John made a comment in passing in his rather lengthy (but well done, I might
add) post recently that he felt Michigan may have the best record of any team
in the 1990's.  Not wanting to let a statement like that go without proof, we
at the Statistics Branch of Contest Central set out to verify or disprove that
claim.
 
The first challenge, of course, was whether to decide to add the 1989-90 season
or not when calculating the numbers.  Since there could be some ambiguity, we
decided to do it both ways.  (We almost decided to split the 1989-90 season
at the New Year, but it turned out to be too much work for our already over-
worked 3-month old secretary.)
 
It turns out it didn't make a difference.  John was right in either way.  The
following is the list of all 44 teams (who qualify for the NC$$ Tourney) and
their records in the 1990's, with and without the 1989-90 season.  (Two notes:
1.  The records for some teams who were independents at one time or another
must be taken with a grain of salt, since some of their wins may have come
against DivIII teams.  2. I decided to post this here instead of I-H-L since
the discussion took place here, and might have confused those on I-H-L.
Records include games played on or before 29 November 1995.)
 
Team                  With 89-90 season              Without 89-90 season
                     W    L    T    Pct.   Rk      W    L    T    Pct.   Rk
Michigan           193   56   17  .75752    1    169   44   11  .77902    1
Lake Superior      192   57   26  .74745    2    159   47   23  .74454    3
Boston University  178   60   14  .73413    3    152   43   12  .76329    2
Maine              185   63   17  .73019    4    152   52   17  .72624    4
Clarkson           140   62   21  .67489    5    119   51   18  .68085    5
Minnesota          171   79   25  .66727    6    145   63   23  .67749    6
Michigan State     161   79   26  .65414    7    125   72   23  .62045    8
Wisconsin          165   92   15  .63419    8    129   83   14  .60177   10
Harvard            105   61   20  .61828    9     92   47   19  .64241    7
New Hampshire      130   86   21  .59283   10    113   69   16  .61111    9
Northern Michigan  143  103   17  .57605   11    121   88   16  .57333   13
RPI                116   83   18  .57603   12     96   69   18  .57377   12
Providence         117   90   21  .56360   13     95   80   18  .53886   15
Colgate            111   89   16  .55093   14     80   83   13  .49148   24
Western Michigan   125  104   21  .54600   15    111   80   19  .57381   11
Alaska-Anchorage   118  100   16  .54274   16     97   89   14  .52000   17
St. Lawrence       102   93   11  .52184   17     89   78    7  .53161   16
Bowling Green      122  112   15  .52008   18     97   95   13  .50488   20
Vermont             96   90   19  .51463   19     87   70   17  .54885   14
Colorado College   119  115   17  .50797   20    101   95   15  .51422   18
Boston College     108  112   17  .49156   21     80   99   16  .45128   29
Minnesota-Duluth   116  122   19  .48833   22     96   93   18  .50725   19
Army                87   92   11  .48684   23     77   76    7  .50313   21
Mass Lowell        103  110   20  .48498   24     90   90   18  .50000   22
North Dakota       116  124   16  .48438   25     88  111   14  .44601   31
Cornell             76   85   21  .47527   26     60   75   18  .45098   30
St. Cloud          105  118   18  .47303   27     88   99   16  .46305   27
Miami              103  118   25  .46951   28     91   94   21  .49272   23
Brown               78   90   21  .46825   29     68   71   18  .49045   25
Ferris State        98  122   28  .45161   30     87   99   22  .47115   26
Mass Amherst        32   40    2  .44595   31     32   40    2  .44595   32
Alaska-Fairbanks    93  119    8  .44091   32     82   99    8  .45503   28
Princeton           71   96   14  .43094   33     59   82   13  .42532   35
Northeastern        87  121   18  .42478   34     71  102   16  .41799   37
Air Force           79  111   13  .42118   35     64   98   11  .40173   39
Denver              91  133   12  .41102   36     84  108   12  .44118   33
Merrimack           84  126   14  .40625   37     74  102   13  .42593   34
Yale                63   98   18  .40233   38     55   78   17  .42333   36
Michigan Tech       87  146   21  .38386   39     77  116   21  .40888   38
Notre Dame          75  132   11  .36927   40     59  117   11  .34492   41
Illinois-Chicago    70  148   19  .33544   41     60  121   18  .34673   40
Union               32   74   10  .31897   42     32   74   10  .31897   42
Ohio State          56  159   23  .28361   43     45  135   18  .27273   43
Dartmouth           33  122   13  .23512   44     29  104    9  .23592   44
 
Just so John doesn't feel too full of himself ;-), it should be noted that 29
of Maine's 52 (w/o 89-90) or 63 (w/ 89-90) losses came in one season (93-94)
and most due to forfeits.  Without that, Maine's winning percentage would
most likely be well over 80%.
 
(For those who would object that this should be on I-H-L as opposed to here,
let me reiterate that my decision to post it here was based on the fact that
the topic was "introduced" on Hockey-L, and might have been confusing to those
who subscribe to I-H-L only.)
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University 10-2-0, 13-4-0
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.