----- Original Message -----
From: "KAM" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 10:34 PM
Subject: SCSU 6 - ND 5 in OT


> Well, that will teach me to leave after the second.  Thank goodness for
> cable!  Congrats to both teams.
>
> This could be a very interesting regional.  Maine has climbed their way
back
> up the Pairwise - so we have another eastern team in the hunt.  The way it
> looks now, we will have five WCHA teams in it.   Okay, you hockey experts
> ('cause you are all better than I am at this) - how do you think the
> selection committee will go tomorrow?  How will it pan out?

I am entirely unwilling to commit to how it *will* turn out; my
disagreements with the committee's seeding decisions is fairly notorious.  I
*can* say how I think that they ought to turn out though.

The byes are easy: Michigan State and St. Cloud State in the West; Boston
College and North Dakota in the East.

The next rated team is Michigan, which will stay in the West for attendance
reasons; they'll be in St. Cloud's bracket.

Next is Colorado College; I can't think of a single compelling reason for
them to stay in the West.  Once you're coming from Colrado Springs, there
isn't a whole lot of difference between Grand Rapids and Worcester.  Their
ranking earns them the right to not have to play the #1 team in the country
in the quarterfinals.  Put them in the East, facing Boston College, because
of the desire to avoid intra-conference matchups.  (A decision that I still
think is overweighted, BTW, but I'll concede that fight.)

Minnesota comes next.  Most of the same arguments for sending CC to
Worcester could be made for Minnesota, but that puts them in the North
Dakota bracket.  So they stay West in MSU's bracket.

By default, Maine stays East in North Dakota's bracket.  I admit that having
the lowest ranked bye team matched up against the lowest ranked member of
the next set of four offends my sensibilities, but there you are.

Wisconsin plays Maine in the first round.  It matches the 8 and 9 teams, and
at least one potential WCHA quarterfinal match-up is inevitable.

Providence goes West and plays Minnesota.  This, again, keeps the overall
seedings intact and avoids a potential intra-conference game.  Those would
seem to outweigh only sending the bottom two East teams West, which I think
kind of has to go out the window with the new rules on the byes.

Mercyhurst might come next, but I suspect that the committee will exercise
their discretion to lower their ranking to the #12 spot.  So, St. Lawrence
stays in Worcester to play CC, and Mercyhurst goes out to play Michigan.

You get:

Providence
Minnesota
              Michigan State

Mercyhurst
Michigan
              St. Cloud State

St Lawrence
Colorado College
              Boston College

Wisconsin
Maine
              North Dakota

J. Michael Neal