At 11:22 AM -0500 2/11/97, Dan Olsen wrote:
>Classification:
>Prologue: Dan Olsen
>IBM Global Services
>Client Services Representative
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>Ph: 8-532-5259 / (914) 892-5259
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>Epilogue: Dan Olsen
>
>It seems that the independents could actually hold their own similar to a #12
>ranked team, however is it fair for the #12 ranked team that would be
>displaced
>because of this automatic bid.  The current system provides an incentive for
>teams to play to the best of their ability in the conference tournament and
>makes for more interesting hockey.  Giving an automatic bid to an Independent
>just leads to more political !@#$@% (ie how is the independent team
>picked, who
>picks them, etc, etc).  It would probably be based on the same PWR ratings,
>however, these can be easily manipulated by an Independent team that gets to
>choose which teams they play.
 
I wouldn't say that was true at all. When Merrimack College was an
Independent team it was very difficult to schedule solid division 1
opponents, who rightly saw that there was little, if anything to gain by
playing such a team and everything to lose.
 
And even without independents getting an automatic bid, there's no less
political #$(*#$ over how the committee chooses teams from the four
conferences. Teams that are tournament-eligible don't have to be in one;
they just have to play enough D1 games.
 
But again, of the independents that played in the tourney since 1988 until
they abolished the auto bid, all are now playing in one of the four
conferences. So whether the existing indies could play with the #12 team is
questionable.
 
>
 
David M. Josselyn, Desktop Publishing Technician, The Lowell Sun.
Merrimack College '93, Syracuse University '95
 
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