Thanks to Jeff Schulman from Vermont for bringing this to my
attention.
 
It has been said that HE shootouts will not affect NC$$ tourney
selection this season because the games will be considered ties by the
selection committee.  However, Jeff has pointed out to me a situation
in which they could have an effect.  Jeff raised the issue and the
following is my extrapolation from that.
 
2 of the last 3 years, teams have won a regular season conference
title and not received an NC$$ bid (Harvard 1992, Colorado College
1994).  As a result, beginning this season, the conf reg season
winners will receive automatic bids to the tourney, whether they go on
to win the playoffs or not.
 
Picture the following:
 
Some HE team - let's take Merrimack as an example - does well enough
to challenge for the HE reg season title but overall would not rank
among the top 12 teams as determined by the selection criteria.  As a
result of a number of shootout wins, Merrimack barely beats out BU
(for example) to finish first in HE, but goes on to lose in the first
round of the HE tourney.  Merrimack finishes 9-9-6 with 30 HE points
by virtue of winning all 6 shootouts.  BU is 13-9-2 with 29 HE pts by
virtue of winning one SO.  Merrimack is 12-15-6 overall in DivI games,
BU 21-11-2.
 
In the ranking of teams, Merrimack would have come in, say, 17th.
Ordinarily they would not have received a bid.  And if there were no
shootouts, in this example, Merrimack would have finished second or
lower in HE.  But the extra points gained from SO wins is enough to push
them ahead of BU and they receive the auto bid to the NC$$ tourney
from HE.
 
As a result, the 12th ranked team, perhaps from another conference,
stays home because Merrimack must be one of the 12, having gained the
auto bid from finishing first.
 
Before you say it isn't likely, I'll point out again that two teams in
the last 3 years have won their conference but did not rank among the
top 12 teams by the overall criteria.  And there have been 2 shootouts
in the 5 HE games played thus far - 40%.  It is very possible that a
team could play an extraordinary number of shootouts this year and win
most if not all of them.  That could be enough to earn them the title.
 
Something to ponder...and to remember next time someone insists that
shootouts cannot affect tourney selection.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93