the committee, this year, as always, was faced with conflicting goals....
(these are paraphrased from adam's interview with joe marsh)
 
1 -  the overriding philosophy that tells the committee to avoid
     first- and second-round matchups against teams from the same
     conference. This mandate is passed down from the coaches, after
     discussions over the years at the American Hockey Coaches
     Association conventions."
 
2 -  Policy then dictates that two non-bye teams from each region be
     switched to the other. The committee first attempts to take the
     bottom two from each region, but if that would negatively impact
     attendance in a severe way, or create intra-conference matchups,
     different teams can be moved.
 
3 -  The host team stays home.
 
So, what happens when there is a conflict between 1 and 2?  Which one is
more important to honor?
 
Frankly, I looked at the word "overriding" in goal 1 and the caveat in
goal 2 that seemed to point the way to a rationale for not moving the
bottom two teams and, in making my prediction of the brackets, assumed it
would be ok to move the 4th and 6th seeded teams instead of the 5th and
6th seeded teams.  I elected to do that because
A) it avoided intra conference matchups
B) it did not move a host team
C) i was not convinced it would have a huge impact on attendance
   (the distance difference from columbus is under 400 miles)
D) there was ample precedence for moving #4 seeds.
 
I would really be interested in hearing if the committee considered this
alternate scenario.
 
The REAL problem, IMHO, is that 3 of the top ranked 4 teams had to stay in
the same region because the 4th ranked team was a host team.
 
Putting my wcha biased hat on, i'm delighted with things the way they are
because wisconsin has a slightly easier road (the number 3 ranked team on
neutral ice versus the number 1 ranked team in th eir own back yard) and
colorado college gets slightly lower ranked BC instead of BU if they get
by clarkson.
 
         charlie shub   University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
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