--- Original Message ---
From: Craig Powers <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject:      Re: I guess I answered my question

>It was announced up-front.  First, there were the
rumblings about it
>happening due to the NCAA policy change, then during
conference calls
>within the last few weeks, the committee was quite
candid about what
>was going to happen.  There was even a story in the
Boston Globe about
>how the seeding was going to change.
>
>
>I don't think it's an accident that Lee Urton of
USCHO, Mike Machnik of
>there and here, myself, and John Whelan all came up
with the same
>regionals, aside John's placement of UNH out west and
my punting on
>the question.

If they had really been clear, you wouldn't have
needed to punt on the question of where UNH was going.

But my point was somewhat broader.  If this is really
the direction we're headed, then let's just announce
at the beginning of the season that we're having an
East Regional, to which the top six eastern teams will
be invited, and a West Regional, to which the top six
western teams will be invited.  (Modify accordingly
for a sixteen team tournament.)  I would rather see
that, and I think it is less inherently flawed and
dishonest, than the current system of taking the top
twelve teams and then not using the slightest bit of
thought to place them in the regionals based upon the
rankings.

J. Michael Neal