The women's hockey Pairwise rankings appear to have undergone their first major changes in over a decade.
A deep dive into the 2015 and 2016 NCAA women's hockey championship manuals shows that two changes to the selection criteria were made over the most recent offseason.
In addition to Bylaw 31.3.3, the Women’s Ice Hockey Committee has received approval from the Division I Championships/ Sports Management Cabinet to consider the following criteria in the selection of at-large teams for the Women’s Ice Hockey Championship (not necessarily in priority order):
u25cf*Rating Percentage Index (RPI) [won-lost record (30 percent), opponents’ winning percentage (24 percent) and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage (46 percent)];
u25cf Head-to-head competition;
u25cf Results versus common opponents; and
u25cf Results versus teams under consideration (defined as those teams with an RPI of 50.