{"id":469569,"date":"2026-02-24T13:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469569\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:34:13","slug":"bracketology-bulldogs-improve-ncaa-tournament-standing-via-sweeps-duluth-news-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469569\/","title":{"rendered":"Bracketology: Bulldogs improve NCAA tournament standing via sweeps – Duluth News Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

DULUTH \u2014 The Minnesota Duluth men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey programs took a step up in the rankings this week via road sweeps.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see where both programs stand with the WCHA playoffs getting underway this week, and the NCHC playoffs next week. It\u2019s another edition of the News Tribune\u2019s weekly bracketology.<\/p>\n

This season both the men and women are using the <\/p>\n

NCAA Percentage Index,<\/a><\/p>\n

which replaced the Pairwise rankings as the formula used to select at-large teams and seed the NCAA tournaments. The formulas for the NPI and Pairwise are pretty close, with a strong nonconference record by a team and league influencing the rankings.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the NCAA tournament brackets could look like after last weekend\u2019s games, going into UMD\u2019s contests on Feb. 27-28.<\/p>\n

\"college<\/p>\n

Minnesota Duluth forward Grace Sadura (7) passes the puck against St. Thomas on Friday, Feb. 13 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth. <\/p>\n

Clint Austin \/ File \/ Duluth Media Group <\/p>\n

The 11-team NCAA women\u2019s tournament will be announced on March 8, with five of the 11 teams being conference tournament champions. The six at-large teams will be selected using the NPI.<\/p>\n

The top three seeds host three-team regionals March 12-14. The No. 4 overall seed hosts No. 5 on March 14. The 2026 NCAA Frozen Four is being hosted by Penn State on March 20-22 in University Park, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs moved up this week from No. 10 to No. 9 in the NPI following two overtime wins at Minnesota. UMD is still on the bubble, but would need two Cinderellas to emerge from the conference tournaments instead of just one to knock them out.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s bracket projection from the News Tribune falls perfectly into place thanks to UMD and Princeton swapping spots. No changes are needed.<\/p>\n

Madison, Wisconsin Regional
1. Wisconsin
8. Yale vs. No. 9 Minnesota Duluth<\/p>\n

Columbus, Ohio Regional\u00a0
2. Ohio State
7. UConn vs. 10. Princeton<\/p>\n

University Park, Pennsylvania Regional
3. Penn State
6. Quinnipiac vs. 11. Franklin Pierce<\/p>\n

Minneapolis, Minnesota Regional
5. Northeastern at 4. Minnesota<\/p>\n

Regular season conference champions:
WCHA: Wisconsin
ECAC: Yale\/Princeton (Yale the No. 1 seed)
Hockey East: Northeastern
AHA: Penn State
NEWHA: Franklin Pierce<\/p>\n

\"college<\/p>\n

Minnesota Duluth forward Zam Plante (27) and North Dakota forward Ellis Rickwood (29) take a faceoff on Saturday, Feb. 7 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth. <\/p>\n

Clint Austin \/ File \/ Duluth Media Group<\/p>\n

The 16-team NCAA men\u2019s field will be unveiled on March 22. There are six automatic bids from the conference tournaments on the men\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Despite a push in recent years, the men\u2019s tournament still includes four-team regionals at pre-determined sites. Those are schedule for March 26-29 this season. Las Vegas will host the 2026 NCAA Frozen Four on April 9-11.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs \u2014 who close the regular season at home against Colorado College \u2014 are up to No. 8 in the NPI this week after two wins at Miami, putting them into the band of No. 2 seeds. <\/p>\n

According to College Hockey News,<\/a><\/p>\n

UMD now has a 99.7% chance of making the NCAA tournament, including an 86% chance via an at-large bid.<\/p>\n

Below is the News Tribune\u2019s projected bracket based on the current NPI and conference leaders (for the teams that would receive automatic bids). We have two league leaders \u2014 Atlantic Hockey\u2019s Bentley and CCHA\u2019s Augustana \u2014 currently outside the top 16 of the NPI, so they bounce out No. 15 St. Thomas and No. 16. Minnesota State of the CCHA. Augustana is currently No. 17 in the NPI.<\/p>\n

Other notes:<\/p>\n

Denver, a No. 3 seed, is the only regional host in the field right now, so the Pioneers have to play in Loveland, Colorado. That means UMD, as a No. 2 or 3 seed, won\u2019t be going there. Note that Omaha is the host in Sioux Falls, not Augustana or North Dakota.I don\u2019t like moving teams to boost attendance, but they are both so close in the NPI that I moved Wisconsin to Sioux Falls and UConn to Worcester.<\/p>\n

Albany, New York Regional
1. Michigan State vs. 16. Minnesota State
8. Minnesota Duluth vs. 10. Cornell<\/p>\n

Loveland, Colorado Regional
2. Michigan vs. 15. St. Thomas
7. Quinnipiac vs. 9. Denver<\/p>\n

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Regional
3. North Dakota vs. 13. Wisconsin
6. Providence vs. 11. Dartmouth<\/p>\n

Worcester, Massachusetts Regional
4. Western Michigan vs. 14. UConn
5. Penn State vs. 12. Boston College<\/p>\n

Current conference leaders:
NCHC: North Dakota
Big 10: Michigan
ECAC: Quinnipiac
Hockey East: Providence
AHA: Bentley
CCHA: Augustana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DULUTH \u2014 The Minnesota Duluth men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey programs took a step up in the rankings this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[1655,55050,56789,5,56788,49592,1662,1663,24359],"class_list":["post-469569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-bulldogs-hockey","tag-college-hockey-bracketology","tag-college-hockey-playoffs","tag-hockey","tag-ncaa-college-hockey-tournament","tag-ncaa-hockey-bracketology","tag-umd-bulldogs","tag-umd-hockey","tag-womens-college-hockey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116125871760879586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}