Welcome back to Bracketology.
If you’re ever heard the term of going down a rabbit’s hole, that’s what I am facing this week. I began putting my brackets together and thought I had a perfect bracket together that would maximize attendance and keep top seeds local.
And then I hit a roadblock.
I won’t even get into that roadblock, but I can tell you I was so deep in the rabbit’s hole, I had to find my way out and start over.
This week, UMass has moved to 12th in the PairWise, which moved the Minutemen to a No. 3 seed and avoids conflicts with Hockey East’s two No. 1 seeds – Boston College and Boston University.
But to say this week is easy is hyperbole. That said, let’s get to it.
I’ve decided to take an old-school approach and, instead of seeding the bracket from 1 through 16 first, I’m going to place the top seeds as close to home as possible and then add in the host teams.
Thus, we have:
Providence Regional
1. Boston College
2.
3.
4.
Springfield, Mass. Regional
1. Boston University
2.
3. Massachusetts (regional host)
4.
Sioux Falls, S.D. Regional
1. North Dakota
2.
3.
4.
Maryland Heights, Mo. Regional
1. Denver
2.
3.
4.
UMass has to go to Springfield, but as the 12th overall seed, they don’t belong in the same bracket as 2nd overall Boston University, so the “bracket integrity” we often reference is already gone.
Let’s plug in the second, third and fourth seeds as appropriately as we can, maintaining the 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc., as much as possible.
Providence Regional
1. Boston College
2. Quinnipiac
3. Maine
4. Bemidji State (or CCHA champion)
Springfield, Mass. Regional
1. Boston University
2. Minnesota
3. Massachusetts (regional host)
4. RIT (or AHA champion)
Sioux Falls, S.D. Regional
1. North Dakota
2. Wisconsin
3. Colorado College
4. St. Cloud State
Maryland Heights, Mo. Regional
1. Denver
2. Michigan State
3. Providence
4. Michigan
We immediately have one first-round conference matchup – North Dakota vs. St. Cloud. This requires a switch. You don’t want to move North Dakota from Sioux Falls, so you have to switch St. Cloud. The Huskies cannot switch with Michigan as that would create a Denver vs. St. Cloud first round. So the closest No. 4 seed is RIT.
Providence Regional
1. Boston College
2. Quinnipiac
3. Maine
4. Bemidji State (or CCHA champion)
Springfield, Mass. Regional
1. Boston University
2. Minnesota
3. Massachusetts (regional host)
4. St. Cloud State
Sioux Falls, S.D. Regional
1. North Dakota
2. Wisconsin
3. Colorado College
4. RIT (or AHA champion)
Maryland Heights, Mo. Regional
1. Denver
2. Michigan State
3. Providence
4. Michigan
Technically, this bracket works and satisfies all requirements. But would I make further changes? There are two to consider.
First, I’d love to get Wisconsin to Maryland Heights, which is a community known for its love of the Badgers. Though there aren’t a ton of tickets to be sold for this region in a small building, I’d still love to see it backed with Badgers fans.
The other is to bring Providence back to its home city, even though the Friars aren’t the hosts (Brown is host).
Let’s deal with Wisconsin first. Swapping the Badgers and a conference opponent, Michigan State, only changes things by one seed (they are the No. 6 and No. 5 overall seeds, respectfully). I don’t have a problem with this.
Providence Regional
1. Boston College
2. Quinnipiac
3. Maine
4. Bemidji State (or CCHA champion)
Springfield, Mass. Regional
1. Boston University
2. Minnesota
3. Massachusetts (regional host)
4. St. Cloud State
Sioux Falls, S.D. Regional
1. North Dakota
2. Michigan State
3. Colorado College
4. RIT (or AHA champion)
Maryland Heights, Mo. Regional
1. Denver
2. Wisconsin
3. Providence
4. Michigan
As for getting Providence closer to home, I’m not very sympathetic for this. You would have to swap Maine and Providence, and realistically the Maine fanbase is probably more supportive than Providence’s and likely brings the same number of fans to the regional. Thus, I’m not going to make this switch right now. If, say, this was switching Providence for Colorado College and moving the Tigers to Maryland Heights and the Friars back to their home city, I’d do that in a heartbeat.
However, I’m happy leaving the brackets as they are, despite the number of rabbit holes I may have dug this week.
Thus, the final bracket is:
Providence Regional
1. Boston College
2. Quinnipiac
3. Maine
4. Bemidji State (or CCHA champion)
Springfield, Mass. Regional
1. Boston University
2. Minnesota
3. Massachusetts (regional host)
4. St. Cloud State
Sioux Falls, S.D. Regional
1. North Dakota
2. Michigan State
3. Colorado College
4. RIT (or AHA champion)
Maryland Heights, Mo. Regional
1. Denver
2. Wisconsin
3. Providence
4. Michigan
