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DULUTH — The NCHC is debuting a playoff format in 2025-26 that will last three weeks instead of two. All games will be played at the home rink of the highest seed.
Eight of the league’s nine teams will take part, just like last year. The top four seeds will host Nos. 5-8 in best-of-three first round series, as always, on March 6-8.
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It’s the semifinals and final that are changing. Those will be spread over two weekends, with single-game league semifinals March 14, at the top two remaining seeds and a league championship March 21, at the high seed.
The NCHC’s 2025-26 postseason format resembles the one used by the seven-team Big Ten since 2018. It’s a format the Big Ten is now running away from after top teams bombed in the NCAA tournament the previous two years following lengthy layoffs.
In 2024, second-seeded Wisconsin lost in three games at home to seventh-seeded Ohio State and didn’t play again for 19 days. The Badgers were one-and-done in the NCAA tournament after an overtime loss to Quinnipiac in a regional semifinal in Providence.
Last year, No. 2 Minnesota had 18 days off between its Game 3 home quarterfinals loss to No. 7 Notre Dame and an OT loss to Massachusetts in a regional semifinal in Fargo.
It’s easy to laugh at the misfortune of Big Ten teams, and the best way for top teams to avoid lengthy layoffs is not to lose series they should have won.
The Big Ten might be overreacting after major upsets in back-to-back years. The league may be grasping at straws after failing to win a national championship in 11 tries.
But there is one group in college hockey who isn’t laughing at the Big Ten’s bad luck the last two seasons. Some coaches in the NCHC are questioning whether the NCHC is doing the right thing moving forward.
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The NCHC has been massively successful — to say the least — in the NCAA tournament, with Denver, Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota and Western Michigan combining to win seven of the last nine NCAA championships.
Added another one to the list (and wall)! 👌✨#NCHChockey // #BroncosReign pic.twitter.com/ZRjswcMjsE
All seven of those NCAA title teams from the NCHC won their quarterfinal playoff series to reach the Frozen Faceoff (RIP) in the Twin Cities before their NCAA tournament run. The last nine national champions have reached their conference semifinals. The last national champion to lose in its league quarterfinals was Providence in 2015, and the Friars had just 13 days off.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the Big Ten will eliminate its best-of-three first-round series and replace it with one-game quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 11. That’s in between the end of the regular season on Saturday, March 8, and the semifinals on Saturday, March 14. The Big Ten championship will still be either on March 20 or 21.
It’s a lot of travel in a short amount of time, but this is a league where everyone charters flights, and the longest trip is less than 1,000 miles. The format means quarterfinal losers who make the NCAA tournament are looking at a 14-15 day layoff instead of 18-19 days off.
Should the NCHC look into alternative playoff formats for the future? Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt, but mirroring the Big Ten’s new format is not possible for a league that wants to include all 10 teams when it expands in 2026-27, spans over 1,800 miles, and mostly requires commercial airlines to crisscross four time zones.
The best way the NCHC’s top teams can stay sharp for the NCAA tournament is not to be the 2023-24 Badgers or 2024-25 Gophers. Winning a best-of-three series as the No. 1, 2 or 3 seed on home ice against the No. 8, 9 or 10 seed isn’t too much to ask in a league that’s never been known for competitively coddling its members.
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