Michigan State hockey would be 1-seed in NCAA Tournament if season ended today

Michigan State hockey is on track to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and it would be if the season ended today.

Michigan State hockey is having one of the best seasons in program history. The Spartans are slowly but surely climbing the hockey rankings and are now the No. 4 team in the country. This jump in the rankings comes after a sweep on the road against No. 20 Penn State this past weekend. The Spartans were dominant, winning the two games this weekend 5-0 and 7-3. This takes their season record to 15-4-3 (9-1-2 Big Ten).

Hockey uses the PairWise rankings to rank the top college hockey teams, similar to the AP Poll in other sports. College hockey also uses these rankings to determine who gets into the 16-team NCAA Tournament field and what their seeds will be.

Since Michigan State just jumped up to No. 4, that means if the season were to end today they would be a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. That is no small feat considering what this program has gone through over the last decade and a half.

A great program restored

The year is 2007 and MSU just won their third national title in program history. I still remember watching this game to this day and being at Munn Ice Arena the following season to watch them raise their championship banner. The Spartans were at the top of the college hockey world, but not for long.

They had a solid season the next year in 2008, but everything went downhill after that. Since winning it all in 2007, the Spartans have only made the NCAA Tournament twice, in 2008 and 2012. Michigan State also hasn’t finished with a winning record since the 2014-15 season either. For a program with a historic past, the last decade and a half has been one to forget.

That, however, is changing. Michigan State is not only No. 4 in the country, but it’s No. 1 in the Big Ten. The Spartans have never won the Big Ten since the conference created a hockey league, so we might be witnessing something for the first time in history.

The season still has a long way to go, but the Spartans are on track to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 and have their first winning season since 2015.

Michigan State takes on Michigan in its next weekend series beginning on Friday night in East Lansing before a return trip to Ann Arbor on Saturday. The Spartans have six regular-season series remaining, so you still have plenty of time to see them in person.