NPI Monday: The ECAC leads the pack thanks to superb Ivy starts

It’s my favorite time of year.

Word to the wise: it’s Thanksgiving week here in the United States, and you know what that means? You can officially stop paying attention to polls. I never reference them here — even early in the season — because I don’t see the point. But now we’re nearly two months into the schedule, the Ivies have been up and running for a few weeks, and we have a computer ranking — the NPI — that the NCAA will use to select and seed teams for the national tournament in March.

So it’s up to you: keep paying attention to (and arguing about) the “rankings” every week, or focus on the one system that, at least for the moment, actually matters.

In today’s newsletter (#612), we take a deep dive into the current NPI landscape. How many teams from each conference are sitting in qualifying positions? And what can we expect as the calendar turns toward December?

My weekly NPI tracker debuts this week. We’ll monitor the Top 30 every Monday and follow their linear movement throughout the season.

And, for fun — don’t get mad at me, a lot of you seem to enjoy this — I’ve put together a way-too-early bracket projection.

Plus, a breakdown of why the ECAC currently stands as the No. 1 conference in terms of projected NCAA Tournament bids.

If you have ideas for a future newsletter, tips you want to share, mailbag submissions, or if you want to sponsor a future newsletter, please email mike@collegehockeyinsider.com.

I’m also @MikeMcMahonCHN on Twitter.

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Now, onto today’s newsletter …