At Large bids in, Bracket and Rankings Announced

The first eight teams were easy.  All of the conferences had automatic qualifiers for the champions.  Those teams were Norwich (ECAC East), Wentworth (ECAC Northeast), Plymouth State (MASCAC), Milwaukee School of Engineering (MCHA), Gustavus Adolphus (MIAC), Amherst (NESCAC), St. Norbert (NCHA), and Plattsburgh (SUNYAC).  The three remaining teams in the 11-team field were to be selected as at-large bids.  Looking at the latest set of rankings, those shouldn't have been hard to figure out.

Oswego ended the regular-season run ranked number one in the nation.  They lost that distinction when they were defeated in the SUNYAC Championship Game by Plattsburgh, but they were still an easy choice for the first at-large bid.  Looking at the rest of the rankings, it appeared pretty easy to pick them as well.  The committee apparently wanted to take one team out of the East and one out of the West, and in that case the rankings are clear:  Adrian at number six (West), and Castleton at number seven (East). 

But alas, that's not what happened.  Adrian was snubbed in favor of St. Thomas, who were ranked eighth and were still a solid pick, albeit undeserving.  But then Castleton was snubbed in favor of Elmira, ranked 13th.  13th?  How the hell did Elmira get a bid?  Once again the NCAA selecting committee has proven itself as incompetent at the worst level.  Just to prove a point, every Oswego State Lakers hockey fan was sitting on pins and needles all day yesterday until the selections were announced at 9:30, and that was the number one team in the nation until then, because of the randomness, biases, and general incompetency of the NCAA selection committee.

I suppose it is important to note that Norwich has a representative on the selection committee, and that person (Michael McShane) probably did everything in his power to keep other ECAC East teams out of the NCAA Tournament.  And that's right folks, Castleton plays in the ECAC East and has basically emerged as Norwich's biggest and most relevant rival over the past two seasons.  Having said that, I don't really have an explanation for St. Thomas over Adrian.  The Bulldogs got screwed.

The first round of the playoffs begin on March 7, but the Lakers - despite their at-large status - have been byed into the quarterfinals where they will face Elmira (that's right) at the Campus Center Ice Arena in Oswego, New York on March 10.  It's amazing to me that not only did Elmira get an at-large bid that they didn't deserve, they got ranked highly enough by the NCAA to get a bye into the quarterfinals.

All of the relevant information on the NCAA Tournament can be seen here.  In addition, the schedule and results can be viewed here as the tournament progresses.  The quarterfinal results (quarterfinals take place on March 10) can be viewed here as the road to the Frozen Four continues.