So the NC$$ apparently is trying to maximize tournament revenues by considering
things like "fan base" and "attendance" when deciding what regionals to send
the selected teams to.  Haven't we spent the last five to six years decrying
the NC$$ on HOCKEY-L because of their refusal to treat college hockey like the
revenue sport it is?  This is exactly the kind of shifting that used to go on
in the NC$$ basketball tournament, and still does to some extent even though
CBS and ESPN are throwing millions at the NC$$ to televise the games.  If you
want to be a big-time sport, be prepared for the NC$$ to squeeze every last
dollar they can get out of your tournament (hopefully for the good of the
sport, but who knows?)
 
Even though it means my beloved Big Red doesn't have to travel halfway across
the country for their next game, I sympathize with the Lowell hockey team and
its fans, who feel they got shafted again by the NC$$.  You did, no doubt about
it.  It seems grossly unfair to, in effect, penalize Lowell because their fan
base and attendance are not perceived to be as good as Cornell's.  I don't know
what the NC$$ expects the team and the fans who do attend Lowell's games to
do about this "problem."  And as far as the Lowell-Clarkson seedings, it
appears from the numbers that Mike cited that Lowell should have come out ahead
in this comparison and thus been kept in the East.  The NC$$ must have used
the "criteria" in a different way or something -- which wouldn't surprise me.
 
Though I didn't see any way it could happen ('cause I couldn't believe the
NC$$ would shift Lowell *again*), I was hoping against hope that Cornell would
stay in the East regional... but not to face Lake Bleeping Superior!  Like the
subject line says...
 
And as far as all this "squeaking" is concerned, I would reserve the term for
a team that doesn't cop the automatic bid by winning the conference tournament,
doesn't cop the "semi-automatic" bid by winning the regular-season title, and
J-U-S-T makes it by some slender margin over some other at-large team(s), at
least according to whatever criteria are being used.  (And I'm not looking at
the numbers now, so I can't say whether I would apply that label to any of
this year's post-season participants)  As it developed, the only way Cornell
was going to get into the NC$$ tournament was to win the ECACs and get the
auto bid.  They had to win, and they did it.  Providence faced the same scen-
ario in the Hockey East tournament, and they did it, too.  Both teams earned
the automatic bid to the NC$$, no questions asked, no need to rely on the
selection criteria.
 
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!!
 
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