Let me clarify the confusion over automatic bids this season...
 
* Each conference still gets only one AUTOMATIC bid.  That goes to the
winner of each conference tourney.  This is not new.
* There must be at least two teams chosen from each conference.  This
is also not new.
* The committee has stated that if the conference tourney champ and
the regular season champ are not the same team, they will also extend
a bid to the regular season champ.  This is a change this season.
 
Now, let's apply this to the ECAC, since this seems to be where the
questions have arisen.  If only one ECAC team ranks among the top 12
as ranked by the committee (taking into account the RPI and other
factors as Keith outlined), another must still be chosen.  If
different teams win the conf tourney and the conf reg season, and one
of those teams is the team ranking in the top 12, then those two teams
will be the ones chosen and no others will be chosen from the ECAC.
 
If the team in the top 12 wins both, then the next highest ECAC team
would also be chosen and no others from the ECAC.  Thus an otherwise
top 12 team could be bumped, but this could also happen if in any of
the other conferences, a team not in the top 12 wins their conf tourney.
 
If the team in the top 12 wins neither, then it would appear that
either two or three teams would be chosen from the ECAC: two if the
reg season and the tourney are won by the same team that doesn't rank
in the top 12, or three if two different teams that don't rank in the top
12 win the reg season and tourney.
 
Of course, you could substitute any other conference for "ECAC" as the
situation plays out.
 
If you understood all that, you too may qualify to be a member of the
selection committee. :-)
 
I also saw someone ask about Wisconsin and whether the fact that they
are hosting the regional gets them any special consideration.  The
answer is that they get NO special consideration in determining the 12
teams to receive bids.  But if things play out such that they do
receive a bid, then the committee will make sure that they do play at
home in the West regional even if they would have otherwise been sent
East.  In that case, a team ranked in the West higher than Wisconsin
will be sent East instead.  This is what happened last year when, for
example, UMass-Lowell was sent West so that RPI, which ranked lower
than UML, could play at home.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93