Looking in the archives, I see there has been some talk about the status of
the Ice Breaker games.  Hopefully I can clear up some things.
 
Before the tourney was held, USCHO changed the status of the games to EX.
Others might be able to add more or clarify, but I have several messages
indicating that ahead of time, both Jack Parker and Mark Morris considered
the games to be EX's.  Jeff Sauer may have also been quoted as saying this,
but I do not recall.
 
Nevertheless, it isn't true that after the games and after BU had lost to
MSU, Parker tried to have the status changed.  He has always maintained
that the original agreement was to not count the games for NCAA selection,
and as I said, Dave can probably provide quotes indicating this.  I have a
message from a week prior to the tourney which refers to this.
 
After the tourney, USCHO contacted the NCAA and was told that the games
would not count in NCAA selection or in the NCAA's overall stats.  It was
still up to the schools themselves to decide if they wished to count them
in their own stats, just like with games vs Canadian teams.  Last we knew,
this had not changed.
 
The issue here, which was plain to those of us at USCHO, was that however
it happened, there was definite confusion among people beforehand as to
what the status of the games was.  I suspect that was simply because some
folks believed it was going one way and other folks assumed the opposite,
and neither side felt it was something to wonder about.  To ascribe some
sort of ulterior motive to those involved is very wrong.  It was just a
misunderstanding and I believe the experience will help in the future.
 
One point made by Parker, which is absolutely correct according to my
understanding of the rules, is that nothing said the games *had* to count.
Yes, an exemption was awarded for the tourney, but that has no bearing on
the status of the games.
 
I also see that some have said that the games should count because it was
"assumed" by all that they would.  Again, that is incorrect.  We know for a
fact that at least Parker and Morris believed ahead of time that they would
not count.  It also does not matter whether or not fans thought they would
count.  The simple fact is that no one raised the issue -- although if I
remember right, once USCHO's correspondents realized they were getting
conflicting information from different people several days before the
tourney (in the process of compiling their weekly previews), there was a
large amount of discussion via email (I still have some of it) in which we
tried to sort the matter out, along with speaking to various people
involved.
 
So while we too assumed the games would count until the week before, we
also realized we had done just that, assumed, and that's when we started to
look into it further.  It has been suggested that it was "known" that they
would count back when the tourney was announced, but having been present
for the tourney announcement and the statements by the coaches, I can
recall nothing that was ever said that pointed to the games counting or not
counting.  Again, I think that various people assumed certain things and
proceeded on those assumptions.
 
Without disclosing specific parts of that investigation, and I freely admit
that I am leaving some parts out that I do not believe people need to know,
it seems to me that while there was confusion beforehand, all four coaches
did say afterwards that the games would not count for NCAA selection, and
there is also reason to believe this decision had been arrived at -- even
if reluctantly on the part of some -- before any of the games were played.
 
Therefore this has been a dead issue to those of us at USCHO for several
months now, again at least until/unless something changes, which as we all
know is always possible.  But I don't think it is likely.  Folks may hold
their own opinion as to whether or not the games *should* count, but at
this point I'm only interested in their actual status, and everything I
know indicates that they will not count.
 
On a couple of other issues...the Hall of Fame Game also appears not to
count for tourney selection and in NCAA stats.  This was determined around
the same time.  I also have a message from our discussion in which it was
indicated that Red Berenson knew that it would not count.  And currently I
believe that games vs Mankato State and Nebraska-Omaha will count in
selection while games vs Niagara will not, because of the number of D1
games played by those schools, but I must qualify that by saying I'm not
100% certain.  Hopefully there will be clarification soon.  I've been too
busy with many other things to pay much attention to this and I'm also not
involved with verifying this with anyone.
 
Please copy me on any *pertinent* followups as I do not normally read
HOCKEY-L and might not see them right away.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
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