A look at the polls and a little "bracketology"

The Eagles are back in the swing of things after a 3 game slide, and they were rewarded with a jump in the polls:

USCHO - 11th
INCH - 9th
USA Today - 10th

Their PWR puts them at 9, well into the field of 16 if the tournament started today. Speaking of PWR and tournament fields, what would the field of 16 look like at this point in the season? The best way is to look at the PWR and figure it out. The top 16 in the PWR at this point looks like this:

1 Miami
2 Denver
3 Minnesota-Duluth
4 Wisconsin
5 Ferris State
6 St. Cloud State
7 Union
8 Bemidji State
9 BC
10 UMASS
11 Colorado College
12 North Dakota
13 Vermont
14 Michigan State
15 UNH
16 Yale
Air Force leads Atlantic Hockey, but are lower in the PWR, so they would replace Yale here. Sorry Bulldog fans.

There are four regionals in the NCAA hockey tournament: Northeast (Worcester), East (Albany), Midwest (Fort Wayne), West (Minneapolis). The top four seeds are placed where they would be closest to home, providing good attendance and a slight home field advantage. The seeds should be placed like this:
Miami - Midwest
Denver - Northeast
Minnesota-Duluth - West
Wisconsin - East
The rationale here is that Miami is the top seed, so they get preferential treatment, while UMD playing in Minneapolis makes sense. Unfortunately, that means Denver and Wisconsin must travel, but what can we do. The rest of the field fills in quite nicely, setting up 1 vs 16, etc. It looks a little like this:

Midwest Regional
1. Miami
2. Bemidji State
3. BC
4. Air Force

Northeast Regional
1. Denver
2. Union
3. Colorado College
4. UNH

East Regional
1. Wisconsin
2. Ferris State
3. North Dakota
4. Vermont

West Regional
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. St. Cloud State
3. UMASS
4. Michigan State

On the bubble: Yale, Lake Superior, Cornell

So, a first round date with last year's Cinderella looms for the Eagles.... this week.

Tomorrow, we'll look at a HUGE weekend for BC.