>> It appears that the seed-switching occurs after the teams are placed
in
>> the appropriate Regionals. To avoid interconference matchups in the
>> second round would have involved sending the wrong teams to the other
region.
>> That is why OSU (the 4th western team) stayed west, and Wisconsin
(the 5th
>> western team) went east, and why UNH (the 4th eastern team) stayed
east and
>> Yale (the 5th eastern team) went west.
>
>If this is true, then we once again have the NCAA saying one thing and
doing
>another.  This is why a lot of us feel that they make it up as they go
along,
>basically picking at random.  I quote twice from Adam Wodon's interview
with Joe
>Marsh from last year, which has been referred to as the explanation of
how the
>process is run:
 
You liked the movie "Conspiracy Theory" didn't you?
 
 
>     "Minnesota is in its current position for one simple reason: the
overriding
>philosophy that tells the committee to avoid first- and second-round
>     matchups against teams from the same conference. This mandate is
passed down
>from the coaches, after discussions over the years at the
>     American Hockey Coaches Association conventions."     "Policy then
dictates
>that two non-bye teams from each region be switched to the other. The
committee
>first attempts to       take the bottom two from     each region, but
if that would
>negatively impact attendance in a severe way, or create
intra-conference matchups,
>different teams can be moved.
>     This occurred last year, when Mass-Lowell was moved West."
>
>Now, if that's the policy, tell me why New Hampshire and Ohio State
didn't switch
>regions.  It seems to me that this philosophy isn't so overriding after
all.
 
A.  because changing regions to avoid a second-round matchup is too much
of a stretch.  1st-round matchups are obviously most important, and then
flip-flopping seeds to avoid a second-round matchup.  But if avoiding a
second-round game involves switching a region, that's obviously where
the committee has drawn the line ... and that's consistent.
 
Plus UNH and Ohio State are better draws where they are.
 
If you read the Marsh story closely ... there's a comment in there about
Woog telling Marsh how they should've gone East ... and Marsh says
something like, "Well, that's nice Doug, but we can't just move you
because you want to go."
 
i.e. - they're following established protocol.
 
Are Gopher fans going to be complaining about this until the next time
they make the tournament?  I hope not, I don't want to have to hear it
for that long.  :-)
 
AW
 
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