Bill Fenwick writes:
>There's sort of a built-in case study here.  The NC$$ tourney has been in
>its present single-elimination, 12-team, top-four-get-byes format for three
>years.  In the first year, 1992, the winners in the first round did get a
>day off before they faced their respective bye teams for the right to go to
>the semis.  And what happened -- three of the four non-bye teams advanced
>to the Phinal Phour.
 
Remember, though, that two of the teams (Wisconsin and Michigan St.) beat
teams that had not played a game in *two* weeks (St. Lawrence and Maine,
respectively).  That's because of the stupid scheduling at the Garden that
gave all the Eastern teams two weeks off after (the last) Hockeyfest.
 
Chris