14-15-16. Cornell, Penn State, Minnesota
The true bubble. It’s far from a guarantee the No. 14 slot would even get in the tournament. These teams are going to need to string together some wins. Cornell hasn’t been able to do that in a while, but the fact that it’s still in the hunt is a testament to some good early-season wins and the ECAC’s good overall strength of schedule. It’s another tough weekend to close out the regular season, against Rensselaer and Union. A slip there and that could be the end for Cornell. A good weekend could propel the Big Ren into a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, where then a tough quarterfinal matchup would await.Penn State and Minnesota still have a few weeks left in the Big Ten regular-season schedule, so much still has to shake out. Minnesota actually has a better RPI than Penn State, but loses comparisons to teams way down the Pairwise chart such as Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State and Bemidji State, thanks to poor head-to-head showings against those teams. That limits how far up Minnesota can go. The Gophers are going to have to win a bunch of games down the stretch and hope for help. Same goes for Penn State, really, as it looks to make the NCAAs for the first time.
If neither makes a move, then the Big Ten will have only one team in the tournament again.