The Big Ten Conference, according to a story in the Wisconsin State Journal, has decided on a format for its men's hockey tournament.
The conference will start with six teams in 2012-13 and after the regular season there will be a two-week tournament.
On the first weekend, there will be two best-of-three series. The sixth seed will play at the third seed, the fifth seed will play at the fourth seed. The top two seeds will get byes.
On the second weekend, the semifinals and championship game will be played at the top seed. The winner of the tournament will get an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament.
Obviously, what this format does is leave the Xcel Energy Center open if the WCHA still wants to hold its tournament there.
The six teams in the Big Ten Conference will be Minnesota and Wisconsin from the WCHA, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State from the CCHA, and Penn State, which is starting a program.
* Center Craig Smith and defenseman John Ramage, two juniors, have been named the co-captains at Wisconsin for the 2011-12 season.
