Bracketology Roundup: Final MSU hockey bracketology review on Selection Sunday

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It's Selection Sunday! Well, the hockey one at least.

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The official college hockey NCAA Tournament bracket will be unveiled on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. ET on ESPNU), with the Spartans locked in for a third straight appearance in the big dance. Through the NPI rating system used to select the 16 participants in the NCAA Tournament, we know Michigan State will be one of the four No. 1 seeds, landing as the No. 3 overall team in the country. But who and where will the Spartans be playing next week in NCAA Tournament? That's what we'll be officially finding out in just a few hours.

With the official bracket set to be released in a few hours, let's take one quick final look around the college hockey bracketology world and look into where the Spartans could be heading next week:

USCHO.com

Jim Connelly of USCHO.com has Michigan State landing as the No. 1 seed in the Worcester Region, with a first round matchup against No. 4 seed Connecticut. The other first round matchup in this region pits No. 2 seed Dartmouth against No. 3 seed Penn State.

Click on the social media post below to see the complete bracket projection from Connelly:

College Puck NXT

College Puck NXT also has the Spartans landing as the No. 1 seed in the Worcester Region, with a first round matchup against No. 4 seed Connecticut. There is a slight difference in the rest of the projected region, though, with the other first round matchup being No. 2 seed Providence playing No. 3 seed Cornell.

Click on the social media post below to see the complete bracket projection from College Puck NXT:

JerBear

JerBear, who is arguably the best social media account out there for Michigan State hockey insight and coverage, posted his thoughts on the Spartans possible draw on Sunday morning, with a similar projection to the other two bracketologists. JerBear has Michigan State landing as the No. 1 seed in the Worcester Region playing against No. 4 seed Connecticut, but with the other first round matchup in their pod being No. 2 seed Dartmouth vs. No. 3 seed Wisconsin.

Final Thoughts

It seems quite clear that there are some certainties in place for the Spartans based on the bracket projections and final NPI ratings: Michigan State is going to be the No. 1 seed in the Worcester Region and play Connecticut in the first round. There is an outside chance that the selection committee avoids placing Western Michigan (the final No. 1 seed) in the same region as conference rival Denver, and the Spartans end up in the Loveland Region instead. This is the only other scenario I could see for Michigan State as far as region placement, but also is unlikely to happen based on projections.

The unknown, though, is who will be the other two teams in Michigan State's region. It's hard to say who you would or wouldn't want to face in a potential second round matchup, but I personally would rather not have another Big Ten team in their region. Especially a team like Penn State, who Michigan State handled throughout the regular season, but has the high-end talent where it'll be a close game and the puck luck could flip the other way this time around. That, of course, is going down a wormhole of what if's so for now, we will just wait to see how things play out in a few hours.

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Bracketology Roundup: Final MSU hockey bracketology review on Selection Sunday

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