even more.

Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald threw his support to a switch in the NCAA hockey tournament, making the first round a best-of-three series on the home ice of the higher seed. (H/T: Goon) Looking at the attendance of the regionals, it's obvious the current format isn't working with neutral ice. Take a page from baseball and play it on home ice where the fans can watch. And a best-of-three series lessens the impact of a bogus call in overtime. (Yes, Weasel fan: no matter what you say, those replays were inconclusive.)

With the finality of the one and done NCAA hockey tourney it’s almost a travesty to watch a team that was a number one seed and probably a division winner during the regular season lose their first game of a one and done tourney.

Why not have the first round match up at the home arena of the higher seed? What is the harm, the teams would still be picked from the Pair Wise Rankings. This would alleviate number one seeds having to play a four seed in their home arena. I get the argument that Miami needed to get it done if they wanted to move forward, but maybe they deserved better than the fate they got. Maybe one questionable controversial goal wouldn't be as hard to swallow and said team would live to fight another day. Imagine the boat load of money this format would also make a boat load of money for the NC$$.

Of course you get these kinds of flawed arguments in respond to Brad's proposal.

I agree with the school sites for the higher seed for attendance but a best of three series will pretty much ruin the chance of any small school of winning but it does benefit UND and other super teams. The single game elimination gives any team a chance which may not sell as many tickets at the actual events, but makes it a lot more interesting than having UND, Michigan, one of the Boston teams and Denver every single year in the Frozen Four.

By having to win two out of three games in the first round, that would actually make the team that won in the first round more legit in my mind. I don’t buy this logic of the smaller teams would suffer. Last time I checked the University of Minnesota Duluth was a small school that is division one in college hockey only… Minnesota Duluth’s other sports (football, basketball, golf etc) play in the NSIC which is a division II conference. The fact that UMD won the title this season, proves that the small schools can still win the NCAA title and that they are still relevant, a swing and a miss on that point.

I also think that if Union have had to travel to Duluth to play in the first round of the NCAA tourney we probably still would have had the same results. I don’t by the logic that the NCAA tourney needs to stay in a empty neutral site for the small schools to remain relevant.

Also, in case anyone was keeping track, there was only "one" Big Ten School that made the NCAA playoffs this season. The Frozen Four included two teams that had never won an NCAA title (Notre Dame and UMD). I don’t buy that argument that the same four teams will be in the frozen four every year if we have the first round games in the higher seeds home arena.

Like I said earlier; "If this proposed format would do anything it would probably poke holes in the PWR/RPI rankings and prove that certain teams rankings were way over rated."