>Inside College Hockey has a rather interesting feature on their web page today. They have reportedly obtained a memo from the NCAA regarding a “three-tier plan” that would minimize travel costs for NCAA Frozen Four play and seed teams for the tournament, based on geographic location.

If passed and approved by NCAA presidents and its executive committee this January, here’s what it means for Division I men’s ice hockey: Unless you’re a No. 1 seed, the NCAA tournament bracketing philosophy will strongly emphasize geographic proximity – keeping eastern teams in the east, and western teams in the west.

Instead of seeding teams based on bands and protecting bracket integrity, as has been done in recent years, only four of 16 teams would be seeded, earning top seeds in each region. The rest of the region would be determined by geography to minimize travel expenses for participating teams. In order to accommodate these new objectives, the recommendations include disregarding previously-established “working principles” of tournament selection to allow for regional matches between members of the same conference.

The article offers two possible scenarios, using the 2008 tournament brackets as examples. Here they are:

Scenario one under new seeding:

2008 West Regional
*Miami
Colorado College
Michigan State
Air Force

Scenario two under new seeding:

2008 Midwest Regional
* Miami
St. Cloud State
Minnesota
Wisconsin

Personally, I’m ALL for this. There is no reason Miami should be sent out East every single year (maybe it’s the BC bitterness in me). Seeding teams in this manner, just makes more sense to me.

What do you think?