NCAA seeding

[Blackheart]

NCAA swapping teams for attendance is a joke…most regionals attendance is well under 50%.

[rochsioux]

Straight pairing’s: 

 

Albany

Michigan (1) v Bentley (16)

UMD (8) v Penn State (9)

 

Sioux Falls

UND (2) v Merrimack (15)

Providence (7) v Quinnipiac (10)

 

Worcester

Michigan St (3) v UConn (14)

Dartmouth (6) v Cornell (11)

 

Loveland

Western Mich (4) v Mankato (13)

Denver (5) v Wisconsin (12)

 

My Objectives: 

No conference matchups in 1st round. 

Keep as close to strict pairings as possible. 

Help attendance if possible with very minimal pairings changes. 

 

Teams that are close in NPI:

PSU & Q are only separated by .02 in NPI. 

Cornell & Wisconsin by .13

Providence & UMD by .16

 

Conference matchups:

Have to breakup Dartmouth & Cornell. Logical swap is Cornell & Wisconsin since they are closest in NPI. 

 

Attendance issues?

Possibly in Albany. Swap Penn St and Q.  Only a .02 difference in NPI  

Might not be needed if Penn St fans travel well. It’s about 5 hours to Albany. 

 

New brackets:

Albany

Michigan (1) v Bentley (16)

UMD (8) v Quinnipiac (10)

 

Bentley is 2.5 hours from Albany

Q is 2.5 hours. 

 

Sioux Falls

UND (2) v Merrimack (15)

Providence (7) v  Penn State (9)

 

Worcester

Michigan St (3) v UConn (14)

Dartmouth (6) v  Wisconsin (12)

 

UConn is 1 hour from Worcester. 

Dartmouth is 2.5 hours. 

 

Loveland

Western Mich (4) v Mankato (13)

Denver (5) v Cornell (11)

[.357]

1 hour ago, TwamleyShuffle said:

On paper, the move isn’t Siouxper deleterious to us. As they are the 8th team in the tourney. Meaning we are on paper, getting a weaker opponent

Wouldn't call UMD a weaker opponent in the real sense because they've beaten UND 3/5 times this year & they already know UND's weaknesses first-hand, Providence doesn't. Plus the home ice advantage would be diminished if facing UMD because they can get a lot more butts in the seats than Providence can.

Michigan (1) has already swept Providence (7) this year in Providence & they seem to have their number; but they haven't played UMD (8) yet. A UMD/UND match-up in the regional final would mean that they would have played each other six times. 

Even if only 2 teams are swapped (Dartmouth/Cornell), it still diminishes the purpose of the NPI. Add on other swaps for attendance reasons & it further devalues the system, making it more subjective. Whenever humans are involved in the decision-making you invariably get their biases, which the NPI was supposed to eliminate in the first place.