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Update: It's official!
Your Bulls are excited to accept an at-large bid to ACHA D1 National Championship @UBAthletics pic.twitter.com/MnBPN3jAJ8
— UB Hockey (@ub_icehockey) February 19, 2015
| Nats | Rank | Team | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| auto | 1 | Arizona State | 1 |
| in | 2 | C. Oklahoma | 2 |
| in | 3 | Minot State | 3.5 |
| in | 4 | RMU (IL) | 5 |
| auto | 5 | Stony Brook | 5.5 |
| in | 5 | Ohio | 5.5 |
| in | 7 | Oklahoma | 7.5 |
| auto | 7 | Adrian | 7.5 |
| in | 7 | Lindenwood | 7.5 |
| in | 10 | Iowa State | 10.5 |
| in | 11 | Liberty | 11.5 |
| in | 12 | Rhode Island | 12 |
| in | 13 | Illinois | 12.5 |
| in | 14 | Davenport | 13.5 |
| auto | 15 | Niagara | 16 |
| in | 15 | Colorado | 16 |
| in | 17 | Buffalo | 17.5 |
| out | 18 | Delaware | 19 |
| out | 19 | Syracuse | 20 |
| out | 19 | CSU | 20 |
| 21 | UM-Dearborn | 21.5 | |
| 22 | Lebanon | 23 | |
| 23 | Navy | 23.5 | |
| 23 | Oakland | 23.5 | |
| 25 | Arizona | 24 | |
| auto | 26 | RMU (PA) | 26.5 |
| 26 | Mercyhurst | 26.5 | |
| 28 | Kent State | 29 | |
| 28 | Rochester | 29 | |
| auto | 30 | Villanova | 30 |
| 30 | WMU | 30 | |
| 32 | West Virginia | 30.5 | |
| 32 | Drexel | 30.5 | |
| 34 | Pittsburgh | 34.5 | |
| host | 34 | John Carroll | 34.5 |
It looks like the Buffalo Bulls 15-1 win over Saint Bonaventure and Colorado State's loss to Colorado were enough to put UB over the top in the hunt for an ACHA Nationals at large bid.
According to the very unofficial calculations of twitter personality fishbert, who is a self proclaimed "Slave to the ACHA", UB should be ranked 17th this week which makes cutoff for a trip to nationals.
The Bulls will make the trip along with Niagara, who sealed up the NECHL auto bid by rolling through the regular season undefeated in league play.
Syracuse ranks 19th and will just miss the cutoff because teams like Robert Morris of Pennsylvania and Villanova won their leagues despite raking well out of the top 20. Their auto bid status ate into the at large pool.
The 2015 ACHA Men's Division 1 National Championships will be hosted March 5-10 by John Carroll University, which means #35 ranked JMU also gets a bid.
Games will also be played at the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission at the OBM Arena in Strongsville, OH. This will be the fourth year of the 20-team format.
At Nationals, teams ranked 1-12 (everyone ranked above Illinois) will receive first-round bye's, with teams ranked 13-20 matching up 20 vs 13 (etc.), for the rights to play in the second-round in pre-determined bracket slots.
That means UB may end up facing Colorado as a 4/5 matchup among the eight teams trying to break out of the first round.
The bad news for UB and their opponent (which would be either Niagara or Colorado) is that the winner takes on #1 Arizona State, a school so good at club Hockey that the school has decided to take them to the NCAA.