The 2024 NCAA men’s college hockey brackets have been announced. The time for making Bracketology posts is over. Next weekend, 12 teams’ seasons will end. Four teams will move on to the Frozen Four at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, on April 11-13.
Some interesting things stick out: the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri, is the host site for three teams from Michigan. Moreover, you have a very small arena that seats 2,500 fans and four very large fanbases. A neutral site doesn’t seem really ideal in this situation. Imagine how many tickets you could sell if the regionals were in better venues or on campus. No one is ever going to accuse the NCAA of being practical or intelligent. Putting a regional championship in a 2500-seat arena is not a good decision.
Maryland Heights, the smallest arena of the four regionals which seats 2,500, will host Michigan State, North Dakota, Michigan, and Western Michigan. Woof.
— LetsGoDU (@LetsGoDU) March 24, 2024
Denver gets to play a four-seed in their home state. MassMutual Center is 26 miles away from where the Minutemen play their home games. As I stated earlier, this is a perfect reason to bring the regionals back to campus and play one seed vs. 16 seed, and so forth. You have a number four seed, basically playing a home game against a number one seed. Here’s a good read on why we should move the regionals back to campus.
Neutral Site Regional Tournament Games Are TRASH And Need To Go https://t.co/O9nailCa9T pic.twitter.com/VNfcJhXoSd
— Mike Grinnell (@MikeGrinnell_) March 24, 2024
Mike Grinnell wrote: What I want to see? Imagine a tournament game at the Ralph in Grand Forks. Or how about at historic Yost Arena on Michigans campus. You’re telling me that wouldn’t be electric on television? A Saturday night playoff game at Michigan!? MSU vs Michigan under the bright lights of Yost Arena. Come on!
For North Dakota, Friday’s matchup will be the 92nd all-time meeting between the two. The Wolverines hold a 46-41-4 (.527) margin. North Dakota and Michigan have met five times in the NCAA tournament. UND has a 3-2 record in those five meetings.
Providence, R.I.
1. Boston College vs. 16. Michigan Tech
8. Wisconsin vs. 9. Quinnipiac
Springfield, MA.
3. Denver vs. 14. UMass-Amherst
5. Maine vs. 12. Cornell
Maryland Heights, Mo.
4. Michigan State vs. 13 Western Michigan
6. North Dakota vs. 10. Michigan
Sioux Falls, S.D.
2. Boston University vs. 15 RIT
7. Minnesota vs. 11. Omaha
