Jim Love writes (about various tiebreakers):
>     Pedantic, I suppose, but instructive, in that I'm surprised that the
>ECAC would resort to goal differential to settle ties.  Given the wide
>disparity in overall team offense between the top/bottom teams (witness
>the recent 19-3 demolition of Army and Princeton by Clarkson), this serves
>to negate the impact of inspired effort (by, say, Dartmouth in tying both
>Clarkson AND Cornell) at the expense of Barry Switzer-like run-up-the
>score when you have the chance.
 
Possibly -- there have certainly been instances this season and in the past
where a good ECAC team really pours it on against a bad one.  But really, to
do this in the hopes of winning the fourth or fifth tiebreaker (which is
where the ECAC starts with the goal differential business) would be ridicu-
lous.  And anyway, I can only remember one instance in which a tie in the
final ECAC standings even came *close* to having to be resolved by goal
differential.  That was last year, between Cornell and Clarkson.  The teams
went to the third tiebreaker, record against the top eight teams, to resolve
the deadlock (in Cornell's favor).  However, it turns out that if Brown and
Vermont had switched places in the standings (they were eighth and ninth,
respectively, and could easily have swapped places in the final weekend of
play), then Cornell and Clarkson would have had identical records against
the top eight, and they would have had to drop to the fifth tiebreaker, goal
differential against the top four.  But it didn't happen, and ties that
close are pretty darn rare.
 
And incidentally, Dartmouth did NOT tie Cornell this season.  Please, don't
make our season-ending slump any worse than it is! :-(
 
>                             I've NEVER liked goal differential in any
>form as a seeding ploy, and am of the opinion that the WCHA is better off
>for having reduced its dependence on total goals in its playoffs.
 
Even though it's buried so deep in the ECAC tiebreakers that it's likely
never to get used, I'm not particularly fond of goal differential either.
It reminds me too much of the old playoff series that were two-game total-
goal affairs.  It's better to emphasize (by comparing records against other
teams in the standings, for example) that a win is a win, regardless of what
the score was.
 
>                                                                   OK,
>I'll get down off my soapbox .... :-)
 
Watch that [*thud*] first step...
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
 
"I want to know one thing about those wanted posters in the post office:  why
 didn't they hold onto the guy when they were taking his picture?"
-- Jerry Seinfeld