Richard Hunderford reports:
 
>According to a story in today's Boston Globe we may be moving to a 16 team
>NC$$ tourney much sooner:
 
        I just hope they can get the NC$$ to go for it, given that a
12-team tourney is already over the limit for percentage of D1
programs.  (Aside: did that limit not exist at the time?  If it did,
why in the world would you seek dispensation to expand your tournament
so that the number of teams *wasn't* a power of two?)
 
        I've had this sinking fear since I heard that the MAAC was on
the fast track to getting an auto bid that the NC$$'s lack of concern
for the priorities of college hockey was really going to screw us up:
        NC$$: Well, the MAAC is a multi-sport conference, so we should
give them an automatic bid ASAP!
        CH: But it's made up of teams that are currently nowhere near
the standards for making the tournament, so you're effectively
reducing us from a 12-team to an 11-team tournament.  If we can go to
16 teams at the same time, everyone should be happy.
        NC$$: Sixteen?!?  Twelve teams is already more than our
formula allows you.  Get lost!
 
>The coaches love the idea. St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh, a member of the
>selection committee, said,  "We've talked about that a lot. A basic plan
>would be to have four regional sites with four teams at each site. And no
>byes."
 
        Gee, I never would have expected that structure!  (The other
possibility is to hold both Eastern or Western regionals at one site,
spread over three days.)  Now the big question is whether we get
consolation games so that each regional will stay at four games, not
three.  This would also ensure teams that get shipped out of their
regions get at least two games.
 
>"We have a basic plan that covers the ECAC, CCHA, WCHA, Hockey East,
>and the new MAAC."
 
        BTW, I don't think the presence of three Eastern conference
messes up the obvious structure of one regional site per league, given
the overlap in the East.  It would be nice to have one regional in New
England and the other outside, and there are various combinations
involving MAAC sites that make that work.  But I wonder about finding
four schools willing to host the regionals each year, plus a fifth for
the Frozen Four.
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
        Learn about the NCAA selection process on the web at
       http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?pairwise
 
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