This is not even close, folks. The 1966 Michigan State Spartans, 16-13-0.

The situation is beyond belief. They finished the regular season 12-13, 9-11
in the WCHA, 6th in an 8 team league.

But then the fun began. The WCHA playoff system was very strange in those
days. As part of the "Eastern" half of the conference, MSU visited #5
Michigan, and beat their neighbors 3-2 to advance to the second round. In
the second round, they were pre-determined hosts, and beat regular season
champion Michigan Tech 4-3. This put them in the NCAA's, as there was no
playoff to determine a WCHA playoff champion.

They beat Eastern #2 Boston University 2-1 and Eastern #1 Clarkson 6-1 to
claim the NCAA title.

The 1981 Wisconsin team is a little bit of a Cinderella story (but maybe
more of an inconsistency story). They finished second in the WCHA and were
in the top 5 in the polls late in the season. They blew their opening round
total goals series to CC: up 7-2 after the first night, they lost 11-4 (!)
in the second game. None the less, they were the third WCHA team picked for
the tournament and the #4 Western seed. In the 8-team format, they visited
Clarkson, where they won 3-2 and tied 6-6 to advance to the finals in
Duluth, along with the other three Western teams. Two wins later, they were
champions at 27-14-1.

Stories drawn from the "Intercollegiate Hockey Newsletter." Many thanks to
the pre-internet source for college hockey news, Don Birkmayer.

Patrick Abegg

-----Original Message-----
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob Griebel
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 4:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: odds correction, plus

It would be interesting (to everyone but the poor bloke struggling with
the impossible task) to look at the equivalent pre-tournament odds for
all past NCAA champions.  If I recall correctly, some of the Michigan
teams
that contributed to the championship blitzkrieg of the first decade
didn't have particularly good finishes during the season.  Any opinions
out there about who was the most unlikely champ since '48?

Bob Griebel


John T Whelan wrote:

> Something to keep in mind is that the odds of Mercyhurst winning the
> entire tournament are not the odds of them pulling off a shocking
> upset, but the odds of them pulling off four shocking upsets in a row.
> So if they have one chance in 40 of beating any big four teams, that
> gives them one chance in 40^4 = 2,560,000 of doing it four times in a
> row.