Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameZilla
P.S. What is Denver doing in the Northeast regional bracket? Seems like an awful long way for them to travel for a 'regional' competition!
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The "Regional" groupings are set to ensure the match-ups align closely to the final NCAA rankings and geography isn't taken into account except for the top-ranked teams.
They want to have the first round match-ups be 1 vs. 16; 2 vs. 15; 3 vs. 14; etc. Then, assuming all the higher-ranked teams win their first games, the second round will be 1 vs. 8; 2 vs. 7; 3 vs. 6; etc. The Frozen Four will then be 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 and the final will be 1 vs. 2 (if all the favourites win each game).
Because of this, only the top 4 teams are typically playing in the closest regional to their home town. In this case, as the #2 team, Boston College was assigned to the Northeast region and Denver matches up against BC, so Denver has to travel to Worcester.