Well, just when we thought college football's BCS was a travesty, our own PWR
may prove to be equally flawed.

Minnesota is proving that a few good wins early in the season can earn you a
plum seed no matter how many bad loses/ties you have later in the year.  It
seems to me, no matter what happens from here on out, the Gophers are going to
end up with the #4 seed in the tourney, even if they lose all their remaining
games.  Michigan, Cornell and Wisconsin have virtually no shot at passing the
Gophers, despite being teams leading/contesting for their various conference
titles, and winning games they play.  All of this is due to things that happened
in November, not in any way related to how the teams are playing now as we
approach the postseason-a reward for good play.

What do I mean?  All three of the pursuers beat Minnesota in the RPI, but
lose at least two of TUC, Com opp and/or head-to-head.  In November, Minnesota
beat Michigan and Wisconsin (2x) as well as MichState and NMi.  This sweep of
the CCHA teams gives Minnesota the common opponent comparison over all CCHA
teams, and nails Cornell who lost and tied at MSU (their only connection to
Minnesota).  Likewise Wisconsin cannot dig out of the 1-3 hole in head-to-head,
which compounds the CCHA problem since they split the Thanksgiving challenge games
with MSU/Mi.  Minnesota is also benefiting on common opponent with HE by
virtue of a 3-1 record against, BU UMass, and Merrimac.  That .750 winning
percentage makes it hard for any HE team to compare favorably with the Gophers.
     In addition, the Gophers have managed to divide there record in such a
way that they have a very good TUC record.  They beat some of the top teams (CC
DU and ND in addition to the above games), early in the year and have managed
to confine most of there recent loses to really bad teams that probably will
not be TUC at the end of the year.  This hurts all teams in the comparison
with UMinn, most especially Cornell, which has the misfortune of having no bad
losses or ties.  Every one of the Red's non-wins is to a team that is TUC and
most likely will remain one for the duration.

The net result is that it is very unlikely that any of the teams can flip a
comparison and pass the Gophers.

Why do we have this problem?  Mainly because no consideration is given
(unlike say basketball) to how a team plays down the stretch.  If that came into
play, almost everyone, including the most biases Gopher fans would have to admit
that Minnesota is playing like garbage and in no way deserves a #1 seed.  The
last 16 used to be a criteria, but it was taken out because it hurt teams in
deeper conferences when they knocked each other around down the stretch and in
the conference tournaments.  It seems that somewhere there needs to be a happy
medium.

This is not meant as a swipe against Minnesota, but it just seems that
something is not right here.

Just a few thoughts


William Sangrey
Cornell '87&'94
Let's Go RED!!!