NCAA Committee Seeks Feedback
The National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Committee will seek feedback about its bracketing process through a survey sometime in the next few months. The committee members decided to survey the membership on the issue during its June 4-6 meeting in Indianapolis.
Specifically, the committee wants to determine how important it is to women's ice hockey coaches to avoid first-round match-ups between two teams in the same conference. The current practice avoids first-round match-ups within the same conference whenever possible.
In men's ice hockey, which also avoids first-round competition between two teams in the same conference, the bracketing process is simpler because the committee has six conferences and a larger bracket. Women's ice hockey has only three conferences and eight bracket positions to fill. Only the first four positions are seeded.
Travel is also a consideration when the committee is building the bracket, because of a general NCAA policy to create as few flights as possible.
The survey will attempt to gauge the feelings of the women's ice hockey committee on the issue of bracket integrity versus the policy against first-round match-ups between two teams in the same conference.
The committee hopes to send an online survey to all National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey head coaches sometime in the next few months, with an eye toward providing results to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet in the fall. Committee members hope to have the issue resolved by the 2008 selection process.
In other business, the committee also discussed upcoming site visits to Duluth, Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Duluth will host the 2008 Women's Frozen Four at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.
