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?  Of course, determining the 12 best leads to all kinds of
arguments, but that's a different story, I believe, or is that why we have
automatic bids in the first place?
 
Hypothetically, what if one year every team in the WCHA was unbelievably
awesome and, for some reason, Hockey East teams were just plain awful.  In
fact, in this year the best Hockey East team probably would've finished
6th or 7th in the WCHA.  (Once again, this is purely hypothetical).  Is it
right that the winner of HE gets in the tournament before the 3rd or 4th
place WCHA team?  I'm not sure, but my first impression is "no".  I know
that college hoops has the automatic bid for each conference, often being
the winner of the post-season conference tournament.  Perhaps they have
more luxury because their tournament is bigger (too big, IMHO).
 
The purpose of the NC$$ tournament is to crown the National Champion, that
is, again IMHO, to find the BEST team in the country.  Seems only logical
we should start with the BEST 12 (or 64, for hoops) teams.
 
 
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Steve Weisfeldt                                   Go River Hawks!!!!!!!!
Univ. of Lowell (now UMASS-Lowell)  1986, 1988
[log in to unmask]                          Is it October yet??????
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