Grumbling Persists as Regional Championships Approach

It must be that time of the year again. The NCAA hockey regional brackets have been announced and fans of various teams are now complaining about their draw for the regionals. I keep hearing how Miami was screwed by having to play in Providence.

I guess some fans don’t think that the Miami RedHawks can beat the last team into the NCAA tourney. Maybe not, a few teams recently have gone from being the last team in the NCAA tourney and then turned around and made the Frozen Four.

For those keeping track at home, the Yale Bulldogs won the National Championship in 2013 from the last at-large bid (a fourth seed). This was after Bulldogs lost two games in the ECAC playoffs.

Not to be outdone, UMD had to win a Regional in Yale’s back yard to advance to the Frozen Four. Some might suggest they had a less than desirable draw.

The College Hockey News explained why Miami has to play in Providence, RI, against Providence College. Their explanation makes perfect sense to me.  Finally, There’s a reason the NCAA is referred to as the NC$$.

Providence, meanwhile, was off last weekend after losing to New Hampshire in the Hockey East quarterfinals. The Friars were the last team into the tournament. If Michigan had defeated Minnesota in the Big Ten title game, the Friars’ season would’ve ended.

Once PC got in, however, questions persisted. The committee opted to keep the Friars in Providence instead of sending them west. The difference between the 13, 14 and 15 seeds is negligible, so it isn’t a massive gulf in quality. However, keeping PC at home was a huge favor to the Friars.

I wasn’t surprised by it all because, going into the weekend before the games were played, our percentages for being a higher seed were much better than being a lower seed,” PC coach Nate Leaman said.

“For us to drop like we did, everything broke the wrong way for us. It just showed you how volatile it is this year and how close college hockey is.

The committee probably looked at the last four teams and thought it was a toss-up.

Here’s the way I look at it, it’s the NCAA playoffs, someone is going to be unhappy. It’s a given. This is what we know, to be an NCAA champion, you have to beat the best. Those victories are either going to happen in a regional championship or in the Frozen Four. There’re no easy draws or easy regionals to the national championship.

In my opinion, every team gets screwed from time-to-time in the NCAA tourney. You don’t have a lot of choices. You have four regionals and 16 teams. It’s a guarantee that someone is going to be unhappy. Here’s a few more examples.

In 2005, UND had to play in the mini Beanpot championship in Worcester, Massachusetts, to advance to the Frozen Four. Instead of complaining, UND beat Boston University and Boston College to advance to the Frozen Four.

In 2008, UND was the top seed and for their efforts, they got placed in a Midwest regional that had Wisconsin playing at home. Conference foes Denver and Wisconsin had to play in the first round. Was that fair? The WCHA had six teams make the tourney that year.

You couldn’t avoid conference matchups that year. Did UND get screwed? I don’t recommend asking head coach Dave Hakstol that question. The bracket must have been fair UND advanced to the Frozen Four in spite of playing in a lower seeds home arena.

Finally, you can look at it from this angle. Boston University is the number one seed in the Northeast Regional in Manchester, NH. BU’s first game is against Yale. If they can get past the pesky Bulldogs, they get the winner of UMD and UMN. One could make the argument that BU got screwed as well.