Committee Chair Addresses Bracket Seedings, Regional Setups, and More : College Hockey News

March 19, 2023
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by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@CHN_AdamWodon)

The NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Committee has, essentially, nothing to do with picking the teams that will be in the NCAA Tournament each year. That is the way pretty much everyone wants it and likes it.

But when it comes to seedings, there is always some subjectivity, even if some long-held philosophies make for very little wiggle room as well.

This year’s lone kerfuffle if you will — at least to some Minnesota fans — was why St. Cloud State was placed in Fargo, despite being No. 6 overall. After all, Minnesota at No. 1 overall should theoretically get an easier path than everyone else. And it does, in regards to the first game, which is against Canisius, the last-rated team in the tournament.

But getting No. 8 overall in the second round was impossible, because Penn State is 8, and Penn State must be in Allentown, by another of the Committee’s policies.

So unless you move Minnesota to Allentown, which takes away a proximity advantage, something else needed to be done. Many fans thought No. 7 overall Harvard should’ve been there instead, with St. Cloud somewhere else. But that raises other issues, such as which 3 seeds should play which 2 seeds, and which other place St. Cloud State goes.

“There’s no question bracket integrity and competitive equity is a high priority for us,” said Committee chair Jeff Schulman, the athletic director at Vermont, “but we have a very experienced group of coaches and administrators who have been around college hockey for a long time, and reasonable people may disagree with decisions we made, but we feel really good about the way this bracket balances out, and weighs both bracket integrity with other factors that are important to us, like creating an exciting atmosphere for everybody.”

When you consider that 3 and 4 in the Pairwise were separated by .000002, and that St. Cloud and Harvard were separated by .0017, it demonstrates what a fine line you’re talking about among all these teams. The Pairwise is not like regular-season standings, where teams play insular schedules. It’s impossible to really tell who “earned” which spots, precisely.

“There was a fair amount of discussion about having St. Cloud and Minnesota State in Fargo, but in the end, the difference between St. Cloud and Harvard was really minimal, and didn’t justify the sacrifices that we felt we’d be making by sending teams so…