First things is first. For those of you looking at the PWR and the RPI, you will see that Colorado College is at .5000 in the RPI, but it is not a TUC. Why? The actual RPI is .49996, so rounding up, it’s .5000.
It’s important, why? Ask Wisconsin, you’ll see later.
It’s real simple this time of year. If you’re on the bubble, you must win to keep your standing or move up. If you lose, you move down.
On the losing side, no one knows this better than Rensselaer. A loss, you move down. The Engineers lost and went down.
On the winning side, you’re Union so you know what happens. Union wins, the Dutchmen move up.
We mentioned in the column this past week that Boston University has a double-edged sword. Defeat Merrimack, but watch your TUC record go down because Merrimack would drop as a TUC. That’s exactly what happened on Friday night.
What to watch for on Saturday night? Ohio State is right at .5000 in the RPI, Nebraska-Omaha is on the precipice of falling out at .5015 and Holy Cross is at .5025 and Air Force at .5022. Should Nebraska-Omaha fall out and Colorado College does not become a TUC once again, that negates a lot of things for Wisconsin, since it was 2-0 against Nebraska-Omaha, but 0-2 against CC.
Ohio State falling out would benefit Notre Dame. And a Holy Cross and Air Force loss could see those two teams falling out of TUC range.
Then you have Michigan at .4995 and Connecticut at .4990. There is some impact there on the PWR also.
So Saturday is an interesting night all around.
Here’s what I think it looks like right now, and let me tell you, it’s carnage in the brackets.
Providence
16 Wisconsin vs. 1 Quinnipiac
12 St. Cloud State vs. 6 Boston College
Grand Rapids
13 Western Michigan vs. 2 Minnesota
9 Yale vs. 7 Minnesota State
Toledo
14 Union vs. 3 Miami
11 Niagara vs. 5 North Dakota
Manchester
15 Notre Dame vs. 4 Massachusetts-Lowell
10 New Hampshire vs. 8 Denver
