Re: 2017 NCAA Women's Frozen Four
You all have mentioned how the NCAA likes to eliminate travel costs in quarterfinal games. For example putting Minnesota duluth (3) vs Minnesota (5) against each other instead of the normal 3 vs. 6. What would they do if they finish 2,4 or 3,4. Would they still have them play each other?
The top 4 teams are seeded and can't play each other. The bottom four are free-floating and will play the top 4. They will try to keep bracket integrity (i.e. 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5) as best as possible, however they will minimize flights first. For example if you have a top 8 of:
1 Wisconsin
2 Duluth
3 St. Lawrence
4 Boston College
5 Minnesota
6 Clarkson
7 Cornell
8 Robert Morris,
They would have 5 Minnesota @ 2 Duluth, since Minnesota is going to HAVE to bus to one of those two western teams. Then they would assign the rest of the bracket from there. So:
8 Robert Morris @ 1 Wisconsin
7 Cornell @ 3 St. Lawrence
6 Clarkson @ 4 Boston College
5 Minnesota @ 2 Minnesota-Duluth
There's the minor caveat that they might send Cornell to BC and Clarkson to St. Lawrence (Clarkson to SLU is like 11 miles away) to save money, which they did last year with Northeastern and BC, but to the letter of the criteria, they wouldn't (they're REQUIRED to minimize flights -- nothing more than that -- but last year they minimized hotel stays too since Northeastern could just stay at their own dorm when they played at BC, and Clarkson could do the same this year if they went to SLU). But, anyway, that gives you a general idea of how it works.
