Release courtesy of the MIAC
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) announced additional details for its all-comers tournaments in basketball and hockey on Friday. The MIAC Athletic Directors’ Council moved to adopt a revised postseason format for this year due to the impact of COVID-19-related cancelations on the 2021-22 regular seasons.
The 2022 MIAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Playoffs will be played from February 19-26. In order to accommodate four rounds of playoff play, the last regular-season round previously scheduled for Saturday, February 19 will be moved to Monday, February 14 with women’s games set for 5:45 p.m. and men’s games to follow at 7:45 p.m.
Seeds 6-11 in the men’s basketball bracket and 5-12 in the women’s basketball bracket will begin conference tournament play on Saturday, February 19. High seeds will host all games throughout the tournament. Following the regular season double-header format, women’s games are set for 1:00 p.m. with men’s games at 3:00 p.m. for the first round. The quarterfinals will be played on Tuesday, February 22 with the semifinals set for Thursday, February 24. All quarterfinal and semifinal games are tentatively scheduled for 7:00 p.m.; however, if an institution is hosting both men’s and women’s games on the same day, regular season doubleheader timing will be applied with the women’s game moving to 5:45 p.m. and the men’s game moving to 7:45 p.m. The MIAC Women’s Basketball Playoff Championship will be played at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 26, and the MIAC Men’s Basketball Playoff Championship will tip-off at 7:00 p.m. that night. The winners of the playoff championship games will receive the MIAC’s automatic qualifiers to the 2022 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments.
The 2022 MIAC Men’s and Women’s Hockey Playoffs will be played from February 23 – March 5. Seeds 8-9 in the men’s hockey bracket and 7-10 in the women’s hockey bracket will play in the opening round on Wednesday, February 23. The quarterfinal round will get underway on Saturday, February 26, with semifinals set for Wednesday, March 2, and the playoff championship games slated for Saturday, March 5. All hockey playoff games are tentatively scheduled for 7:00 p.m. with the highest seeds hosting each contest. Teams are permitted to adjust the game time due to facility conflict or double-headers. In the event of a men’s and women’s double-header on the same ice, a four-hour gap must be scheduled between the start times of the contests.
The MIAC will still crown regular-season conference champions in men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s hockey. In order to be eligible for the regular-season conference title, a team must have played at least 60 percent of its scheduled conference games. After the conference champion(s) have been seeded, the remaining teams will be ordered by conference winning percentages in basketball and points percentages in hockey. Brackets will operate on a fixed schedule format and will not re-seed based on tournament results.