Forget about the bonus points.

The only bonus points awarded this year will go to anyone who can guess the exact hue of red on the face of Cornell coach Mike Schafer when he watched the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday night.

Frozen Four seeding

No. 1 seeds 1. Cornell (28-4-1) 2. Colorado College (29-6-5) 3. Minnesota (24-8-9) 4. New Hampshire (25-7-6) No. 2 seeds 1. Boston University (24-13-3) 2. Maine (24-9-5) 3. Ferris State (30-9-1) 4. Boston College (23-10-4) No. 3 seeds 1. Michigan (28-9-3) 2. North Dakota (26-11-5) 3. Ohio State (25-12-5) 4. Harvard (22-9-2) No. 4 seeds 1. St. Cloud State (17-15-5) 2. MSU-Mankato (20-10-10) 3. Wayne State (21-16-2) 4. Mercyhurst (22-12-2) Complete bracket Complete schedule

The Big Red (28-4-1), who enter regional play as the top overall seed, open up play in the East at Providence on Saturday against Minnesota State-Mankato (20-10-10).

The expectation was, and should have been, that Cornell would face the lowest-seeded team in the tournament -- either MAAC champ Mercyhurst or College Hockey America champ Wayne State.

"One of the unique pieces that we had this year was that we had two WCHA teams that were No. 1 seeds and two WCHA teams that were No. 4 seeds," said committee chair Ian McCaw, "and we're very committed to not having intra-conference play in the first round, so that really created those four matchups for us."

Because of the selection committee's mandate to avoid first-round intra-conference matchups, it had no choice but to give Cornell the lowest-seeded team in the WCHA.

The other No. 1 seeds are Colorado College (29-6-5) in the Midwest, Minnesota (24-8-9) in the West and New Hampshire (25-7-6) in the Northeast.

Because the Tigers and Gophers couldn't play No. 4 seeds Mankato or St. Cloud State in the first round, that left Cornell and UNH to face the WCHA schools. And CC and Minnesota benefited by drawing Wayne State (No. 29 in PairWise rankings) and Mercyhurst (No. 28), respectively.

"We created the (seeding) bands and knew that we couldn't necessarily have 1 vs. 16 and 2 vs. 15 but we knew we were going to have a No. 1 vs. a No. 4," McCaw said. "The college hockey community has historically told us, and we remain committed, that we want to avoid the first round intra-conference matchup."

What about switching some combination of the bottom two No. 3 seeds with the top two No. 4 seeds as a way to avoid the WCHA issue in the first round?

"That would violate the competitive equity of those bands so we didn't feel we could move schools from one band to another," McCaw said. "We felt that over the course of the season they played their way into position."

That's what Schafer thought to when he told his team that the higher it was seeded, the better (read: easier) its first-round matchup should be. On paper, the difference between the last two WCHA teams and the last two teams in the tournament is monumental.

And those much-talked-about bonus points? The college hockey community was buzzing in the final weeks leading up to the tournament about how much of an effect the bonus criteria (wins against top-15 teams) would have on the brackets.

As it turned out, almost none.

Anyone who looked at U.S. College Hockey Online's PairWise Rankings on Sunday afternoon and compared them to the 16-team field saw the only switching of spots was between Mankato and St. Cloud in the 13 and 14 slots.

"The magnitude, based on this year's bracket, was that it didn't have a significant impact," McCaw said.

Nowhere near the impact the committee had in putting together the first-ever 16-team bracket.

"We think is going to be an outstanding championship," McCaw said. "We think the committee did an excellent job to ensure competitive equity and I think we've accomplished that."

Just don't ask Cornell.

David Albright is a senior editor at ESPN.com and can be reached at david.albright@espn3.com