Until the CHA and Atlantic Hockey came along, the NCAA tourney was a 12-team 
tourney. Because of the schools in those two leagues coming along, the NCAA 
made it a 16-team tourney. The other four conferences get two more at-large 
opportunities because of those conferences.

----Original Message Follows----
From: NE Hampton <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List              
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Comley:  AH-CHA Play-In Game Needed
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:19:39 -0500

Good for Rich Comley! He is absolutely right. There are Ratings Percentage
Index (RPI), of which only half or 25 are included in the Pairwise Ratings
(PWR), include what is probably all the 59 Division 1 teams in college
hockey. Atlantic Hockey teams are at 25,28,40,53,54,56,57, and 59 whereas
CHA is at 29,35,46,49, and 52. The highest ranked team in BOTH conferences
is 25. Of these 13 teams, only 3 of them rank in the top HALF of all the
teams in college hockey. If these numbers are confusing you, they mean
Atlantic Hockey and CHA both SUCK. They do not deserve an automatic bid. If
ever one of these teams climb to the top 10, then they will get an at large
birth, and deservedly so. But until that time, these garbage teams have
taken spots in the tournament from much better teams who are more deserving
except for the NCAA's attempt to encourage poor puppies to try and run with
the big dogs. It is a rip off to the fans watching these regionals to have
to put up with watching such low level hockey. If Sacred Heart (or Holy
Cross or whoever it was) had been a good team, then when they beat Minnesota
in the Grand Forks regional, it would not have been such a big deal, but
because they were so bad, it was a big deal (even a broken clock is right
twice a day, so just because they won a game does not justify their
automatic bid).

Nathan Hampton

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