Since it's the off-season, you may have missed the following USCHO
article:

http://www.uscollegehockey.com/news/2001/05/03_002470.php

Not content with copying the WCHA's F*n*l F*v* idea, it seems that the
ECAC is preparing to follow the CCHA in letting all twelve teams into
the playoffs and sending six teams to Lake Placid.  (Making Hockey
East the only major conference to have an entrance requirement for
their postseason.)  The two play-in games would be held Friday, two
semis Saturday, and the finals (no mention of a consolation, so we
could potentially have fans of four teams going home after a single
game in Placid) Sunday.

The league's Athletic Directors are going to vote on this proposal
(according to the article, the coaches all love it, although Morris
and Gaudet were the only ones quoted in the article) at a meeting May
16, so interested fans might want to let their school's AD know what
they think of it.

It's hard to say whether this plan is worse overall than the
current arrangement; after all, the ECACs would be converted to a more
managable weekend affair, and there would presumably be better
attendance at two play-ins Friday than one Thursday.  But just to
point out the obvious, here are some drawbacks to the idea:

-- The regular season is drastically cheapened by letting everyone
into the playoffs.  Morris said adopting this plan would "help the
league keep things interesting from a competitive standpoint."  It's
kind of a strange definition of competitively interesting that
includes Brown clinching the playoffs in October.

-- A six-team ECAC tourney means all but the top two squads will face
the prospect of elimination on the first day.  Not much of a reward
for finishing third.

-- The only places in the standings that will have any real meaning
are second and sixth.  Whether you're 7th or 12, you still make the
playoffs and go on the road.  As the #12 team you have no chance of
avoiding the play-ins, and as the #7 you have no realistic chance of
doing so.  (What are the odds four of the other five series will
result in upsets?)  And now that Clarkson is no longer invincible at
Cheel, seeding becomes less of an incentive.

And here we thought it would take years to get rid of the Final Five.

                                          John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                                 [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.amurgsval.org/joe/

Enjoy the latest Hockey Geek tools at slack.net/hockey