NCAA Tournament - Icy Version

Taking a look at the most recent Pairwise rankings, I decided it was too long to wait for the next bracketology to tell me who Michigan is playing. So here is a decidedly rudimentary look at who Michigan could be playing and also who Michigan fans should be rooting for.

In Denver:
Colorado College

1. North Dakota
2. Notre Dame
3. Air Force

In Madison:

1. Michigan
2. St. Cloud State
3. Michigan State
4. Minnesota State

In Albany:

1. Miami
2. Denver
3. Clarkson
4. Niagara

In Worcester:

1. New Hampshire
2. Boston College
3. Minnesota
4. Harvard

The only change I made was to move Minnesota State out of Denver to avoid the intra-conference matchup with CC. I swapped them with Air Force because having Air Force that close to the Academy is too good for the committee to pass up, and with Niagara in Albany and Harvard in Worcester, this is the committee's attendance dream. A possible change would be keeping Air Force in Madison, sending Minnesota State to Worcester and Harvard to Denver just because of the already strong drawing power of BC and UNH in Worcester. Imagine a weekend of hockey where the first round has matchups such as BC v. Minnesota and North Dakota v. Notre Dame. We could very well be there soon.

Teams to root for this upcoming weekend:

1. First and foremost, you better be rooting for the Wolverines as they go for their first CCHA Tourney title in 3 years.
2. As much as this hurts to say, root for BC and Notre Dame on Friday as they will be playing the two teams closest to Michigan in the Pairwise rankings (UNH and Miami respectively).
   
3. Also root for Denver and the winner of the Minnesota/St. Cloud State games, as they will be playing North Dakota and Colorado College respectively, the two teams closest to Michigan in the RPI.
4. Finally, root for St. Cloud State on Thursday, as any self-respecting Michigan fan would love to see Minnesota miss the tourney and this would seriously hurt their chances (though in my opinion, they are still probably in with a loss).

A full preview on the CCHA Tournament and the culmination of the 2008 chase for the Mason Cup will be posted later this week.