On 3/21/07 3:12 PM, "Craig Roberts" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Until the CHA and Atlantic Hockey came along, the NCAA tourney was a 12-team
> tourney. Because of the schools in those two leagues coming along, the NCAA
> made it a 16-team tourney. The other four conferences get two more at-large
> opportunities because of those conferences.
> 

No, I completely disagree with this, it is a worse than wrong conclusion.
There may be correlation, but no causation. The number of schools is what
made the NCAA expand the field from 12 to 16, not the number of conferences
or the number of automatic bids. You eliminate those conferences and their
automatic bids, but keep the number of schools the same (they become
independents or join the other conferences (for example Bemidji State and
Air Force joint the WCHA) and nothing would be forced to change -- even the
16 team tournament would remain. The big winner in all of this is the ECACHL
-- they were the ones called weak sisters and poor puppies before Atlantic
Hockey and CHA came along, so now these two conferences take the heat
previously heaped upon ECACHL. But to suggest that Atlantic Hockey and CHA
are in any way, shape or form responsible for the 16 vs 12 team tournament
is at best pure fantasy.

Nathan Hampton