Final Bracket Projection

Minnesota State punched its ticket with a win in the CCHA Championship

The games are over, we know the teams, but we need to place them in brackets.

My final bracket projection is below. But before we get to that, let’s run through some things.

The committee has some decisions to make within the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. There are a few different ways the committee could lay out the bracket.

Here are some of the issues:

— Colgate and Cornell are both No. 4 seeds. That means Merrimack has to play Quinnipiac, because top-seed Minnesota will be matched with the lowest overall seed (Canisius). Both ECAC teams can’t play Quinnipiac, which only leaves the Warriors. That game will be in Bridgeport. I’m 100 percent confident of that. That creates a 2 vs. 14 matchup instead of a 2 vs. 15 matchup in the first round, but the committee doesn’t have an option.

— Penn State has to play in Allentown as the host, and they are a No. 2 seed. Minnesota will play closest to home as the No. 1 overall seed (Fargo), and they would naturally pair with No. 8 (Penn State) in the second round. But that can’t happen because Penn State has to play in Allentown.

— The Manchester bracket comes together easily. BU is there naturally, and everyone stays together. Great.

— Things get messy with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in Bridgeport, Allentown, and Fargo.

That said, here is what I project as the final bracket. I am most confident in what has been highlighted in yellow:

Instead of simply swapping St. Cloud State and Harvard, the committee could keep the pairings together and move full games. If they did that, then the bracket would look like this:

MANCHESTER
(4) Denver vs. (13) Cornell
(5) BU vs. (12) Western Michigan

BRIDGEPORT
(2) Quinnipiac vs. (14) Merrimack
(7) Harvard vs. (9) Ohio State

ALLENTOWN
(3) Michigan vs. (15) Colgate
(8) Penn State vs. (10) Michigan Tech

FARGO
(1) Minnesota vs. (16) Canisius
(6) St. Cloud State vs. (11) Minnesota State

The other choice they have is to swap Harvard and St. Cloud State, which would give us a bracket that looks like this:

MANCHESTER
(4) Denver vs. (13) Cornell
(5) BU vs. (12) Western Michigan

BRIDGEPORT
(2) Quinnipiac vs. (14) Merrimack
(6) St. Cloud State vs. (9) Ohio State

ALLENTOWN
(3) Michigan vs. (15) Colgate
(8) Penn State vs. (10) Michigan Tech

FARGO
(1) Minnesota vs. (16) Canisius
(7) Harvard vs. (11) Minnesota State

My gut says the committee will go with the first option (that includes the yellow highlighted teams) but if they stray a little bit, they could decide on one of the other two alternate options.

The selection show is on ESPNU tomorrow night, immediately following the women’s national championship game.