The NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament is approaching as conferences wrap up the regular season and enter conference tournament play.
Each game is critical, as the volatile PairWise ranking system will continue to track play throughout the playoffs. PairWise uses game results, head-to-head rankings and other metrics to compare every team in the NCAA, ranking the best teams in the country based on the total.
The top 16 usually makes up the NCAA Tournament field. While it’s not explicitly guaranteed, a committee has rarely overruled PairWise.
Penn State enters the Big Ten Tournament at No.