1) Just when I thought that Hockey-L was much quieter this year than
last year, there comes the controversy of which teams leave their
regions. I agree with Robin Lock that it is amazing that there have
not been any complaints over which teams were selected -- perhaps a
first, and certainly the first since I joined H-L.
As to which teams should have been sent west, the one thing that I
don't think has been mentioned is which teams would attract more local
interest in the Albany area -- Lowell or Clarkson/Cornell. Most of
the discussion has been with regard to how the institutions in
question has been treated. Although I am far from the NY Capital
District, I am pretty sure that either Clarkson and Cornell, because
of long-standing rivalries with RPI, will draw more interest than
Lowell locally. I know that I disliked both of these fine institutions
long before I ever heard of UMass-Lowell or either of the two colleges
which were combined to form it. Should this, another attendence issue,
have been a concern, I think so. Nothing personal is meant against
Lowell in this regard.
2) I am impressed that Kurt Stutt managed to come up with a system where
RPI would get a bye last year. It even sounded logical on first read.
Then on second read it became apparent to me that too much weight is
being given to games within conference for selecting the four at-large
teams after each league gets two teams. (I wrote this at home prior to
receiving the Hockey-L Digest containing Wayne Smith's statement to the
same effect as the last sentence.)
Now if Kurt can only come up with some logic under which a 10-22-3 team
can make the tourney this year. Let's see, we got to somehow weight the
two victories over Air Force a lot. :-)
3) Have the rosters for the eastern all-star game been released yet?
4) Re whether not having a consolation game hurts the CCHA. Every game
that is played benefits the winning team and hurts the loser. By the
way that the RPI is constructed, other teams benefit or are hurt slightly
by each game also. This in turn influences the selection criteria. The
point to note is that the expected value from a game averaged over all
teams should be zero. That is, where there is some benefit there is also
some loss. I have not done the math but it is possible that there are
slight fluctuations because not all teams play the same number of games,
so the benefits for an additional game may outway the losses or vice
versa slightly in a given case. In any case, averaged over many years,
having or not having a consolation game should not affect the CCHA.
5) Does anyone know if channel 53 in Virginia decided to pick up the 8
first and second round games this weekend? The announcer kept saying that
they would if the station reached its monetary goal which they were a
couple of hundred dollars short of when they signed off. They intended
to broadcast six games, mostly on tape delay, on Saturday and go until
after midnight. The last two games would be shown on Sunday. I know
that last year they were in a similar situation and broadcast them
anyway, however they got nowhere near their stated goal during the NCAA
broadcasts.
It actually surprises me that there do not appear to be any other
stations around the country who decide to do the same thing. Last
Saturday they showed the two first round games and the championship game
of the ECAC tourney. I saw the last period of the Cornell-Clarkson game
and the championship game. It was very entertaining to hear the man in
the studio who was asking for money being a source for all sorts of
wrong information. He stated that Harvard had played well enough that
they would be sure to get an NCAA bid even if they lost when it was
obvious to those who understood the selection criteria that they would
only go if they won. He also stated that Wisconsin was going to be in
the tourney. At least he knew better than to state that RPI would be
going. :-(
Ralph Baer
RPI '68, '70, '74
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