Well, the selection show is over, and, honestly, I was not surprised.
USCHO.com nailed all 16 teams once again, and we were just one switch away from a perfect bracket.
Here’s the bracket as announced Sunday on ESPN2:
Green Bay:
Colorado College vs. Cornell
Bemidji State vs. Wisconsin
Grand Forks:
Michigan vs. North Dakota
Holy Cross vs. Minnesota
Worcester:
Boston College vs. Miami
Nebraska-Omaha vs. Boston University
Albany:
Maine vs. Harvard
New Hampshire vs. Michigan State
Here was my bracket:
Green Bay:
Colorado College vs. Miami
Bemidji State vs. Wisconsin
Grand Forks:
Michigan vs. North Dakota
Holy Cross vs. Minnesota
Worcester:
Boston College vs. Cornell
Nebraska-Omaha vs. Boston University
Albany:
Maine vs. Harvard
New Hampshire vs. Michigan State
There was just one difference: swap Miami and Cornell, and you have the NCAA’s selected tournament.
What was my reasoning for the difference?
From yesterday’s Final Bracketology:
We have a round-robin of sorts amongst this group. Miami beats North Dakota, North Dakota beats Cornell and Cornell beats Miami if you look at the individual comparisons.
We’ve already put Harvard into the No. 5 slot, that’s a given because Harvard is higher in the PWR by two full comparisons.
So we’re trying to slot three teams into three different slots as 6, 7 and 8. We know that North Dakota must play in Grand Forks, so we will assign them the No. 7 seed. And based upon the rule that RPI breaks a tie, that’s where it sits on the rankings after breaking ties.
Not we’re left with Cornell and Miami, for seeds 6 and 8. Cornell has beaten Miami in the individual comparison. By that means, Cornell is No. 6 and Miami is No. 8.
It is pretty obvious, then. The committee did not do this. They broke the three-way tie using the RPI, ranked teams 1-16 using the PairWise, and went straight through the pairings accordingly.
Simple. Easy. No complaints. No controversy.
Let’s enjoy the games.
