Among the more obvious changes to the NCAA Tournament this season -- the expansion to 16 teams and four regions -- were more esoteric changes to the process of selecting and, in particular, seeding the teams.

The largest controversy in the selection process was taking St. Cloud State, with a 17-15-5 record, as an at-large team. The Huskies benefited from changes that removed the "Last 16" criteria, and a more heavily weighted strength of schedule. Yet for all that controversy, the more sophisticated rankings tools actually had St. Cloud in anyway.

	Cornell has to open the tourney against Grant Stevenson and a tough MSU-Mankato team.

The biggest controversies are in the seeding process. Cornell, having won the ECAC tournament and regular season, comes into the tournament as the highest-ranked team in the nation. That should give them a first-round game against either of the happy-to-be-there teams, Mercyhurst and Wayne State.

However, one of the biggest mandates for the committee is to avoid first-round matchups between teams from the same conference. With Minnesota jumping to a No. 1 seed with WCHA rival Colorado College, and two WCHA teams -- St. Cloud and Mankato -- as No. 4 seeds, the committee was stuck. Minnesota and CC had to be paired with the CHA and MAAC champs, leaving Cornell to face Mankato, a team that was 17-1-6 down the stretch before losing a pair at the WCHA Final Five.

Cornell's second-round matchup is equally open to question. Boston College was considered the worst No. 2 seed, and therefore was matched with the top No. 1 seed, Cornell, a theoretically sound principle. That ignored, however, Maine's lackluster play down the stretch, and Boston College's double-overtime loss to BU in the Hockey East semifinals. Also, Maine fans thought that, as the higher No. 2 seed, the Black Bears would be rewarded with staying closer to the East. But the desire to "protect" Cornell with giving them a second-round matchup against the "worst" No. 2 seed, trumped Maine's desire to stay home.

Again, the committee went strictly "by the numbers" in putting New Hampshire, the lowest-seeded No. 1 seed, potentially against BU, the highest-seeded No. 2 seed, in the second round in Worcester. This despite the fact that the two teams just met to decide the Hockey East tournament championship. That is something the committee would have tried to avoid in the past.

The committee has some serious questions to ask of itself. Among them: Was it too much of a slave to the numbers, getting boxed into a corner? Does the tournament criteria need more tweaks to solve some of the inequities, or be scrapped for something better? Is there any way to avoid these home-ice advantages for the likes of Minnesota and Michigan?

At what point does sticking to a hard-and-fast interpretation of the seeding criteria become so hard-and-fast that it unfairly penalizes teams that deserve better fates?

Nevertheless, the four-regional, 16-team tournament is an overwhelming positive for college hockey, and the matchups, however they were derived, are filled with intrigue.

East
Cornell has been near the top of the mathematical rankings all season long, though many people still question the validity of that. There will be no bigger way for the Big Red to prove once and for all that they are legitimate than by knocking off the powerhouse WCHA's best team down the stretch.

Boston College gets to play Ohio State, two teams with up-and-down seasons. Both teams need their goaltending to be strong, and need their big-name talent to rise to the occasion. This has usually happened with Boston College, but not so with Ohio State. But either team is capable of reaching the Frozen Four.

Northeast
Boston University faces Harvard in the first round, the third time these two old rivals have met. BU won both matchups, including the Beanpot semifinal. In fact, Harvard was 0-7-1 against Top 15 opponents this season, and has yet to prove it can defeat a top-notch club, though it came excruciatingly close in the ECAC tournament final. Goalie Sean Fields has carried the Terriers down the stretch.

New Hampshire snuck into the final No. 1 seed, and gets St. Cloud State, which stumbled down the stretch. But the Huskies are getting healthy at just the right time, and are capable of putting a scare into the Wildcats, still looking for an elusive national championship.

Midwest
Michigan gets the home-ice advantage again, and don't be surprised if they again take advantage of it. The Wolverines are known to break the hearts of many a No. 1 seed, and despite losing a lot of top-notch talent over the years to early departures, they have reloaded with the likes to Eric Nystrom and Jeff Tambellini, and freshman goalie Al Montoya. Montoya's counterpart in the first round is Maine's Jim Howard, who beat out Montoya for a spot in the World Juniors. But Howard was pulled in each of Maine's playoff losses, and Frank Doyle could play.

Colorado College, with Hobey favorite Peter Sejna, is a scoring machine. After disposing of Wayne State, it will set up an enormous intra-conference showdown with either of the perennial powers.

West
Ferris State enters with the most wins of any team in the tournament (30), but lost the CCHA tournament championship to Michigan. The Bulldogs' reward for their first-ever tournament appearance? If they want to get to the Frozen Four, they will have to get past perennial power North Dakota and Minnesota, which is playing at home. Ferris State's strong offense was backed up this year by the emergence of goalie Mike Brown, but North Dakota is always dangerous.

Like CC, defending champion Minnesota will get a gimme in the first round, but unlike CC, will have the big home-ice advantage in the second round.

Adam Wodon is a news editor for U.S. College Hockey Online and the play-by-play voice for Cornell hockey