Jon Saari writes:
>Last year Colorado College won the WCHA regular season title but beacuse
>they lost in the first round of the WHCA playoff to Michigan Tech they
>didn't get a bid to the NCAA tourney.  Since then a rule has been passed so
>that both the regular season winner and the playoff winner of the WCHA
>automatically get bids to the NCAA.
 
Just quickly,
 
1) the regular season winner will be extended a bid by the committee,
although technically it is not an "automatic" bid - that goes only to
the conf tourney winner.  The decision to extend a bid to the regular
season champ, if it is not the same team that wins the tourney, is a
sort of unwritten rule.
 
2) CC's losing to MTU was not specifically what kept them out,
although as it went, it affected their performance in a lot of other
factors that do deal with selection - such as RPI rating, record in
last 20, etc.  Teams already on the bubble going into the playoffs, as
CC was, need a strong showing in the tourney to better their chances,
and CC was not able to do this.
 
Charlie's 25 word explanation was better than anything I could come up
with. :-)  My suggestion would be for anyone interested in the
particulars to browse the HOCKEY-L archives from around March-April of
1994, as this situation was discussed very in-depth back then.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93