Saturday Morning Pairwise: The Field of 16 is set for the NCAA Tournament
We know the 16 bids, and the 14 teams, for the NCAA Tournament
It was a busy Friday night in college hockey, but after the dust settled, we now know the 16 bids for the 2025 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.
Of those 16 bids, we know 14 of the teams. The ECAC champion and AHA champion — both decided tonight — will fill in the final two blanks.
Before we get to the NCAA field, here’s a summary of Friday night’s action:
CCHA Championship
Minnesota State 4, St. Thomas 2
Hockey East Championship
Maine 5, Connecticut 2
ECAC Semifinals
Cornell 3, Quinnipiac 2 (OT)
Clarkson 4, Dartmouth 1
NCHC Semifinals
Denver 4, Arizona State 2
Western Michigan 4, North Dakota 2
That sets up a championship Saturday that looks like this:
ECAC Championship: Cornell vs. Clarkson (5 p.m. ET)
AHA Championship: Holy Cross vs. Bentley (7:05 p.m. ET)
Big Ten Championship: Ohio State vs. Michigan State (8 p.m. ET)
NCHC Championship: Denver vs. Western Michigan (8:30 p.m. ET)
Alright, onto Pairwise/NCAA Tournament issues.
As I wrote, we know the field.
Boston College (locked as the No. 1 seed)
Michigan State (locked as the No. 2 seed)
Maine (locked as the No. 3 seed)
Western Michigan (can finish Nos. 4-5)
Minnesota (can finish Nos. 4-5)
Connecticut (locked as the No. 6 seed)
Boston University (locked as the No. 7 seed)
Providence (can finish Nos. 8-9)
Denver (can finish Nos. 8-10)
Ohio State (can finish Nos. 9-10)
Massachusetts (locked as the No. 11 seed)
Penn State (can finish Nos. 12-13)
Quinnipiac (can finish Nos. 12-13)
Minnesota State (locked as the No. 14 seed)
ECAC champion (locked as the No. 15 seed)
AHA champion (locked as the No. 16 seed)
Quinnipiac, Michigan, and Penn State entered the weekend on the bubble. We knew if one “line mover” won, it would eliminate Michigan, and that happened yesterday when Cornell defeated Quinnipiac, guaranteeing line movement from the ECAC.
As I wrote last night, Penn State and Quinnipiac were sweating out the Western Michigan vs. North Dakota game. But once the Broncos won, it ensured a qualifying team would win the NCHC, which locked up the tournament field and secured bids for Penn State and Quinnipiac.
If North Dakota defeated Western Michigan, there was still the possibility either Penn State or Quinnipiac could be eliminated if the Fighting Hawks went on to win the NCHC Championship.
So now, all that’s left to decide is placement.
There is still some movement that can happen in terms of seeding from 4-13, but for the sake of exercise, here’s how I would have the NCAA Tournament if these seeds did not move tonight.
Manchester
(1) Boston College vs. (16) AHA winner
(8) Providence vs. (9) Denver
Toledo
(2) Michigan State vs. (15) ECAC winner
(7) Boston University vs. (10) Ohio State
Allentown
(3) Maine vs. (14) Minnesota State
(6) Connecticut vs. (12) Penn State
Fargo
(4) Western Michigan vs. (13) Quinnipiac
(5) Minnesota vs. (11) Massachusetts
That’s about as clean a bracket as you’ll see. The only issues were UMass and UConn were paired up in the first round, and Penn State was paired up with Minnesota in Fargo. Penn State has to go to Allentown as the host, and flipping the Nittany Lions with the Minutemen solved both issues.
Voilà.
Stay tuned, I’ll have my final bracket projection tonight after the conference championship games are decided.