Mike Machnik <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>I can buy letting the host team stay at home (although I would prefer
>it wasn't done) because as Rick said, it encourages teams to host
>the regional and they're having trouble getting bids as it is.  I
>can't buy letting low-ranked non-hosting teams stay near home just
>because they are perceived to have good fan support.  If Cornell's fan
>base is so great, then they will go anywhere to support their team -
>even to Michigan.  So that's where they should have gone.  That's
>where they belong.  Getting to play a virtual home game because you're
>hosting the tournament is one thing.  But getting to play one when you
>squeaked in is another.
 
I'm surprised to hear invective like this from Mike.  "That's where they
belong"???  And how, exactly, do you mean that Cornell "squeaked" into
the NCAA?  They won the conference tournament.  That gets them an automatic
bid.  Do you begrudge Providence's presence as well?  They were lower ranked,
yet won their tournament, so they earned their bid, right?  Apparently you
believe that a lower RPI ranking should mean that the team must play far
from home.  I think that's a debatable point of view.   It's exciting for
the sport to have underdogs winning the tournaments, and/or hot teams
coming on strong towards the end of the season.  And no one is
complaining that Michigan State gets to play at Munn!   (including me!)
 
>Lowell really lost out to two teams that seemed to have been ranked
>lower than they were.  They lost out to Cornell on the attendance
>issue.  And they lost out to Clarkson simply so that a second-round
>all-HE matchup could have been avoided.  Yet they were apparently the
>third-highest ranked team from the East.
 
I don't think the all-HE matchup was the reason.  After all, if Cornell beats
LSSU (huge IF!), they would play Vermont in round 2.  So an all-HE second
round game isn't that different an option.
 
I agree that Lowell seems to have gotten screwed here.  IMHO, Clarkson
should have been shipped west, and UML should have been the #5 seed out east.
It seems like BOTH Cornell and Clarkson were kept east for "the attendance
issue".  But it's hard to speculate.  I guess we just saw some of Mike's
true anti-Cornell colors...
 
Jeff Benensohn
 
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