Dear Tom Jacobs,

I wonder if you or someone on the selection committee could clear up a
question that has arisen in connection with the Division I Men's Ice
Hockey Tournament.

Currently, the top four teams according to the selection criteria are
1. New Hampshire 2. Minnesota 3. Denver 4. Boston University.
According to the Division I Championships Manual, page 12,

     The top four-seeded teams will be placed in the bracket so
     that if all four teams advance to the Men's Frozen Four, the
     No. 1 seed will play the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed will
     play the No. 3 seed in the semifinals.

This would seem to indicate that New Hampshire and Boston University
have to be placed in different regionals in order to be properly
bracketed.  Although it's not mentioned in the Championships Manual,
it's also my understanding that BU, as the host institution, must play
in the East Regional if the qualify, which means according to the
current criteria, New Hampshire would be the #1 West seed and BU the
#2 East seed, with either Minnesota or Denver taking the #1 seed in
the East.

I realize that after the championships manual was published, the NCAA
made some changes in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
My information on the details of this policy comes from the documents
http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/governance/division_I/docs/champ_cabinet/200202_d1_ccc_meeting/Supp_5_MEM-Fall_Champs_Adjust_2-02.htm
and
http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/governance/division_I/docs/champ_cabinet/200202_d1_ccc_meeting/200202_d1_ccc_report/Report_to_MC.htm
In the latter document I read the following:

     For championships that have been given approval to seed
     teams and that have a bracket size of less than 64 teams,
     the number of seeded teams shall not exceed a ratio of one
     to four.  [Note: This does not permit sports committees to
     seed more teams than they currently are approved to seed.]
     Once teams have been seeded, the remaining teams shall be
     placed in the bracket based on geographic considerations.
     The only exceptions for being able to seed more than a one
     to four ratio would be provided for men's ice hockey and
     men's lacrosse.  These two championships have a bracket size
     of 12 teams each.  Seeding twenty-five percent of the
     bracket would result in the ability to seed only three
     teams, therefore, these two championships will retain the
     ability to seed four teams each.

My interpretation of this, along with the statements "Seeded
teams will be placed in the bracket first" and "Teams seeded
Nos. 5-16 will be placed geographically to minimize flight
travel." from the former document is that the original
guidelines still hold with respect to placing the bye teams
in the bracket, and the Sept 11 modifications only apply to
the placement of the non-bye teams.

Is this correct?

Also, is there any mechanism for disseminating the results
of the weekly or bi-weekly telephone conference calls?
Since my impression is that these conference calls often
lead to clarifications in the selection and seeding
procedures, it would be useful to have a summary of rulings
and clarifications on the web in some central place rather
than waiting for a newspaper story to turn up somewhere in
the country.
                                Thanks,
                                          John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                                 [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.amurgsval.org/joe/

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