I stumbled upon an interesting snippet from the September 27 NCAA News:
(http://www.ncaa.org/news/19990927/active/3620n01.html)
 
Expansion proposals
 
The cabinet also discussed bracket expansion during its meeting and invited
five sports committees to submit proposals for expanded brackets or fields.
 
Those sports are men's and women's lacrosse, men's ice hockey, and men's
and women's outdoor track and field. Men's lacrosse and men's ice hockey
are sponsored by 17 percent of Division I institutions, and both currently
have 12-team championship brackets. [...]
 
Expansion proposals for the five sports will be submitted to the cabinet
for review in February.
 
--End quote
 
We all know that last year the Championship Cabinet refused hockey's
request for an expanded tournament. This makes it seem that the issue may
not be as dead as it appeared last year. From this, I see hockey and
lacrosse being linked, as they both appear to be sponsored by roughly the
same number of schools. Both tournaments also will face difficulties with
automatic berths in the near future. Lacrosse has been told to have four
automatics, plus a Western berth starting next year. Hockey will have the
MAAC and CHA qualifying for automatic berths sooner rather than later. This
leads me to believe that what happens for one would happen to the other.
 
I forget what the Ice Hockey Committee's proposal was last year, whether it
was to expand to 14 or 16. If it was to expand to 16, would a 14-team
tournament be seen as more palatable this year?
 
I see a 16-team tournament being preferable to a 14-team tournament. But
I'm not sure that a 14-team tournament is preferable to a 12-team
tournament. 12 teams has a degree of symmetry that 14 does not. With a
14-team tournament, does the Clarkson Rule stay in place? And if so, what
if 3 teams manage to win both titles?
 
See you later,
John
 
--
 John Edwards - Carleton (Ont) '96, Manitoba '00 - [log in to unmask]
                  "You're telling me the fun's over?
      Man! I'm still waiting for the fun to start." - Brad Hamilton
The opinions expressed are mine alone, because everybody else says I'm weird.
 
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