I bet a lot of you are wonderin' just where the committee came up with
their (excellent?) seedings. Perhaps I can clarify a few things for ya.
 
I compiled some stats for the committee this year, including winning
percentages and a strength of schedule number. They also asked me to
compute a power rating of sorts. It is the same rating method baseball
and basketball uses to select their teams. It is based on winning
percentage, opponents winning percentage and opponent's opponents
winning percentage.
 
THEY DID NOT USE MY COMPUTER RATING (TCHCR).
 
I was just a grunt, adding up the numbers, so I did not participate
in any of the "smoke-filled room" selection process directly. I do,
however, have convenient access to the same numbers the committee used
to choose & seed the teams.
 
Let me try to answer some of your questions.
 
o Very early Monday morning, the committee had 4 versions of the stats,
    one for each WCHA consol/championship possible outcome. I guess
    they looked at all 4 and saw virtually no difference, so they made
    their picks before the championship game even started.
 
o The West seeding is very clear-cut from the numbers. I got that one
    exactly right. My East teams were right on, but I had different
    seedings.
 
o BC & BU are VERY close. I am not sure what the deciding factor was
    for the committee to seed BU #2. Two things BU has going for it are
    a marginally better schedule and a better record against common
    opponents. BC had a much better record vs. the 20 teams under
    consideration and won the head-to-head contests 3-1.
 
o St Lawrence & Cornell are also very close. The deciding factor may
    well have been Cornell's better record against the 20 teams under
    consideration.
 
o Don't ask ME for the exact numbers. You'll have to ask your local
    committee member why the numbers were not released. I don't think
    I'll get in trouble for telling you this much, tho.
 
 
Overall, I think they got the "right" 12 teams, but those East seeds are
a little shaky. They did much better this year than last, IMHO.
 
 
I will try to answer any other questions you have. Send me email. I'll
summarize the good questions to the list, of course.
 
Keith [log in to unmask]