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getbak · 03-14-2026, 01:00 PM

Determining who will get invited to the NCAA Tournament has always been incomprehensible to me.

This season, there are 63 teams in Division I hockey, so they need a way to figure out who the top 16 teams are even when they play very different schedules against broadly different teams. This year, they are using a new formula called the NPI (NCAA Percentage Index). It takes into account the quality of a team's competition and other factors to give a weighted ranking to each team's record. I will admit, that I don't understand it and don't have the time to figure it out, so I just use the list from College Hockey News: https://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/npi

Each season, the 6 Conference Champions get automatic invites to the tournament, and 10 at-large invites are given to the remaining 10 best teams that didn't win their conferences. Most years, 3 or 4 of the Conference Champions are strong teams that would have received invites anyway, so if you're in the top-12 at the end of the season, you're usually safe to get an invite. 15 and 16 are usually on the outside, and 13 and 14 are bubble teams hoping there aren't any upsets in any of the strong conferences.

Here are the current rankings going into Saturday's games of the teams with Flames' prospects:

North Dakota = 2
Denver = 6
Quinnipiac = 8
Penn State = 10
Cornell = 11
Maine = 20
Harvard = 29
Merrimack = 30

These rankings will continue to change as games are played, so there are no guarantees (for example, Quinnipiac was 6th before they lost to #34 Clarkson yesterday), but as things stand, it looks like there could be 5 teams with Flames' prospects heading to the tournament.

03-14-2026, 01:00 PM	#592
getbak Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	Determining who will get invited to the NCAA Tournament has always been incomprehensible to me. This season, there are 63 teams in Division I hockey, so they need a way to figure out who the top 16 teams are even when they play very different schedules against broadly different teams. This year, they are using a new formula called the NPI (NCAA Percentage Index). It takes into account the quality of a team's competition and other factors to give a weighted ranking to each team's record. I will admit, that I don't understand it and don't have the time to figure it out, so I just use the list from College Hockey News: https://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/npi Each season, the 6 Conference Champions get automatic invites to the tournament, and 10 at-large invites are given to the remaining 10 best teams that didn't win their conferences. Most years, 3 or 4 of the Conference Champions are strong teams that would have received invites anyway, so if you're in the top-12 at the end of the season, you're usually safe to get an invite. 15 and 16 are usually on the outside, and 13 and 14 are bubble teams hoping there aren't any upsets in any of the strong conferences. Here are the current rankings going into Saturday's games of the teams with Flames' prospects: North Dakota = 2 Denver = 6 Quinnipiac = 8 Penn State = 10 Cornell = 11 Maine = 20 Harvard = 29 Merrimack = 30 These rankings will continue to change as games are played, so there are no guarantees (for example, Quinnipiac was 6th before they lost to #34 Clarkson yesterday), but as things stand, it looks like there could be 5 teams with Flames' prospects heading to the tournament. __________________ Turn up the good, turn down the suck!