Top 2 (#1 & #2) in each region receive autobid direct to the National Tournament in Columbus.
The Regional tournaments will invite 10 teams (presumably #3-#12).
If an M2 Conference champion receives an auto-bid that is not ranked in the top 12, that team will displace #12. If two teams, then #11, and so on. These teams will be seeded based on their Regional computer rankings.
If no auto-bid teams are ranked below #12 in a region, #3-#12 ranked teams will be invited to Regional Tournament.
To answer your second question, M1 postseason is very different from M2 & M3.
First, there are no regional tournaments. The top 20 teams make Nationals, with 4 play in games (13 vs 20, 14 vs 19, etc.) and then a 16 team single elimination tournament. This was amended from the 16 team tournament that was in place for quite a few years.
Second, any auto bids go to the Regular season champions for the individual leagues. Playoff tournaments for the leagues do not award bids. Any auto bids displace the lowest ranked teams, @Sheriff discussed this in his post on this thread from 13d ago.
I knew there were 20 but didnāt know if there were play in games or group play. I also did not know about the autobids for regular season, rather than tournaments. Interesting, but I donāt think I agree with that.
Actually, conferences can choose whether to give it to the regular season champ or the tournament champ - they just have to announce it early in the season.
Mike R thought the PAC-8 (run by AJ) was a āConference in Good Standingā over the years. He gave them one year to obtain an eighth team (presumably Stanford, since they were in the PAC-8 prior). When this decision was made by Mike, he did not realize that Utah would be moving to M1.
The ACHA is extremely fluid, which is why the auto-bid was only extended by one year. Believe the PAC-8 is working on Stanford & one other team for next year. Weāll see.