With the NCAA Tournament kicking off on Thursday afternoon with Boston University knocking off Ohio State, 8-3, the final data from the USCHO Bracket Tournament Challenge is in and to no one’s surprise top seed Boston College is the most selected team to win the national championship.
That said, it’s very, very close.
Boston College was the national champion on 653 of the 2,463 brackets submitted, of about 26.5 perfect. The second overall seed, Michigan State, which ran neck and neck with the Eagles in national polls and rankings, climbing over the Eagles in last week’s USCHO poll, was a close second pick, champ on 552 brackets (22.4 percent).
Interestingly, Michigan State appeared in more people’s Championship Game than did the Eagles. Though the overwhelming pick for the final game matchup, Michigan State made the finals on 1,203 of 2,463 (48.8 percent), compared to Boston College’s 1,149 (46.6 percent).
The picks to win each region, not surprisingly were the top seeds in each. But the amount of people who picked the fourth seed in each region varied widely. Participants felt the most likely four seed to reach St. Louis is Penn State (picked to reach FF on 332 ballots). Again, not surprisingly, Bentley was the least picked team to each a Frozen Four, just 16 people thinking the Falcons will advance through two rounds.
The complete data from the pool is below:
National Champion:
Boston College: 653
Michigan State: 552
Western Michigan: 329
Maine: 312
Minnesota: 274
Boston University: 109
Denver: 91
Minnesota State: 24
Massachusetts: 24
Cornell: 21
Quinnipiac: 17
Connecticut: 16
Penn State: 15
Ohio State: 13
Providence: 7
Bentley: 6
Advance to finals:
Michigan State: 1203
Boston College: 1149
Maine: 662
Western Michigan: 566
Minnesota: 426
Boston University: 314
Denver: 225
Connecticut: 73
Quinnipiac: 65
Ohio State: 60
Penn State: 56
Massachusetts: 37
Minnesota State: 36
Cornell: 30
Providence: 16
Bentley: 8
Advance to Frozen Four, by region
Manchester Region
Boston College: 1805
Denver: 586
Providence: 56
Bentley: 16
Toledo Region
Michigan State: 1610
Boston University: 610
Ohio State: 178
Cornell: 65
Allentown Region
Maine: 1444
Quinnipiac: 350
Connecticut: 337
Penn State: 332
Fargo Region
Western Michigan: 1152
Minnesota: 1059
Massachusetts: 152
Minnesota State: 100
