Bracket Of Death

Final Pairwise

1 Minnesota
16 UAH
8 Michigan
9 Michigan State

2 Notre Dame
15 Air Force
7 BU
10 North Dakota

3 Clarkson
14 Miami
6 SCSU
11 UMass

4 UNH
13 Maine
5 Boston College
12 St. Lawrence

First Round Adjustments

Michigan can't play MSU and Maine can't play UNH in the first round. Usually the way this goes is the committee will swap lower seeds in an attempt to give the 1 seed the easier draw -- and they display such charming faith in the exactitude of the PWR when they do so. So MSU will probably get swapped with North Dakota and Maine with Miami. We'll do this and use the actual seeds:

1 Minnesota
4 UAH
2 Michigan
3 North Dakota

1 Notre Dame
4 Air Force
2 BU
3 Michigan State

1 Clarkson
4 Maine
2 SCSU
3 UMass

1 UNH
4 Miami
2 BC
3 St. Lawrence

Where?

UNH is hosting so that bracket is in Manchester. The Clarkson bracket is a natural fit in Rochester. Now we're weighing Minnesota, UND, and Michigan versus ND and MSU for Grand Rapids. With Air Force providing a bit of a natural draw for the Colorado region and ND and MSU's proven ability to draw beans the last time they shared a GR regional, chances are we at least get to stay local for our zero percent chance of making the Frozen Four.

UPDATE: There's some odd sentiment in the Bracketology thread at USCHO. Some scenarios have us switching with BU instead of State with UND -- the upshot is that the GR regional is then 1 ND - 2 Mi - 3 NoDak - 4 Air Force, though I bet Air Force is the #4 in Denver no matter what -- for attendance purposes at both regionals. While we were just outplayed by Notre Dame, it wasn't a horror show like the Minnesota game and that would be much preferable.