Jeff Rosa writes:
 
>I would say that another con of the Thurs/Sat system is that it would
>mean the Student-athletes would have to miss another day of classes.
>this is a real factor with the Ivy teams in the ECAC.
 
I suspect it would be a big factor with non-Ivy student-athletes as well...
 
Classes may actually be a non-factor for a number of schools, since the week
of NC$$ regional play would coincide with spring break.  I know it does at
Cornell (yeah, like the NC$$ tournament is going to be a scheduling con-
sideration for the Big Red any time soon :-(
 
Anyway, with all the commentary about whether there should be a day off or
not, or whether a week-long layoff is too much to saddle a higher seed with,
I went back and looked at the results of the 12-team NC$$ tourneys, breaking
them out into three separate blocks:
 
1988-1991 -- the top two seeds in each region had the first week off, while
everybody else played best-of-three series at campus sites.  The following
week, the top two seeds in each region hosted best-of-three quarterfinal
series at their home arenas.  The teams that had the week layoff won 14 of
the 16 quarterfinal rounds during this time.  It should be noted that in
1988, the first two rounds were total-goals, rather than best-of-three.
 
1992 -- the first year of regional, single-elimination play.  There was a
day off between the first round games and the quarterfinal games, and that
year, only one of the four teams that had a bye advanced to the semis.  Ouch.
However, it should be noted that the teams that had the bye in the East
actually had two weeks off before the start of the NC$$ tournament, while
the Western teams only had one week.  This was also the year that the Phinal
Phour had no Eastern teams in it.
 
1993-1995 -- no day off between the first-round and quarterfinal games.  What
a difference a day makes.  The teams with the byes have won 10 of the 12
quarterfinal games during this time.
 
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LET'S GO RED!!                                                  DJF  5/27/94
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