So much for the comparisons being transitive.  The comparisons
among the 2-5 seeds in the East are the same, so Clarkson is still in
line for that bye, and a cursory examination indicates that BC will
have a hard time catching them.  The fun part comes when figuring out
who's in the tournament.  Here are the current comparisons:
 
   Team          PWR  RPI           Comparisons Won
 1 North Dakota   18 .619   MSBUMiCkOSBCNHYaCCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 2 Mich State     17 .616 __  BUMiCkOSBCNHYaCCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 3 Boston Univ    16 .606 ____  MiCkOSBCNHYaCCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 4 Michigan       15 .585 ______  CkOSBCNHYaCCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 5 Clarkson       13 .574 ________  OSBCNHYaCCWiNESC__NMMeMmRPPn
 6 Ohio State     13 .562 __________  BCNHYaCCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 7 Boston Coll    12 .579 ____________  NHYaCCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 8 New Hampshire  10 .560 ______________  YaCC__NESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
 9 Yale           10 .555 ________________  CCWiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
10 CO College      9 .550 __________________  WiNESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
11 Wisconsin       9 .548 ______________NH____  NESCMDNMMeMmRPPn
12 Northeastern    6 .527 ______________________  SCMD__MeMmRPPn
13 St Cloud        6 .534 ________________________  MDNMMeMmRPPn
14 Minn-Duluth     5 .517 ________Ck________________  NM__MmRPPn
15 Northern Mich   5 .530 ______________________NE____  MeMmRPPn
16 Maine           4 .525 __________________________MD__  MmRPPn
17 Miami           2 .518 ________________________________  RPPn
18 RPI             1 .506 __________________________________  Pn
19 Princeton       0 .490 ____________________________________
 
        With the exception of the Clarkson-UMD comparison, the top
eleven teams win comparisons with the other eight, so they're in.
Likewise, the bottom three TUCs lose to everyone else, so that leaves
five teams potentially fighting for that last spot:
 
   Team         lPWR RPI Comps Won
 1 NorthEastern   3 .527   SC__MeMD
 
 2 St Cloud       3 .534 __  NMMeMD
 3 Northern Mich  2 .530 NE__  Me__
 4 Maine          1 .525 ______  MD
 5 Minn-Duluth    1 .517 ____NM__
 
Now, on the surface, it looks like Northeastern gets the nod, thanks
to their individual comparison win with SCSU.  But not so fast.
Suppose we toss out Maine and UMD, who only win one out of four
comparisons each.  That leaves
 
 1 St Cloud       1 .534   NM__
 
 2 Northern Mich  1 .530 __  NE
 3 NorthEastern   1 .527 SC__
 
In the classic rock-scissors-paper situation, we go to the RPI to
resolve the trilemma, and St. Cloud is in.
 
        Which way would the selection committee resolve a situation
like this?  We'll probably only know if it comes up.  At any rate,
when St. Cloud and Northeastern take the ice tomorrow in games three
of their respective series, either one of them could be facing the end
of their season, even without surprise tournament champions.
 
        One final note: since Yale gets an automatic bid, New
Hampshire will have a somewhat tense time watching the conference
tourneys...
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
        Learn about the NCAA selection process on the web at
       http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?pairwise
 
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