> I'm sure other people can cite other instances. The impression left is
> that it is, indeed, made up as they go along. Mike, I think you're
> being too trusting of the people in charge. Their words do not match
> their actions. If the committee has a process that the fans just don't
> know about, it must be unbelievably complex.
I don't where you are looking. Keep believing in a conspiracy if you wish --
but Mike practically laid out the whole thing last night. The process is so
much of a science now, there is no subjectivity at all. As opposed to
basketball, which can be quite subjective. Hockey is so cut and dried, it's
boring.
Explain to me where you don't understand, and I'll tell you. It's not made up
as it goes along. The guidelines are concrete. Sometimes those guidelines
change, but they changed before the season, not in the meeting room on
selection day.
If you seed the teams as they are supposed to be, you get...
1 Mich 2 Clarkson
3 ND 8 BU
4 Minn 5 UNH
10 Miami 6 Vermont
11 Denver 9 Cornell
12 CC
13 MSU
This is pretty cut and dried -- BU won the conf. and tourney title, so they get
the 2nd bye, bumping everyone else down.
The lowest seeded team in the whole field is MSU -- so they get sent East.
Now, you take the bottom two teams in each bracket and flip-flop them. Then
re-seed to get:
1 Mich 2 Clarkson
3 ND 8 BU
4 Minn 5 UNH
9 Cornell 6 Vermont
10 Miami 11 Denver
13 MSU 12 CC
So, the matchups for the first round are set as ...
MINN vs. MSU
Cornell vs. Miami
UNH vs. CC
Vermont vs. Denver
So far, the committee hasn't done one darn thing. This is all by the numbers.
So, to avoid a possible second-round matchup between ND-Minnesota, and UNH-BU,
the committee flip-flops the seedings of Minnesota and UNH to make them #4
seeds in the respective regionals.
BUT - to preserve the matchup, they move the team that was supposed to be
paired with them, by flip-flopping #5 and #6 also.
This way -- the first-round matchup remains the way it is SUPPOSED to be. That
is absolutely fair, and I don't see how anyone can conclude anything else.
Bottom two teams in each region are flip-flopped, avoid inter-conference
matchups, and move the teams in pairs. That's it. Cut and dried.
Now, if you disagree with the philosophy of avoiding second-round
intra-conference games -- that's fine. But that's another issue. Just please
don't say that the committee did anything arbitrary, because it just isn't so.
Adam Wodon - AC Productions
Host: "Around the Rinks" - The only National College Hockey talk show
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