There are always questions when it comes to NCAA seeds, and there are a few questions this season mainly about the three seeds. From College Hockey News:
The Main Reason Why The Three Seeds Are The Way They Are
NCAA men’s ice hockey committee chair Bill Bellerose, the assistant athletic director at Holy Cross, said today that “creating a good experience” for student athletes was the No. 1 factor in rotating the No. 3 seeds around in the NCAA Tournament brackets.
According to the Pairwise Rankings, Michigan should be playing North Dakota while Bemijdi State would be playing Yale. Instead, they flipped Michigan and Yale to create more interest in the regionals.
SB Nation’s Chris Dilks has this to say about the situation:
But if you’re not cynical, and believe the NCAA truly values these things, is there any possibility of someday letting the number one seeds host regionals at their own arena? That would guarantee a better atmosphere than just about any regional site, and make sure a team that deserved it got that advantage. I know a lot of rinks are not up to NCAA standards for hosting this type of thing, but I can’t believe that some of the current regionals are doing that well either, as evidenced by a lot of the same uninspiring locales popping up as hosts year after year when no else wants to host. It’s something to think abou if the NCAA is really serious about student-athlete experience and playoff atmosphere.
As always, this whole process leaves it open to debate and something that almost everyone can complain about until the tournament starts.
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