by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@chn-adam-wodon)
The Big Ten hockey coaches recently voted unanimously to change the format of their postseason tournament, hoping to address some of the issues that arise in the current format.
That proposal is now in the hands of Big Ten athletic directors and administrators, who are expected to vote to ratify it soon. Any announcement on a change would come in August, when the Big Ten releases its season schedule.
According to sources, the most likely scenario is that teams will play a single-elimination first-round game on a Wednesday, then a single-game semifinal the following Saturday. The single-game final would still take place the weekend after that, and all games will still be held on campus.
Currently, teams play a best-of-3 first-round series the weekend before the semifinals.
This addresses a major issue that has affected teams since going to the completely on-campus format, where things are spread out over three weekends. On a number of occasions, a higher seed has been upset in their first-round series, and then had to wait at least 18 days for the NCAA Tournament to start. And, because the Big Ten has just seven teams, one team has a bye on the last weekend of the regular season. That creates another issue, where it can result in a team playing just a couple games in a four-week span heading into the NCAAs.
CHN discussed this in an opinion piece here in March.
This issue may arise in the NCHC as well, with that league changing its format to full on-campus, with the semis and finals split over two weekends. So that is also something to keep an eye on.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at College Hockey News from CHN…