>    OK, on to the gripe at hand... and this is due to extreme bias on
>my part, so feel free to tell me I'm off my rocker.
>
>    Wisconsin finishes _2nd_ in the WCHA regular season standings, and
>_WINS_ the WCHA tournament.
>
>    Minnesota finishes _4th_ in the WCHA regular season standings,
>and _THIRD_ in the WCHA tournament.
>
>    Yet Minnesota gets the _3rd_ seed in the west, while Wisconsin
>gets the _4th_ seed in the west.
>
 
Well, let's take into consideration the following:
 
     Minnesota finished 1 pt behind Wisconsin in the standings.  1 pt is
not that far off, and certainly not as far off as 2nd to 4th makes it
sound.  The difference in the WCHA tournement is simply that Wisc beat CC
where MN didn't (although they did, but that is a moot point here).  They
both beat Denver.
 
     As far as strength of schedule goes, in Minnesota's favor is the fact
that they both had a stronger schedule, and they beat non-conference ranked
teams.  Remember back to Thanksgiving?  Minnesota beat Michigan and
Michigan State while Wisconsin did not.  Basically, since Wisconsin's
winning pct and Minnesota's were so close, the strength of schedule does
make a difference.  I personally think the seedings were accurate.
 
Andrew Golla
 
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