This night, the 18 groups comprising the 2024 NCAA Division I discipline hockey event shall be launched. The Event Committee shall be taking the ten convention event champions, choosing eight at-large bids, then put them into the single-elimination competitors which is able to end off in two weeks at Phyllis Ocker Subject on the College of Michigan.
We’ve finished numerous thought workouts over time, making an attempt to determine who’s going to make the ultimate 18, and it’s one thing we’ve been in a position to predict with scary accuracy. One yr, we had 18 out of 18 groups and we had been in a position to predict one bracket with solely 4 groups misplaced.
How can we do that? It’s a matter of seeing what has occurred up to now, and understanding a number of the NCAA standards for selecting groups. We strive to determine what is smart geographically, additionally understanding that, often, one of many 4 brackets can have a distinct host from the staff that’s the prime seed in its quadrant. That hasn’t occurred shortly, however will maintain an eye fixed out.
As well as, we attempt to maintain groups inside 700 miles of a regional hub each time potential. This comes very a lot into play as we speak with the variety of good groups in New England.
As of this morning, half of the event bids are identified. Now we have North Carolina out of the ACC, St. Joseph’s out of the A-10, Miami out of the Mid-American, Fairfield out of the Northeast Convention, and Lafayette out of the Patriot League.
This leaves as we speak’s competitors, with the America East, Large East, Coastal Athletic Convention, Ivy League, and Large Ten to be decided.
So, let’s begin constructing. I believe the highest 4 seeds of the competitors are going to be North Carolina, Virginia, Northwestern, and Boston School. Yep, three ACC colleges — they’re again within the ascendancy this yr.
I imagine that the ACC will go 5 deep with 4 at-large bids, and the Large Ten will go three deep with two at-large bids.
The one bracketbuster recreation as we speak, I believe, is the Large East closing between Connecticut and Temple. UConn is in no matter it does, one thing which can’t be stated for the Owls. They should win the sport as a way to make the NCAA Event, since they might be 12-8 with a defeat, and would have a three-game dropping streak (to Lafayette, Villanova, and Yale) of their closing seven video games of the 2024 season.
If Temple wins, that may possible burst a staff which is on the NCAA Event bubble — that considerably undefinable class the place a staff might have sufficient bona fides to make the event.
So, who could be on the bubble? I believe that bubble, proper now, contains the three groups that are at the moment ranked 14th, fifteenth, and sixteenth in Scores Proportion Index as calculated this morning on FieldHockeyCorner.com:
| Workforce | RPI |
| Massachusetts | 0.598 |
| Ohio State | 0.594 |
| Drexel | 0.583 |
Whereas RPI (that method that calculates power of schedule based mostly upon opponents schedules in addition to the opponents’ opponents) isn’t the figuring out issue as to which staff(s) make it into a selected event, we have now seen the sector hockey of us go by RPI with extra regularity than different NCAA committees.
This being stated, we do discover that numerous wonderful groups — Rutgers, Penn State, Stanford, Louisville, and Wake Forest — will not be eligible for the event as a result of they didn’t end with a .500 document. These groups would truly comprise a implausible season-ending event; maybe an opportunity to carry again the ECAC Event?
Anyway, under is our worm’s eye view of what might be a Division I bracket:
EVANSTON REGIONAL
16. Miami
17. CAA winner (Delaware or Monmouth)
1. Northwestern (host)
8. Michigan
9. St. Joseph’s
CHARLOTTESVILLE REGIONAL
12. Duke
5. Maryland
4. Virginia (host)
13. Princeton
BOSTON REGIONAL
14. America East winner (Vermont or New Hampshire)
3. Boston School (host)
6. Connecticut
11. Harvard
CHAPEL HILL REGIONAL
15. Lafayette
18. Fairfield
2. North Carolina (host)
7. Syracuse
10. Temple or a bubble staff
Over to you, Event Committee.
