College Hockey Bracketology Very Different This Week, But Not at the Top: Puck Drop
It's an interesting week in bracketology as there was very little movement among the top teams, but a ton among the rest of the contenders. This is one of those times the in which the end result just need to be seen to fully understand, so let's jump to it.
For our purposes the teams leading each conference standings are used for the automatic bid. That, of course, assumes that there are no upsets in the upcoming league tournaments, which never happens, so teams never want to be among the last couple of teams in the field because they can easily get bounced.
The conference leaders this week: Bentley (AHA), Michigan (Big Ten), St. Thomas (CCHA), Quinnipiac (ECAC), Providence (Hockey East), and North Dakota (NCHC). Note that Michigan is actually tied with Penn State atop the Big Ten with 31 points, and they split their series at State College, so for now we're going with the Wolverines but they play again on Feb. 13-14 in Ann Arbor.
The teams are ranked National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index at 26, 1, 11, 8, 7 and 3, respectively.
The top remaining 10 in NPI are added as the at-large teams: Michigan State, Penn State, Western Michigan, Minnesota Duluth, Cornell, Wisconsin, Dartmouth, Denver, Boston College and finally Connecticut.
Note that the 16-team field looks significantly different from previous bracketology as all but one of the conferences have a team in the top 16 NPI. How many of the leaders in the standings also have their league's best NPI? All six, for the first time this season.
The next four teams out: Augustana, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State and Harvard. The CCHA is back to having just one team in the field, and the Hockey East jumped from having only one team qualify to three.
Finally, a reminder that regional hosts have to do just that, host. The only team that includes right now is Denver, but that also means that attendance is going to be a major concern with the other locations and there will likely be some tweaking at the end to get some teams playing closer to home.
Worcester, Mass. (Holy Cross)
Albany, N.Y. (Union)
Sioux Falls, S.D. (Omaha)
Loveland, Colo. (Denver)
It has no bearing on the selection process, but North Dakota is the host school of Frozen Four in Las Vegas on April 9-11.
The teams are seeded in four tiers, 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, to set up our brackets.
1: Michigan Michigan State, North Dakota, Penn State
2: Western Michigan, Minnesota Duluth, Providence, Quinnipiac
3: Cornell, Wisconsin, St. Thomas, Dartmouth
4: Denver, Boston College, Connecticut, Bentley
In order to preserve bracket integrity teams may not be switched out of their tiers. It's a factor this week.
Out of that we go to straight brackets, 1, 8, 9, 16 in the the first region, and so on. The top-seeded team's region is paired with the No. 4-overall seed's group for a potential semifinal.
Michigan, Quinnipiac, Cornell, Bentley
Penn State, Western Michigan, Dartmouth, Denver
North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, St. Thomas, Boston College
Michigan State, Providence, Wisconsin, Connecticut
Next, the sites. Ideally the pairings are geographically friendly when possible but avoid first-round conference matchups, and set up in a way that doesn't negatively impact the bracket integrity. With that mind, Denver is a host so that regional heads to Loveland. Albany is closest to Michigan, and having Cornell in that group would be a huge bonus. UND heads to Sioux Falls.
Albany: Michigan, Quinnipiac, Cornell, Bentley
Loveland: Penn State, Western Michigan, Dartmouth, Denver
Sioux Falls: North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, St. Thomas, Boston College
Worcester: Michigan State, Providence, Wisconsin, Connecticut
We have one first-round matchup featuring two two teams from the same conference, Quinnipiac and Cornell out of the ECAC, so one of them has to be moved. There are two-plus possibilities and we're going to explain them.
Option1: Swap Cornell and Wisconsin
Normally you'd want to make the switch on the lower level, so this is preferred. Cornell is No. 9 (it can't go up to No. 8 in a different tier), and Wisconsin is No. 10, so it works in that regard. However, not having Cornell in Albany could help lead to an attendance disaster. So what if we did that and switched the venues?
It make sense for a variety of reasons, including that both Quinnipiac and Bentley are roughly an hour's drive away from Worcester. In addition to Cornell, two of the other teams in Albany would be from the East, while Denver and UND are draws in the other two regions.
Worcester: Michigan, Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, Bentley
Loveland: Penn State, Western Michigan, Dartmouth, Denver
Sioux Falls: North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, St. Thomas, Boston College
Albany: Michigan State, Providence, Cornell, Connecticut
Option 2: Switch Quinnipiac and Providence
They're on the second tier, which isn't ideal, but it would keep Cornell in Albany for the desired attendance boost, and Quinnipiac could hopefully do the same for Worcester.
Albany: Michigan, Providence, Cornell, Bentley
Loveland: Penn State, Western Michigan, Dartmouth, Denver
Sioux Falls: North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, St. Thomas, Boston College
Worcester: Michigan State, Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, Connecticut
Option 3: Shuffle the bottom teams
Another switch that the committee could consider in addition to one of the previous options in this scenario is to shake up the fourth-tier teams including Denver, which would in turn alter the sites. Getting Boston College to Worcester seems desirable, but it wouldn't necessarily help here as UConn is just under an hour's drive as well.
It's something to keep in mind moving forward, especially with such a fluid field.
Nevetheless, we're going with Option 1 for our latest projected bracket heading into February for the 16-team field that will make up the 2026 Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship. The pairings:
Worcester: 1 Michigan vs. 16 Bentley; 8 Quinnipiac vs. 10 Wisconsin
Loveland: 4 Penn State vs. 13 Denver; 5 Western Michigan vs. 12 Dartmouth
Sioux Falls: 3 North Dakota vs. 14 Boston College; No. 6 Minnesota Duluth vs. 11 St. Thomas
Albany: 2 Michigan State vs. 15 Connecticut; 7 Providence vs. 9 Cornell
Puck Drop: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
• The Vancouver Canucks shut down former Boston College goaltender Thatcher Demko, who undergo hip surgery and miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season. Demko has appeared in just 20 games this season.
• Patrick Kane had an assist to tie Mike Modano for the most points by a U.S.-born player in NHL history with 1,374 (500 goals, 874 assists in 1,341 games). However, the Detroit Red Wings lost to the Los Angeles Kings at Little Caesars Arena, 3-1.
• Although Minnesota reported a school-record $163.6 million in revenue for FY25, driven primarily by a $12M increase in media rights distributions to $63M, which offset year-over-year declines in ticket sales ($19.6 million, down from $22.7 million) and contributions ($22.4 million, down from $24.1 million). Football generated a $54 million profit, while men’s hockey revenue grew to $9.7 million (yielding a $2.8M surplus) thanks to a significant spike in royalties and sponsorship income.
• Former Boston University standout Macklin Celebrini had another big game with a goal and three assists in his hometown as the Sharks defeated the Canucks 5-2, but this play was pretty rare:
Celebrini won this face-off with the KNOB of his stick, 200 IQ play. 😂 pic.twitter.com/yIGYhEwlOZ
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 28, 2026
Men's College Hockey Tuesday Scores
Non-Conference
Long Island 4, Alaska-Anchorage 3
Women's College Hockey Tuesday Scores
No Games Scheduled
Games between ranked opponents are bolded. All times are local to where the game is being played.
Men's College Hockey Wednesday Schedule
No Games Scheduled
Women's College Hockey Wednesday Schedule
No Games Scheduled
Hockey Quote of the Day
“Being an Olympian is a core part of who I am."Angela Ruggiero (Harvard)
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We'll Leave You With This ...
Penn State students helped shovel Beaver Stadium in preparation for this weekends hockey game! Students were given free tickets to the game, a food voucher, and more free food/drinks after shoveling!
— Basic Blues Nation (@BasicBlues) January 27, 2026
🎥: @emma_neskie#WeAre #HockeyValley #PennState #CollegeHockey #Snowstorm pic.twitter.com/7FSAzcXhtD
Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of Alabama Crimson Tide On SI, which first published as BamaCentral in 2018, and is also the publisher of the Boston College, Missouri and Vanderbilt sites . He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004 and is the author of 27 books including “100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” and “Nick Saban vs. College Football.” He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.
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