Tim says in part ...
>The newspapers here reported this morning that the committee said that NMU was
>chosen over MSU because "NMU had gone farther in their conference's tournament
>and because they beat MSU in the GLI."  But previously the committee has said
>that tourney games counted the same as regular season games.   It's pretty
>lousy that the committee changed their criteria this year at the last
 
   What is lousy is your clueless newspaper, as it quotes what appears
   inflammatory, but fails to provide background.
 
   Certainly, NMU vaulted past MSU at the end because the last few games
   for each team swung the balance from MSU to a virtual tie.  MSU lost
   out because of the secondary criteria ...  criteria that was not
   changed this year!
 
   MSU had a better winning%, but NMU won head-to-head and strength of
   schedule criteria.  The GLI game turned out to be the main reason for
   NMU over MSU, but only as one of the tie-breakers.
 
>It's high time for the committee to excuse guys like Rick Comley from
>selection duties in seasons when his team is under consideration.  We've
>seen similar fishy dealings in past years from Jackie Parker and others.
>Just "leaving the room" when their teams are being discussed is not
>sufficient.  They shouldn't be involved at all - I don't care if everything
>really is totally above board, it still looks very bad to outsiders.
>If someone wants to serve on the selection committee, they should either be
>representing a team that won their conference tournament or else (better yet)
>before serving on the committee agree that their school's team will not
>accept a bid.
 
   The current process is almost mechanical, with very little room for
   the committee to make unethical selections.  I'd rather have
   respected successful administrators making the selections rather than
   a computer or reporters or public opinion or whatever.
 
Just another opinion,
wayne
 
Wayne Smith
The College Hockey Discussion List administrator
Systems Group - CAPS              BITNET/CREN:  wts@maine
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