Does anyone know how exactly the ECAC handles the head-to-head
tiebreaker among three teams?  Do they
 
        a) Compare the records of the three teams in games among them?
        b) Only use it if there is a clear winner (team A beat teams B
and C head-to-head or teams A and B beat team C head-to-head); this is
the NFL method?
 
        If it is a), then Brown is eliminated from playoff contention.
The best they can manage is a 3-way tie for tenth with Yale and
Dartmouth.  They split with both of these teams (and so a tie-breaker
with either one of them would go to the record vs top 4, which is a
mess, seeing as how the top four consists of Cornell, Clarkson and any
two out of RPI, Vermont, Union, Princeton, and Colgate), but Yale
swept Dartmouth.
 
        So using method a) on the three-way tie, we'd find
Yale      6-2 (i.e., 6 points in four games)
Brown     4-4
Dartmouth 2-6
 and Yale would get the playoff berth.  But using method b),
head-to-head is a wash and we go to top 4.
 
        It's a lot easier to work out the playoff picture under method
a), since it's harder for a third team to come in and mess up a
perfectly good head-to-head advantage.
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: 1996-7 Ivy League Champions
WE WANT MORE!  WE WANT THE ECAC!
 
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