Dave H., Mike M. and others have commented on the, let's say, unfair treatment
UML received in getting shipped out to Munn Arena in 1994. Incidentally Dave
and Tony B. did manage to enertain the Knick Arena audience with a spirited
"UML,UML" whenever a partial score was announced.  But perhaps there's another
issue that bears examination.
 
I think there is a financial issue involved in shipping out the home team from
their local venues, especially teams like RPI and M-State who really packed
the arena with their fans (not that it helped any.)  The action in itself does
smack of unfairness.  But taking it back to the method the NC$$ uses for se [C [C [C [D
seedings, the flipping of the 5 and 6's from each region, how is that any
fairer than flipping the 3 and 4's?  Or more importantly, why does the NC$$ t
think it is beneficial to move out the 5 and 6's?  Shouldn't the potential
financial harm to the regional host be a factor in moving out to teams which
could send their fans to a regional playoff, as long as it was within 200-300
miles?
 
The expressed reason for flipping the seeds, according to the NC$$, is to even
out the competition within each region.  The probable reason is to keep eastern
teams from enjoying an advantage in making the Phinal Phour than teams from
the west, which, historically, have been considered to have more depth in terms
of strength.  But this rationale will hold hold true if there is sufficient
connectivity between the two regions to assess the relative strength of each.
In other words, if both regions are of relative equal strength, flipping the
5's and 6's makes no sense.  It only makes the fans of those schools pay for
their team's inferiority RPI-wise.
 
I doubt whether there will ever be adequate connectivity to assess and
compare the strength of the East and the West.  Simply the fact of the WCHA's
chauvinism toward scheduling out-of-conference opponents is enough to throw the
equation out of whack.  Any statisticians want to tackle the question of how
well the RPI and the NC$$ seeding system explains the variablity in strength
between the East and the West?  It's certainly beyond my understanding.
 
The fairest answer, to both the teams themselves and their fans, is to simply
keep all 6 teams within their home region.  Unless it can be demonstrably shown
that one region is consistently stronger than the other, flipping the 5's and 6'
6's really has no merit.
 
But if UML had stayed in the East, and the seeds hadn't been flipped, wouldn't
they have ended up with homestanding RPI?
*********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                     RPI Engineers--1995 ECAC Champions
[log in to unmask]
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.