You Are The Committee

[imafrshmn]

Next year someone should code up a program that runs through all the possible outcomes, kind of like what fivethirtyeight.com had for the elections.

[nyc94]

St. Lawrence and Minnesota are out.  Lowell is in control of its destiny: win and they get the autobid, lose and Ohio State gets the last at large slot.

[Scersk '97]

Brackets, at least how I see them, assuming Duluth, Notre Dame, and BU go on to win:

NE   1 BU
     8 North Dakota
    10 UNH
    15 Ohio State

MW   2 Notre Dame
     7 Minnesota-Duluth
    11 Cornell
    16 Bemidji State

W    3 Denver
     6 Northeastern
    12 Princeton
    13 Miami

E    4 Michigan
     5 Yale
     9 Vermont
    14 Air Force

Ah, the only thing that will get Red Berenson to go East:  the NCAA.

Shuffling is required for two inter-conference #1-#4 games, and kudos to Air Force for not being one of the two bottom seeds.  Quite the reward.

The "logjam" in the #2/#3 seeds looks to work out logically, if not happily.  Hosts at home really screwed everybody (including us) this year.

Can't be unhappy with our bracket.  Duluth is on fire, but they're probably beatable.  As for Notre Dame, we can do to them what Jeff Jackson's Lake St. teams did:  clutch and grab.  Not really a "speed team" in the bunch.

The group of death?  No question its the east regional.  Yale is a dangerous team, and so is Air Force.  Vermont will be champing at the bit after their (typical) quarterfinal exit.

Should be interesting:  I almost wish that I weren't planning to be en México and could hit Grand Rapids.  It's grrrrrreat!  Or is that Battle Creek...

[jkahn]

Assuming UMD holds its lead:
1     [AQ] Boston University
2    [AQ] Notre Dame
3    Denver
4    Michigan
5    [AQ] Yale
6t    Northeastern
6t    [AQ] Minnesota-Duluth
8    North Dakota
9    Vermont
10    New Hampshire
11    Cornell
12    Princeton
13    Miami
14    [AQ] Air Force
15t    Ohio State

Likely Brackets:
Manchester: BU, No. Dak., UNH, OSU
Grand Rapids: Notre Dame, UMD, Cornell, Bemidji
Minn: Denver, NE, Princeton, Miami
Bridgeport: Michigan, Yale, Vermont, AF

Note: with Yale and UNH hosting regionals, Vt. is the only 3 seed that can play Yale to avoid intra-conference matchups, and the other 3 3 seeds effectively move up one slot each.  Question: Would the committee flip NE and UMD to put UMD in Minneapolis?

[Jacob '06]

EDIT: Nevermind, I can't count and got that backwards. You guys are right and we probably go to Grand Rapids and play UMD.

[jkahn]

I obviously don't type as fast as Scersk, but we apparently think alike.  Let's see if the committee has something different in mind.  With UNH a 3 and Yale a 2, it looks like they could only put us in Grand Rapids or Minneapolis.

[Chris '03]

[quote Jacob '06]I feel like they have to give the higher seeded Northeastern the lower seeded Cornell however they do it. That means we play northeastern in either grand rapids or minneapolis[/quote]

That's the big question. Do they do a swap or just slide everyone up to accommodate the 5/9 matchup.

5/9
6/12 NU/PU
7/11 UMD/CU
8/10 UNH/ND

or

5/9
6/11 NU/CU
7/10 UMD/UNH
8/12 ND/PU

My guess is that every 2 seed gets a bonus based on the YU/UVM lock. It would be unfair to just flip PU and UVM.

I'll sign up right now for ND/UMD/CU/BSU in grand rapids. That's about as good a draw as Cornell can hope for. I have a feeling it'll be CU/UMD @ Minnesota with DU for some reason with PU/NU in Michigan and ND's bracket. The committee has a good bit of wiggle room given the way the hosts are mucking things up in the middle.

[adamw]

[quote marty]Wasn't there a fleeting mention of less lengthy travel for teams during 2007 or 2008? I don't read Jason's committee articles carefully so I don't know if he has mentioned it this year.[/quote]

No, it was discussed as a possibility of this year, but was put on hold in February.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2009/02/17_regionalization.php