At 6:33 PM -0700 12/11/96, John T. Whelan wrote:
> Mike Machnik writes of Division-I schools that play less than 20 D-I
> games:
>
> >  Currently there
> >is no incentive for DivI teams to play these teams, or DivII-III teams,
> >because those games do not count towards NCAA tourney selection.
>
>         Is this true?  Of course, games against D2-3 schools don't
> count for the NCAA, but I was under the impression that, for example,
> if Minnesota played Wisconsin, Air Force and Mankato State, all three
> games would count towards the selection criteria.
 
I believe this year, Mankato games will not count, because they will play
less than 20 games vs DivI teams.  Not sure though.
 
> Didn't someone
> point out, when Mankato was deciding to move up, that it might hurt
> their scheduling prospects because the games *would* count in the eyes
> of the NCAA, and thus lower a prospective opponent's Ratings
> Percentage Index (because their strength of schedule would go down)?
 
If you win, it should still help you somewhat unless the opponent has a
very poor record.  Someone more familiar with how the numbers work might be
able to explain in what circumstances a win can hurt you (i.e. how poor
does the record have to be).
 
>         If the NCAA only counts games between eligible D1 teams
> towards tournament selection, rather than all D1 games played by
> eligible teams, that means that last year Army, which played exactly
> the minimum number of D1 games, 20, to be eligible, had only 14 of
> those games count towards the selection criteria.  Since the NCAA uses
> performance in the last 20 games as one of those criteria, I would
> think it's not a coincidence that the minimum for eligibility is 20 D1
> games, and thus that all 20 of those would count.
 
I believe that the way it works is that if you play 20 games vs any teams
classified as DivI, then you are eligible for the tourney.  However, only
games between teams eligible for the tourney will count in the criteria.
That means RPI, Last 20, etc.
 
Thus Army is eligible but not all their games vs DivI teams count in the
criteria.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
*****   (Part-Time) Color Voice of Merrimack Hockey  WCAP 980 AM    *****
*****       Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at:       *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
>>>    U.S. College Hockey Online http://www.uscollegehockey.com/     <<<
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.