Crunch Time Arrives As College Hockey Season Hits Stretch Run: Bracketology

As assemblage lucky heads into nan last fewer weeks of nan regular play decisive games are looming larger and nan opportunities to amended one's opinionated are becoming less successful position of teams trying to unafraid spots successful nan 2026 NCAA Tournament.

In short, crunch clip has arrived, pinch nan pretenders opening to autumn disconnected and nan existent contenders stepping up. We learned a twelvemonth agone that squad from measurement down its convention standings tin still make a tally to nan Frozen Four this precocious successful a season, but retrieve that moreover erstwhile Penn State sewage basking astatine nan extremity of 2024-25 it still only hardly squeezed into nan NCAA Tournament.

Specifically, this clip a twelvemonth ago, Penn State pulled disconnected a cardinal location necktie and overtime triumph against then-No. 9 Ohio State to thief spark nan Nittany Lions done a 13-game agelong successful which they took conscionable 2 losses. They still vanished 5th successful nan Big Ten standings, only to expanse then-No. 11 Michigan (6-5, 5-2) to scope nan Big Ten tourney semifinals.

Before nan bid against nan Buckeyes, Penn State was 10-10-2. About 2 months later, it earned nan last at-large spot successful nan NCAA Tournament arsenic nan No. 13 seed pinch a 20-13-4 record.

Is location different Penn State this season? Maybe. That's why we've been truthful focussed connected Hockey East because teams for illustration Boston University, Boston College and Providence person nan benignant of talent that nary 1 will want to look erstwhile push comes to shove (reminder, nan predicted bid of decorativeness successful nan preseason was BU, Providence, UConn, Maine and BC).

With that successful mind, and earlier we get into our latest NCAA Tournament bracket projections, here's a speedy look astatine nan six conferences successful which nan convention tourney champion receives an automatic bid, and nan teams presently atop nan convention standings.

AHA: Bentley. With a convention grounds of 11-2-3, it has an eight-point cushion successful nan regular-season standings. Even so, astatine this constituent it seems beautiful safe to opportunity that nan tourney champion will beryllium getting nan only spot successful nan tournament.

Big Ten: No. 1 Michigan is retired successful front, but tin nan Wolverines clasp on, and really mightiness they navigate done nan convention tournament? Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin are each connected their heels, giving nan convention a apt four-team NCAA Tournament contingent.

CCHA: St. Thomas has moved into nan convention lead, albeit hardly complete Augustana and Michigan Tech, pinch Minnesota State still looming. Could nan convention onshore a 2nd squad successful nan NCAA Tournament, aliases possibly moreover a third?

ECAC: Five teams are successful nan operation for nan convention title, but spot of schedule is opening to drawback up pinch nan Ivy League schools, Princeton especially. Quinnipiac has a constrictive lead complete Dartmouth, and Cornell is presently connected nan correct broadside of nan bubble, only not by much. A batch will person to spell correct for nan convention to unafraid 3 spots.

Hockey East: Connecticut is still atop nan convention that nary 1 tin fig out, but Providence is coming disconnected back-to-back sweeps of Maine and Boston College. Depending connected really things play out, nan convention could scrap its measurement to to arsenic galore arsenic 4 bids, but could besides conscionable extremity up pinch one.

NCHC: Can we spell up put it down for 4 tourney spots now? North Dakota has a patient lead successful nan standings, but UMD and Western Michigan are correct pinch it successful nan National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index, which will beryllium utilized to prime nan at-large teams and seedings for nan NCAA Tournament. Denver is besides successful nan apical 10. Arizona State and St. Cloud State still person a shot, but things are stacked against them.

For our purposes we're going pinch nan first-place arsenic being nan automatic qualifier, pinch Bentley, Michigan, St. Thomas, Quinnipiac, Connecticut and North Dakota. How galore of them person nan champion NPI ranking successful their conference? Two: Bentley and Michigan, truthful there's still nan imaginable for a batch of activity complete nan adjacent fewer weeks.

The NPI has nan existent section leaders astatine No. 30, 1, 13, 9, 19 and 3 respectfully. 

We information retired nan section for nan 16-team section that will dress up nan 2026 Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship, pinch 10 at-large teams, successful order: Michigan State, Minnesota Duluth, Western Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Dartmouth, Denver, Cornell, Providence and Augustana.

The first 4 teams out: Boston College, Boston University, St. Cloud State and Michigan Tech.

Based connected NPI, nan teams are classed successful order, and we put them successful groups of 4 to bespeak nan seeding tiers, which aren't expected to beryllium broken. In a axenic bracket nan matchups would beryllium 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15 , etc.

The big sites: The big teams person to beryllium placed successful in their location if they make nan tournament, but correct now Denver would beryllium nan only big successful nan field. Also, North Dakota is nan big schoolhouse of Frozen Four successful Las Vegas, April 9-11, not nan Sioux Falls Region.

• Albany, N.Y. (Union)
• Loveland, Colo. (Denver)
• Sioux Falls, S.D. (Omaha)
• Worcester, Mass. (Holy Cross)

We spot nan top-tier teams successful regionals based connected location, pinch Michigan landing successful its closest venue, Albany. Host Denver's bracket goes to Loveland, and we spell up and spot UND successful Sioux Falls to amended attendance. Augustana being successful nan aforesaid location is simply a bully bonus.

The consecutive brackets would look arsenic follows:

First-round convention matchups request to beryllium avoided, and amazingly there's only one, Dartmouth and Quinnipiac. It would beryllium bully to get Cornell playing successful adjacent Albany, but it's not a viable single-switch replacement successful nan 3rd tier arsenic nan Big Red is besides from nan ECAC.

So nan displacement has to hap successful nan 2nd tier, specifically pinch Dartmouth. In this situation, nan committee mightiness beryllium tempted to move Penn State to Albany, but Wisconsin preserves nan bracket better. At slightest Quinnipiac is only a couple-hour drive.

Finally, we look astatine nan attendance facet and look to spot if location are immoderate speedy changes that mightiness supply a boost. There isn't a squad retired of Boston successful this scenario, aliases Massachusetts extracurricular of Bentley, successful nan the projected bracket truthful we decidedly don't want to move 1 of nan closest teams, Providence, retired of Worcester.

However, Connecticut could descent complete arsenic Worcester is only astir an hr from nan Huskies' campus.

Consequently, present are nan pairings:

Do we for illustration this bracket? It came together beautiful quickly, but not really. There are 3 awesome reasons why:

1) Dartmouth goes from playing reasonably adjacent to location arsenic a second-tier squad to having to recreation astir 2,000 miles look Denver successful Loveland.

2) Penn State vs. Cornell successful South Dakota, erstwhile attendance could beryllium a important rumor successful some Eastern venues. It conscionable feels wrong.

3) Two regionals successful which nan apical 2 teams are from nan aforesaid conference. That's a secondary concern, but pinch 7 of nan apical 8 teams from nan Big Ten and NCHC, that whitethorn beryllium unavoidable this year.

SEE ALSO: The Previous Bracketology