Jeff Brune writes:
 
>I apologize for re-hashing an old subject, but I noticed that this week
>Minnesota was in front of CC in the RPI rating.  Part of this is because CC won
>the regular season championship and earned the right to play a worse team in
>the playoffs than Minnesota did, but this helped Minnesota's RPI rating because
>it gave them a stronger schedule.  Thus, CC has been penalized in the RPI
>because they had a better regular season record in the league.
>
>There is no way that Minnesota, who finished a distant fourth in the league,
>should have a better ranking than the team that finished far ahead in first
>place when both teams had the same league schedule.
 
But they DIDN'T have the same league schedule, because the WCHA plays an un-
balanced schedule.  Each team plays seven of its opponents four times per
season and the other two only twice.  CC and Minnesota played each other four
times, as well as Denver, Michigan Tech, North Dakota, and St. Cloud.  But
CC played Wisconsin (#10 in RPICH) only twice, as well as Minnesota-Duluth
(#27), while they played Northern Michigan (#34) and Alaska-Anchorage (#36)
four times each.  Minnesota played Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth four
times, and Northern Michigan and Alaska-Anchorage twice.  Thus, Minnesota's
schedule was significantly tougher than Colorado College's, as can be seen
by comparing the OppWin% for the two teams.  Minnesota's is .5549, while
CC's is .4914 .
 
Also, while CC took on #2 Michigan twice this season, they also played a
pair of games against Alaska-Fairbanks (#40) and Air Force (#43), as well
as Alaska-Anchorage in the playoffs.  Minnesota faced Michigan, Michigan
State (#9), BU (#1), and Yale (#37), as well as Minnesota-Duluth in the
playoffs.  Again, these games helped make Minnesota's OppWin% significantly
higher than CC's, which helped move Minnesota ahead in the RPICH -- at least
for this week.
--
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Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
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LET'S GO RED!!                                                  DJF  5/27/94
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