While teams sitting in 11th place in the PWR this time of year usually
get antsy about bubble considerations, I find Cornell's position
somewhat remarkable.  Running some PWR projections for this weekend's
games to see where some CCHA teams might go, I found that Cornell
victories at Rensselaer and Union this weekend would propel the Big Red
from 11th to at least 6th, ... actually into a three-way tie for 4th
with Minnesota and BU in which Cornell should emerge in 5th.

My projections even assume weekend sweeps by nearly all the teams
Cornell will leapfrog, UAF, Michigan, Michigan State, and Colorado
College.  The three-way tie for 4th presumes weekend splits in both the
Maine-BU and the Minnesota-SCSU series.

Alternatively,

     If  BU and Minnesota get swept, Cornell places sixth behind
     MSU and Maine, losing a tiebreaker for 5th with Maine.
     If  BU splits and Minnesota gets swept, Cornell places sixth
     behind BU and MSU, losing a tiebreaker for 5th with MSU.
     If  BU splits and MSU splits and Minnesota gets swept, Cornell
     takes sole possession of fifth.

A big factor in Cornell's potential rise may be that two wins would
replace half the losses in Cornell's "Last 16" record.  The big obstacle
may be winning at RPI.  The Engineers' last game, a 2-1 loss at Brown,
was the only loss in 8 games.  Union has one win in the last seven
games.

boB