There are still 30 more days until Penn State hockey resumes its season and over three months until the NCAA Tournament field is selected in late March, but it is never too early to crunch some college hockey bracketology.

The tournament is still the normal 16-team format, but the Pairwise ranking system has been phased out and replaced with the NPI. The selection process is also the same- the six conference tournament champions and top 10 non-champions qualify for the tournament.

As of this morning, the following teams would be in the NCAA Tournament if the season ended today based on the NPI and conference standings. Please note that projected conference tournament winners are in italics and are projected by current in-conference point percentage:

DartmouthMichiganWisconsinMinnesota-DuluthDenverMinnesota StateNorth DakotaNortheasternPenn StateMichigan StateWestern MichiganCornellQuinnipiacSt. Cloud StateHarvardBentley

First Four Out: Bowling Green, Miami, St. Thomas, Lindenwood

The selection committee avoids in-conference matchups in the first round and tends to place the one seeds in their closest geographic region. Additionally, as the host of the Loveland, Colorado regional, Denver will be automatically assigned to that region should it make the NCAA Tournament.

With these stipulations in mind, the projected bracket would look like this:

Dartmouth vs. BentleyNortheastern vs. Penn StateMichigan vs. HarvardNorth Dakota vs. Michigan StateWisconsin vs. St. Cloud StateMinnesota State vs. Western MichiganMinnesota-Duluth vs. QuinnipiacDenver vs. Cornell

Of course, this is all very early and there is still a lot of hockey to be played. The Ivy League schools started their regular seasons late, which has skewed their standing in the NPI a little bit, but things will stabilize as the season goes on.

The Big Ten has four teams in. I won’t rule out Ohio State or Minnesota turning things around like Penn State did last year, but I can’t see the conference getting more than four teams in this year.

CCHA and Atlantic Hockey are likely one-bid leagues again. The NCHC has a decent shot to get five teams into the field after receiving just two bids last year. North Dakota, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota-Duluth have had hot starts to the season after disappointing in 2024-25, Denver is Denver, and Western Michigan should improve.

Northeastern is the only team from Hockey East in the current field, a sharp drop from last year’s six bids, but there is too much talent in that league for only one team to get in. Boston University, Providence, Maine, UConn, and Boston College are all in the 20-29 range of the NPI. A couple of good weekends could launch those teams back into the picture.

The ECAC has four teams in this field, but time will tell if Dartmouth can make its first NCAA bid in 46 years or if Harvard can hold its place on the bubble. Rand Pecknold has Quinnipiac as an NCAA Tournament regular, and I expect no different this year.

This weekend is the final weekend of conference play before the holiday break. Penn State is idle, but the remaining six teams will play.

Minnesota at Ohio State- Thursday at 7:30pm and Friday at 6pm (both games on Big Ten Network)Wisconsin at Notre Dame- Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 6pm (both games on Peacock)Michigan at Michigan State- Friday (8:30pm on Big Ten Network) and Saturday (7pm on Big Ten Plus).

The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry is always a fun watch. A sweep for either team would give the winner an inside track to winning the Big Ten regular season title. Wisconsin travels to struggling Notre Dame looking to keep pace with Michigan and Michigan State. Coming off a big win against Denver in overtime, Minnesota could leap into fourth place with two wins against Ohio State, but the Buckeyes are a tough out at home.