A question on the "semi-automatic" bids given to the regular-season champs:  if a
conference has two teams tied for first place at the end of the season, do they
both get bids?  There have been situations in the past where a league has had
co-champions -- in 1995, Maine and BU finished tied atop Hockey East, and last
year, Michigan and Lake Superior both were first in the CCHA.  The thing is, in
both cases, one of the co-champs won the conference tournament and got that
automatic bid... and in either case, if that hadn't happened, whichever co-champ
didn't get the regular-season-champ bid would have been high enough in the
selection committee's rankings to get an at-large bid anyway.
 
But what if a conference has co-champs, neither of whom wins the conference
tourney, and at least one of whom would not get an at-large bid otherwise?  I
know the idea behind the "Colorado College rule" was to make sure a team that
wins a regular-season title isn't kept out of the NCAAs, but does this apply to
co-champs as well?  Do they both get "semi-automatic" bids?  Or would the
committee give the bid to whichever co-champ had the higher conference playoff
seeding based on the tiebreakers?  Or whichever one *wasn't* going to get an
at-large bid?  Or what?
 
 
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!!                                                  DJF  5/27/94
"I believe Marcel Marceau said it best."
-- Madeline Kahn, "Cosby"
 
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