>I was looking at the CCHA's official site (www.ccha.com) and noted, under CCHA
>Head-to-head, that the first tiebreaker listed was "most league wins".  Is this
>a new addition this year?  So far as I was aware, the first tiebreaker in the
>CCHA was head-to-head record and league wins didn't enter into it.
>(Now head-to-head is the second tiebreaker)
 
The CCHA tiebreaker for at least the last 20 years has been:
(1)  Head-to-head
(2)  Head-to-head goal differential
(3)  Record vs other CCHA teams beginning with first place
(4)  Coin toss
 
The CCHA tiebreaker is now:
(1)  Wins
(2)  Head-to-head
(3)  "Goal Differential"
(4)  Record vs other CCHA teams beginning with first place
(5)  Coin toss
 
I don't know if the new #3 is head-to-head goal differential or overall goal
differential.  It seems that they added a new factor at #1 and bumped all
of the others down one.
 
The change was news to me when the CCHA posted it on their website a couple
of weeks ago.
 
>Is this a by-product of the new
>clustering schedule?
 
Well...why??  Because many series are 2 games at the same site?  The old
schedule had 2 games at one site and 1 game at the other...but Fairbanks
would often play 3 games at home or 3 games away against other teams.  If
using head-to-head is unfair, why have it as a second factor?
 
More importantly, if the CCHA has decided that the head-to-head tiebreaker
is unfair, what does that say about the entire cluster schedule system?
 
 
Speaking of unfair CCHA schedules, a recent issue of _The Wolverine_ (a
University of Michigan sports fanzine) says that Michigan, Michigan State,
Northern Michigan and Lake Superior will be in the same cluster next
year--the 4 teams which will almost certainly be ranked 1 to 4 in the CCHA
preseason poll.
 
It will be great for Fox Sports Detroit, great for the season-ticket
holders at those 4 schools, and great for the PWR rating of the #1 team.
Most of all, however, it will be great for the #5 team in the league.
 
 
Alton
 
 
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