We almost got there this year in terms of predicting the bracket. Well, not really.
The two major themes here seemed to be attendance and proximity.
BRACKET: See our NCAA tournament page
If you take a look at it, in some of my past Bracketology posts, I had mentioned that Ohio State would be a bus ride to Allentown and that Notre Dame could fly anywhere and that’s a reason that Ohio State might be the top seed in Allentown. That indeed happened.
We also wondered if the committee would swap the Minnesota State vs. Minnesota Duluth matchup to Sioux Falls for proximity/attendance. In the end, I said I didn’t think it would happen. The committee said otherwise. It was in the mix, though.
If you lay out the brackets in true bracket integrity you get these four groups:
• St. Cloud State vs. Air Force and Northeastern vs. Michigan
• Notre Dame vs. Michigan Tech and Clarkson vs. Providence
• Cornell vs. Princeton and Minnesota State vs. Penn State
• Ohio State vs. Boston University and Denver vs. Minnesota Duluth
You have to swap Princeton with Boston University to not have the Cornell vs. Princeton matchup.
You have to swap Minnesota Duluth with Penn State to not have the Denver vs. Minnesota Duluth matchup.
You now have:
• St Cloud State vs. Air Force and Northeastern vs. Michigan
• Notre Dame vs. Michigan Tech and Clarkson vs. Providence
• Cornell vs. Boston University and Minnesota State vs. Minnesota Duluth
• Ohio State vs. Princeton and Denver vs. Penn State
Now, place the regionals.
St. Cloud goes to Sioux Falls and we have already said that Ohio State was going to Allentown for travel reasons. In addition, you have Penn State as a host school.
Now, where do the other two regionals wind up? You have to love having Boston University in Worcester, so you place that Cornell vs. Boston University bracket in Worcester, giving you this bracket:
Midwest Regional (Allentown):
14 Princeton vs. 4 Ohio State
11 Penn State vs. 5 Denver
East Regional (Bridgeport):
15 Michigan Tech vs. 2 Notre Dame
10 Clarkson vs. 7 Providence
West Regional (Sioux Falls):
16 Air Force vs. 1 St. Cloud State
9 Northeastern vs. 8 Michigan
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
13 Boston University vs. 3 Cornell
12 Minnesota Duluth vs. 6 Minnesota State
From here, you look at flights, attendance and proximity. So you swap the matchups as we mentioned above and bring the All-Minnesota game to Sioux Falls.
Thus, we get the bracket:
Midwest Regional (Allentown):
14 Princeton vs. 4 Ohio State
11 Penn State vs. 5 Denver
East Regional (Bridgeport):
15 Michigan Tech vs. 2 Notre Dame
10 Clarkson vs. 7 Providence
West Regional (Sioux Falls):
16 Air Force vs. 1 St. Cloud State
12 Minnesota Duluth vs. 6 Minnesota State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
13 Boston University vs. 3 Cornell
9 Northeastern vs. 8 Michigan
It’s as easy as that.
