by jimdahl
21 March 2008 at 4:15 pm
The question came up in the Denver game thread whether UND could still get a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament if Minnesota won tonight, giving UND a shot at CC.
Since the question is probably of general interest, I’ll repeat my answer here:
Looking at the CC vs. UND comparison only, 2 CC losses + 1 UND win (including 1 over CC) should flip TUC to UND and possibly RPI, plus give UND one more H2H point. If UND doesn’t take RPI, that would leave the comparison at 3-3 with CC owning RPI and UND H2H (I’m not sure which the committee would use as a tie-breaker); if UND takes RPI, UND wins the comparison 4-2 and stands a really good shot at a #1 seed.
RPI should be within .001 or so in that situation, so some of the other games could nudge it around enough to matter.
Of course, other things could move a little, with the comparison so tight, but a Minnesota win over CC and subsequent UND win over CC seems to be UND’s best chance to maximize its PWR now.
jimdahl says:
Well, Minnesota won and things are going just as predicted, given that.
Frankly, if you consider tonight’s game’s outcome as inevitable (or at least unmodified by the UND-Denver game) and your goal is the best seed for UND, the Sioux are much better off having lost to Denver so they get the head-to-head with CC. A win vs. Denver but subsequent head-to-head with Minnesota wouldn’t have provided nearly the same PWR advancement opportunity as a loss to DU and subsequent game vs. CC.
21 March 2008, 9:10 pm