Greb Berge:
 
>>>> A realistic scenario still may put 4 ECAC
>>>> teams into the NCAA tourny (Yale and the PS
>>>> champion with auto-bids, RS #'s 2 and 3 with
>>>> PWR seeds), so this stretch drive also has
>>>> ramifications throughout the NCAA for the
>>>> bubble teams in each conference.  Throw in
>>>> RPI's guaranteed placement in Albany no matter
>>>> what, and you have the ......
 
        Right now Colgate and Clarkson are on the right and wrong
sides of the bubble, respectively, but if they both finish strong and
a fourth team wins the ECACs, it could happen, although there could
also be upsets in the other tourneys.  OTOH, if they both tank, we
could be back to the dark days of 1995.
 
Paul Gentile:
 
>Huh? RPI guaranteed placement in Albany. I didn't
>even realize that.
 
        Yep, they're the host team, like Michigan in the West.  Of
course, it only applies if they qualify for the tourney itself.
 
> If they win the ECAC playoffs
>and Clarkson and Colgate survive the bubble (which
>will be much tougher to do if a playoff champion
>sneaks into the tourney like RPI might) then you
>may have your four ECAC tourney teams.
 
        Although the committee would almost certainly send one or two
of them out West to avoid intraconference matchups in the regionals.
 
>A more realistic possibility is that Yale wins the
>ECAC playoffs and gets one of the two BYES at
>Albany. Now, that would be interesting and would
>bump BU from their familiar position ... unless BU
>wins HockeyEast RS and Playoffs ... then UNH would
>get really screwed.
 
        Which is what happened to them last year.  BU grabbed an
automatic bye, and as the second-ranked team in the East, UNH got
bumped out of it.  BTW, it's not a done deal that UNH and BU will be
the top two teams in the East on the basis of comparisons.  Despite
their lower overall PWR, Yale has in recent weeks held the pairwise
comparison with New Hampshire, which would give them the #2 East seed
even without getting an automatic bye.  Just this week UNH flipped
their PWCs with BU *and* Yale to move into the top spot in the East.
(So although Yale moved up from #7 to #6 in the RPI and PWR, their
tournament prospects slipped slightly.)
 
        In the West, Michigan, Michigan State and NoDak are in a
similar situation, a three-horse race for the two byes, and the CCHA
(and WCHA) RS and playoff finishes could have a lot to say about it.
 
>In any case, my BIG QUESTION is what happens if
>YALE gets the BYE seed and no other ECAC team is
>in the top 12 PWR ... does the second ECAC bid
>come from PWR ratings or from the ECAC RS
>standings???
 
        I believe it would be done on the basis of pairwise
comparisons among the remaining ECAC teams.  Remember that the
committee no longer just uses the total PWR; they look at individual
comparisons among teams competing for a slot, seed or whatever.
 
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                     Official Scorer/PA Announcer
                                        U of Utah Ice Hockey Club
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
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