For the umpteenth time in the history of the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament, the Denver Pioneers are the poster children for the problems with the current selection process and system. After winning the Frozen Faceoff last night – a result that put the UMass-Amherst Minutemen into the tournament as the #14-seeded team instead of Colorado College – the selection committee in all of its “wisdom” has placed the #3-overall seeded Pioneers in the Springfield, Mass. regional which is hosted by…UMass-Amherst. This means that the regional’s #1 seed Denver will play the regional host and #4 seed in Thursday’s first-round matchup at noon mountain time.
Over the coming days, we will publish some additional thoughts not only about how the Pioneers match up with the Minutemen (20-13-3, 12-10-2 Hockey East) – the very team they put into the tournament by beating Omaha last night – but also how the current selection system, in many ways, punished Denver for winning its conference tournament.
But for now, in the committee’s defense, given the results of the season and how everything shook out over the weekend, sending Denver to Springfield is an eminently defensible decision. Denver is the #3 seed while UMass-Amherst is the #14 seed. Bracket integrity is and always has been a committee priority and you can’t have any more bracket integrity than pairing the #3 team against the #14 team. In a perfect world, it will always be #1 vs #16, #2 vs #15, #3 vs #14, and so on. The only thing that threw a wrench in the situation was the fact that this time, the #4 seed dictated the #1 seed’s regional destination instead of the other way around, which is how it normally works when neither team is a regional host.
In other words, despite the selection committee’s lack of courage to justify putting Denver in Sioux Falls or Maryland Heights (Missouri) which they very easily could have, it’s not their fault the regional and hosting system is inherently flawed. They were working within the constraints of a system that has proven ineffective at accomplishing the purported goals of the regionals and they put together a flawed but very defensible bracket. If that’s the best the system can do, it’s time for the system to change – but again, we’ll have more on that in the coming days.
Looking ahead to next weekend, Denver will play UMass-Amherst on Thursday, March 28, in the early game slot at noon mountain time – televised on ESPN2 – followed by #2 Maine vs #3 Cornell. Should Denver beat the Minutemen, who lost, 8-1, in Friday night’s Hockey East semifinals to eventual Hockey East Tournament champion and #1 overall NCAA Tournament seed Boston College, they’ll play the winner of Maine-Cornell on Saturday with a return trip to St. Paul on the line.
The entire tournament bracket is shown below and you can find the interactive bracket on the NCAA’s website.
The 2024 Men’s Ice Hockey Bracket 🏒✨#NCAAHockey pic.twitter.com/YsK1ROtiMY
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 24, 2024
umass is a co host of this region
It is a broken system. A true neutral site is fine. Campus sites are better. However, penalizing higher seeded teams must be fixed. I think DU will do well in Springfield but they should never have been put in this position (again). It’s just as wrong if we are in a four seed host in Loveland next season and a one seed gets to travel across the country on short rest and deal with the altitude. The committee is working with a flawed system.
Doesn’t matter much where we play. Doesn’t matter much who we play in the regional. If DU plays to potential, we move on. If not, it’s DU’s own fault for not being prepared. I feel confident going into this regional. Offense should be fine, defense found itself lately. Will likely come down to the need for good goaltending from Davis. I have faith in Carle to get the team ready, and I’m really hoping for good news about Rizzo. He would provide a big jolt of NCAA tournament experience (and success).
Yes, the system is broken. In my mind, the top 4 (#1 seeds) teams have all earned the right to play in regionals held as close to home as possible, and should not be sent two time zones away to play the backyards of lower-seeded hosts who are seeded in the 8-16 berth in the tournament.
Of course, the best way to rid the system of this problem is to move to campus site regionals.
Tho with all their amazing talent I believe DU will win this regional, I agree with those who lobby for the higher seeds getting to host at or near their home rinks.
Who cares how close to home it is, unless it’s a Colorado regional, or unless you’re a #1 seed playing at Yost? Flying 600 miles vs flying 1200 miles, what difference does it make…it’s a couple extra hours on a plane. And if we played closer to Denver, we could have been in a bracket with tougher teams. You think DU players, who play in some of the toughest arenas in college hockey, are afraid of playing in an arena near UMass? Maybe bitching and moaning keeps some dialogue going. I say drop the puck and may the best prepared team win, wherever the game is.
Spot on! We evaded all the western foes and the Big 10 behemoths. Drew three eastern pansies, who cares where we beat ’em?
PS–The Yost assignment years ago still clenches my gut. And the NCAA had the gall to blame it on bin Laden !
I watched the frozen four selection show, what a joke. The majority of time was spent talking about BC and BU. It’s all about Hockey East. I am sorry to hear about Barry Melrose’s health issues but I won’t miss him in the broadcast booth. Dave Starman gives much better insight into the teams and doesn’t show any bias that I can see. It was great to see DU’s defense absolutley shut the door on Omaha. I think they are going to make a run this year. Let the tournament begin!!!
The bigger issue to me is that exiling top seeds to far away regionals on or near the campuses of low-seed hosts diminishes the importance of regular season and league playoff performance. Why win your league if this is your national reward? It undermines the whole premise of why we play.
Sure, it is unfair to the top exiled teams and their fans, but such NCAA financial fealty to under-qualified hosts is a sign of a broken system.
Michigan, Michigan State and Western Michigan all in the same regional. The UND/ Michigan game should be fun. At least UND didn’t get in the Sioux Falls regional! The system is flawed. NCAA is all about the money. Campus sites can’t give them the best financial arrangement.
Mich–51,000 enrollment, MichSt–50,000 enrollment, and virtually the entire population North Dakota (which seems to travel with the Soosies) all assigned to Maryland Heights’ community ice arena–capacity 2500!
Dumbest venue decision since the Ford Field F4 debacle…
It would interesting to know if it costs more or less to do campus sites. Presumably, only with eight of the 16 teams traveling, you’d save about half the travel costs of a 4-team regional at a neutral sites, so there is that expense savings. The arena rental charge is obviously higher for a neutral site, as most college rinks are on-campus and would not charge rent.
The largest variable is likely the ticket revenue which varies by arena size, timing, weather, spring break and ticket demand. Most of the eastern arenas are smaller and would likely not produce as much gate revenue as many western rinks, which tend to have 5K plus in seating capacities. Of course, ticket prices also vary by school.
“Massachusetts is the host school in Springfield and was guaranteed to play in the region if the program made the tournament.” This is the DU press release on the DenverPioneer website. It’s a clear advantage to UMass!
I don’t care where this DU team plays. They will beat the pants off the UMass boys. DU is that much better this season.