I must say first and foremost that I personally felt that the outcome of our
 game Monday night would prove to be pointless as I felt that the committee had
 already made their list before the weekend was over. I even had a bet with a
 fellow fan on this and was HE ticked off when I came by with the news. One of
 the articles in the Star Tribune this morning explained the selection criteria
 and the committee and what follows are excerpts from that article:
 
 The four members of the NCAA hockey committee are Rick Comley, Northern
 Michigan coach; Jack Parker, Boston University coach; Jack Gregory, Bowling
 Green athletic director; and Laing Kennedy, Cornell athletic director and
 committee chairman.
 
 Comley, whose team was about to face the Gophers, said it didn't matter
 whether the Gophers won or lost last night, they still would have been seeded
 behing LSSU, N Mich and Michigan. "Michigan and Minnesota were close, but a
 win wouldn't have changed it for Minnesota," Comley said.
 
 Kennedy said: "We follow certain criteria, which is: 1. overall won-lost
 record, and 2. strength of schedule. Those two things are treated equally. If
 they are still even or close to even, we go to 3. head-to-head or common
 opponents, or postseason. As we evaluated the criteria, it was very clear to
 us that Michigan was ahead of Minnesota."
 
 The strength of schedule now is based on a formula in which winning percentage
 is 20 percent, opponents' winning percentage is 40 percent, and the winning
 percentage of a team's opponents' opponents is another 40 percent.
 
 Gophers coach Doug Woog said he was disappointed to find out before the game
 that his team, the WCHA runner-up at 28-6-5, was summarily dismissed as
 inferior to Michigan, the CCHA runner-up at 32-7-3.
 
 "I'd like to play Miami of Ohio four times," Woog said, referring to
 Michigan's schedule and renewing the annual question of whether the WCHA or
 the CCHA is better. "And then Ohio State. You would think that we might be
 judged close enough to Michigan that this game could be a factor in the
 decision.
 
 "I'm disappointed, too, because I was told by Otto Breitenbach (WCHA
 commissioner) and Comley that we'd be told after the Monday night game.
 Somebody reneged on what they told us before the tournament. It takes the
 impact out of this playoff. It's like saying, 'The Super Bowl won't be held
 today.'" (end of excerpt)
 
 Fans in my immediate area were very upset and we were also unaware that the
 teams had been told. We thought that it was BAD ENOUGH that "we" knew!! Well,
 what's done is done, but I am seriously considering writing to Mr. Kennedy to
 express my displeasure at the committee's actions.  If our tournament is
 scheduled too late then maybe they need to see that the WCHA changes it's
 timing. And as I mentioned before, they have never found the need to announce
 the seedings early before...so why this year?
 
 If any of you have access to Mr. Kennedy you have my permission to show him
 this posting.
 
 I also apologise for the "tone" of this posting, but this was very upsetting
 and I am still angry about this whole deal.
 Carol White
 U of M
 GO Gophers!!!