On the Badger radio broadcast of this weekend's series, they played an
interview with NMU coach Rick Comley, talking about the conference playoffs.
He made some rather pointed comments on how he hates them... to paraphrase:
"The conference tourneys are about only one thing: money.  If they weren't,
you wouldn't have different formats for each league and all that.  Things
are basically designed to get teams like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
into the finals, where they will sell tickets to make money for the
conference.  If that doesn't happen, you will see a change in the system."
Also, he commented on how the RPI is unfair to Northern as well, at least
concerning the College Hockey Showcase: "You get the Big Ten schools playing
each other, so it's the strong teams playing the strong, and of course their
strength of schedule is higher."
 
Hmmm... Coach Comley's not a little bitter about this year, is he? :)  Not
to say that he's not right in a lot of his points -- the conference playoffs
*do* help fund the rest of the season, and *are* a lot about money.
 
Puck em up Bucky!
 
-==-John R. [log in to unmask] of Chemistry, UW-Madison-==-