Steve writes:
 
>This is probably just adding fuel to the fire, and it's probably been
>discussed ad infinitum in years past, but why does there even have to be
>automatic bids?  Why can't we just have the 12 BEST TEAMS in the
>tournament?
 
I agree that you'd like to do this ideally, but making all the tourney bids
at-large ones (which is in effect what you're doing when you select the "12
best teams") would instantly render each league's post-season tournament
meaningless.  Imagine some sixth-place team somewhere which suddenly gets
hot in March and goes on an unbelievable run, winning the league's tour-
nament championship.  Then the NC$$ selection committee comes along and
says, "Gee, that's nice, but we know that in reality you stink, so we'll
pick some other teams and let you stay home."  Without a guaranteed NC$$
bid, there really isn't much of a reason to have a post-season tournament;
playing for bragging rights seems a poor substitute.
 
Perhaps the NC$$ *should* just pick the 12 top teams and the league post-
season tourneys should be done away with -- but they make money for some-
body, so that would be a bit of a hard sell.
--
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Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
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LET'S GO RED!!                                                  DJF  5/27/94
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