Bracketology

[Beeeej]

Anybody besides me get the ominous feeling that, if we get to make a run at the Frozen Four this year, it's gonna have to be through UNH again?   ::worry::

Beeeej

[Greg Berge]

I was thinking the same thing on the ride in this morning.  Right now, Cornell is (with luck and execution) a 2nd band team and UNH is a 3rd band team. Throw in that the other eastern 3rd band team may well be an ECAC opponent, and you've got a Cornell-UNH matchup in Amherst or Worcester.

Personally, I like that matchup.  A bracket like:

1. BC
2. Cornell
3. UNH
4. Harvard

I could live with.

[KeithK]

I wonder how much the committee will try to approximate the "natrual" seeding for a 16 team tournament (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc.) and how much attendance will come into play.  The bracket Greg listed might well come up, regardless of the system.  However, I'd personally like to see at least one western team in the regional.  I guess I just like that aspect of the old, old system with regional crossovers.

Getting revenge on UNH would a wonderful thing, assuming we could beat 'em.  

[ninian '72]

Good intuition.  This week's Bracketology column at uscho has Cornell in the West with NoDak, Mass-Lowell, or UNH as the first-round opponent, depending on how the bonus points shake out:

http://www.uscho.com/news/2005/01/31_009811.php

[Steve M]

The conventional wisdom, to which all of Moy's simplistic articles subscribe, assumes the committee will try to put together a perfect bracket as possible (e.g 2nd round #1 vs. #8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5) regardless of attendance ramifications.  I don't think we really know what the committee will do in this regard, because they haven't yet had to choose between attendance and "bracket integrity" since the 16 team field came into play 2 years ago.

Taking Moy's brackets as a starting point, I would switch Cornell's and Wisconsin's spots as well as Michigan's and Harvard's to get better attendance.  There would still be some western teams going east and vice versa.  A "natural bracket" is only equitable if all of the higher seeded teams win their first round games.  

[Will]

If we're not good enough to get past UNH, then it really doesn't matter.  Besides, if we do meet UNH *and* beat them, the victory will be all that much sweeter.

[billhoward]

The seeding committee should take into consideration which teams actually get fans to travel. Cornell could put 1,000 fans in Amherst or Worcester but not Grand Rapids. (Lord, what a missed opportunity that was that we didn't make the title game in 2003 when it was in Buffalo.) Wisconsin fans are insanely loyal, too, and ought be rewarded with something that's within an eight-hour charter bus ride of the people's republic of Madison, all other seeding factors being equal. OTOH, how many fans would Harvard send even to Worcester?

Yes, it would be nice to exact revenge on UNH if you knew Cornell was going to win in advance.

A Cornell-BC-UNH-Harvard pairing guarantees one eastern team makes it to the Frozen Four but removes the possibility (duh) of two getting there from among the four. Every one of the four *could* make it all the way to the semifinals if they were in separate brackets.

[jtwcornell91]

Everything we've seen from the committee indicates that "band integrity" matters a whole lot more than preserving the 1-16 seeding.

[ben03]

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

 Everything we've seen from the committee indicates that "band integrity" matters a whole lot more than preserving the 1-16 seeding.[/q]
well we know our band is second to none in terms of integrity (... sorry, following suit w/ another stupid joke)

[nyc94]

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

 Everything we've seen from the committee indicates that "band integrity" matters a whole lot more than preserving the 1-16 seeding.[/q]

I think it is fair to say that they only tinker with the 1-16 seeding when the host team and no intraconference first round matchups rules come into play.

[KeithK]

Agreed.  It appears that they'd like to have a natural 1-16 seeding, but will freely deviate to avoid first round interconference matchups.  They will not change the banding.

[Red Man]

I watched UM Lowell beat UNH 7-0 on TV the other night.  UNH is not nearly as good as their recent history would suggest.  I would like to play them to exact some revenge.

[Bio '04]

And Ayers has graduated...

[pfm10]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 Agreed.  It appears that they'd like to have a natural 1-16 seeding, but will freely deviate to avoid first round interconference matchups.  They will not change the banding.[/q]

Except when it applies to the Big Red like back in 2003. Wasn't that a 1 vs. 13 matchup?

On the UNH note, they did look pathetic against Lowell on Friday night for the first period that I caught before going to watch the Clarkson game, but they came back big the next night as a response. I would love to see us whip UNH in the NCAA's, especially since the guy who scored their winning goal back then is marrying into the wife's family. Is there no justice?!

[Josh '99]

It's tough to say that they will "only" do something under circumstances given how few times we've seen them seed a 16-team tournament thus far.