BRACKETOLOGY: WEEK 11 (Final)

March 17th, 2012

NORTHEAST REGIONAL

DCU Center, Worcester, MA

HOST: Holy Cross

MIDWEST REGIONAL

Resch Center, Green Bay, WI

HOST: Michigan Tech

EAST REGIONAL

Bridgeport Arena, Bridgeport, CT

HOST: Yale

WEST REGIONAL

XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN

HOST: Minnesota

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EXPLANATION:

Well, the field is theoretically set, and now all we have left to do is seed the teams...sounds easy right?  Not so much. 

First, let's take a look at the 16 teams in the field along with their overall seed...

1. Boston College

2. Michigan

3. Union

4. North Dakota

5. Miami

6. Ferris State

7. Minnesota Duluth

8. Minnesota

9. Boston University

10. Maine

11. Denver

12. Massachusetts Lowell

13. Cornell

14. Western Michigan

15. Michigan State

16. Air Force

Now, let's place any hosts.  The only host is the #8 Minnesota Golden Gophers, so they will be sent to the West Regional in St. Paul. 

Now let's seed our #1 seeds.  This creates our first controversy because typically the #1 overall seed is paired with the #8 overall seed, but in this case, there is no way BC is getting sent out West.  So, which of the four #1s gets sent to St. Paul?  North Dakota and Michigan are the two logical choices.  North Dakota would help pack the Xcel, while Michigan would matchup better with bracket integrity.  This could truly go either way.  For now, we'll place Michigan out West, which puts North Dakota in the Midwest Regional in Green Bay.  BC gets the Northeast Regional in Worcester, while Union goes to Bridgeport as the #1 seed.

Now on to our #2s.  We already have #2/#8 set up with Michigan and Minnesota.  That means that BC gets #7 Duluth, while Union gets #6 Ferris State, and North Dakota gets #5 Miami.

Going to our #3s, we pair #8 Minnesota with #9 BU, #7 Duluth with #10 Maine, #6 Ferris with #11 Denver, and #5 Miami with #12 Lowell.

Lastly, our #4 seeds.  BC gets #16 Air Force to reward the #1 overall seed.  In order to avoid intra-conference matchups, Cornell gets sent to play Michigan, while Union then takes on #15 Michigan State, and #14 Western goes to play the Sioux.

This gives us brackets like this...

Northeast Regional: (34)

#1 Boston College

#7 Minnesota Duluth

#10 Maine

#16 Air Force

East Regional: (35)

#3 Union

#6 Ferris State

#11 Denver

#15 Michigan State

Midwest Regional: (35)

#4 North Dakota

#5 Miami

#12 Massachusetts Lowell

#14 Western Michigan

West Regional: (32)

#2 Michigan

#8 Minnesota

#9 Boston University

#13 Cornell

What swaps can we make to make this a better tournament?  We would like to get BU or Lowell back East, and Denver is swappable with Lowell (a swap with BU would create an intra-conference matchup), so let's make that change...

Northeast Regional: (34)

#1 Boston College

#7 Minnesota Duluth

#10 Maine

#16 Air Force

East Regional: (36)

#3 Union

#6 Ferris State

#12 Massachusetts Lowell

#15 Michigan State

Midwest Regional: (34)

#4 North Dakota

#5 Miami

#11 Denver

#14 Western Michigan

West Regional: (32)

#2 Michigan

#8 Minnesota

#9 Boston University

#13 Cornell

We ultimately decided to go with these brackets for our prediction based on the Pairwise.  There is a strong case that the North Dakota/Western Michigan matchup gets swapped with the Michigan/Cornell matchup.  However, with Minnesota in the regional already, attendance should be strong.  North Dakota's vast fanbase will travel well to Green Bay, and should also get help from Western Michigan.  Ultimately, we'll find out tomorrow what actually happens.  Thank you to everyone who has followed our bracketology!