Various rankings for Men's Division I College Hockey, through 2004-02-29.(*)

Compiled by Wayne T. Smith



          School               KRACH  RHEAL   HEAL    RPI   PWR
      ---------------------------------------------------------
       1   North Dakota            1      1      2      1     1
       2   Boston College          2      2      1      2     2
       3   Minnesota-Duluth        3      4      5      4     4
       4   Maine                   4      8      3      3     3
       5   Wisconsin               5      5      6      7     8t
       6   Minnesota               6     10     12      6     6
       7   Denver                  7     12     13     10     8t
       8   Michigan                8      3      4      5     5
       9   St. Cloud State         9     13     14     11    14t
      10   Colorado College       10     14     18     14    16t
      11   New Hampshire          11     15      7      8     7
      12   Notre Dame             12      6      8     12    11t
      13   Ohio State             13      9     11      9    11t
      14   Miami                  14      7     10     13    10
      15   Michigan State         15     11     17     17    14t
      16   Providence             16     23     24     15    19t
      17   Massachusetts          17     22     20     16    16t
      18   Cornell                18     19     16     18    19t
      19   Colgate                19     17      9     19    13
      20   Dartmouth              20     26     19     21    18
      21   Mass.-Lowell           21     28     28     20    21
      22   Western Michigan       22     16     23     23    22
      23   Alaska-Anchorage       23     29     43     35
      24   Alaska-Fairbanks       24     18     31     28
      25   Rensselaer             25     27     21     22    23
      26   Northern Michigan      26     21     29     33
      27   Brown                  27     24     22     25    24t
      28   Boston University      28     31     35     26    24t
      29   Ferris State           29     20     26     29
      30   Northeastern           30     33     38     27    27
      31   Michigan Tech          31     38     49     40
      32   Bowling Green          32     25     37     36
      33   Bemidji State          33     40     27     30
      34   Harvard                34     30     30     31
      35   Minnesota State        35     43     53     42
      36   Union                  36     32     34     38
      37   Merrimack              37     41     44     32
      38   Niagara                38     34     25     34
      39   Clarkson               39     39     33     37
      40   Yale                   40     37     39     41
      41   Lake Superior          41     35     47     45
      42   Holy Cross             42     47     15     24    24t
      43   St. Lawrence           43     36     41     44
      44   Nebraska-Omaha         44     42     52     47
      45   Vermont                45     44     51     49
      46   Mercyhurst             46     45     32     39
      47   Alabama-Huntsville     47     46     40     43
      48   Findlay                48     48     48     51
      49   Quinnipiac             49     51     36     46
      50   Princeton              50     50     57     54
      51   Sacred Heart           51     55     42     48
      52   Wayne State            52     49     55     55
      53   Air Force              53     52     50     53
      54   Connecticut            54     53     45     50
      55   Canisius               55     54     46     52
      56   Army                   56     56     54     56
      57   Bentley                57     57     56     57
      58   American Int'l         58     58     58     58


(*) Special note for this week:

   Mass.Lowell has admitted to unknowingly using an ineligible player
   in games from 2003-12-27 through 2004-01-24.  UML won 5 of those games:

      12/28/03 Union               3 vs Mass.-Lowell        5      nc
      01/03/04 Massachusetts       0 at Mass.-Lowell        3      he
      01/04/04 Mass.-Lowell        1 at Massachusetts       0      he
      01/10/04 Mass.-Lowell        3 at Michigan State      2      nc
      01/16/04 Mass.-Lowell        4 at Merrimack           3  ot  he

   There seems to be some question as to whether the forfeited games
   will be (1) treated as wins by the opposition, (2) ignored (no
   contest) or (3) remain as played for purposes of ranking for the NCAA
   tournament.

   Treatment (1) is exactly what most people think of when they hear
   "forfeit".  Treatment (2) seems most fair to this reporter, as the
   opposition didn't earn a win while UML's use of an ineligible player
   should mean the opposition shouldn't have a loss.  Treatment (3)
   seems to have little or no rationale, but ... will probably apply
   in this case.  Since the NCAA Infractions Committee will almost
   certainly not rule on the UML administrative lapse before the NCAA
   Tournament selection, NCAA rules seem clear:

      NCAA Tournament selection will include these forfeits AS PLAYED.

   So I'm reversing my previous several weeks treatment (2) to this week

      USING ALL GAME RESULTS AS PLAYED

   This matches current USCHO.com treatment and the opinion of several
   people that know more of this business than I!

   For your information, here is the current NCAA Bylaw 31.10.5:

      NCAA Bylaw 31.10.5 Forfeits

      Neither the outcome nor the statistics in any completed contest
      are reversible by a forfeit due to postgame administrative
      actions, except as provided in Bylaw 31.10.5.4 or by Committee on
      Infractions decisions.  The actual results of the contest and the
      statistics shall be entered as such in both teams all-time
      records, as well as in the coaches records and in individual
      statistics.  Contests later forfeited shall be denoted by the
      institution with an asterisk and a footnote.

   For more information, go to ncaa.org, select rules and eligibility,
   and search for "abrogated".

   Finally, I'll note that Hockey East has and will use treatment (1):

   For Hockey East purposes, UML lost the forfeited games and their
   opponents won them.

   Whew! .. wts


The above RPI rankings are unofficial.

For individual rankings and season composites, please visit

      http://Maine.edu/HEAL/

Game scores for these rankings have been provided by US College Hockey
Online, sometimes supplemented by other sources.  USCHO's composite of
all Division I men's ice hockey games is available at

      http://uscho.com/

in the section marked Men's Division I schedules.  In addition, USCHO
has extensive information about KRACH, its underlying methods and
history, as well as the methods used by the NCAA.

This ranking report is available for republication without restriction.
It may be reformatted or used in part without restriction.  Reference
to the HEAL web site or the author (Wayne T. Smith;  [log in to unmask]) is
appreciated.