There has been a lot of complaining about the new 5 team ECAC
tournament format. Some of the complaining has come from me
and it's time for a quick review.
There seem to be 3 main reasons for changing the format:
1) more money for the ECAC
2) the coaches wanted to eliminate the Tuesday night playdown
   round
3) more money for the ECAC
 
I opposed the new format for the following reasons:
While it may be commendable to give the #1 seed a reward
for finishing #1, it is too big an advantage to let them play
the lowest seed as well as play the lowest seed after they
have played a Thursday night game. This is especially true in case
of preliminary round upsets where the #4-#5 game might really involve
teams that finished the RS much lower. This year for example
the #4-#5 game actually involved the teams that finished #6 and #7.
 
It would be an impossible task for a lower echelon team to come
off a three game preliminary series (Fri, Sat and Sun), then
come back to win a Thurs game, then beat a well rested #1 seed on Friday
and THEN, have to beat the winner of the #2-#3 game on Saturday.
It just couldn't happen!!!
 
Those guys from New Jersey must be pretty dumb. They couldn't even
figure out they it was impossible for them to win 6 games in 9 days.
Congratulations to the Princeton Tigers on their highly improbable
victory at Lake Placid. You made a believer out of this hockey fan.
Mark Lewin
RPI - class of '69
 
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