John Hassaleur writes:
 
>  BGSU was a 1980s powerhouse and has been the "13th team"
>for the NCAA tournament for two years running.  Only upsets in the
>ECAC tournament have kept them out.
 
        Off-season nit-pick: this is not strictly true.  It is true
that Bowling Green was in the top twelve eligible teams according to
the selection criteria each of the last two years, and got squeezed
out by ECAC champions receiving automatic bids.  However:
 
1994: BGSU is 12th in RPI (the rating method), but RPI (the school,
ranked 18th) wins the ECAC tournament and becomes the 12th team to
make the NC$$s.  HOWEVER, even if Clarkson (#8, and the ECAC RS champ)
wins the ECAC tournament, BGSU doesn't go to the NC$$s, as Clarkson is
the only ECAC team in the top twelve, and a lower ranking team
(Vermont) would have to be given "BGSU's bid" to give the ECAC the
minimum of two.
 
1995: BGSU is 11th (not including Maine) in the PWC selection
criterion, and Cornell is 12th.  If there are no upsets in conference
tourneys, BGSU and Cornell both go.  (As there are two ECAC teams and
two HE teams ranked 10 and up, minimum bids don't come into play.)
Unfortunately for Bowling Green, Providence (#16) wins the Hockey East
tournament, and Cornell wins the ECAC tournament, so they go to the
NC$$s, and BGSU stays home.  So, yes, BGSU would have gone in place of
Cornell if Vermont or Clarkson had won the ECACs (although not if
Harvard, the other semifinalist, had won), but they would also have
gone in place of Providence if Maine, BU or Lowell had won the Hockey
East tournament.
 
        So in 1994 BGSU was squeezed out by the ECAC's minimum of two
bids, regardless of the outcome of the ECAC tourney, and in 1995 they
were kept home by the combined effects of upsets in both Eastern
tournaments.
 
        None of which takes away from your premise that Bowling Green
is no more a CCHA have-not than Denver is a WCHA have-not.
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/people/john_whelan/jphock.html>
 
1996 Cornell Hockey: Ivy League Women's Champions
Ivy League Men's Champions/ECAC Men's Champions
 
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