A week's break between conclusion of play in the East and the
announcement of NCAA tourney seedings should provide ample opportunity
for discussion of the potential seedings in the East.  Here are my choices
and reaso (with acknowledged bias towards SLU and ECAC) along with
a list of how I think they might actually come out.
 
    EAST - if I were the committee       as the real committee might do
             1.  Maine                      1.  Maine
             2.  St. Lawrence               2.  Boston University
             3.  Boston University          3.  New Hampshire
             4.  Alaska-Anchorage           4.  St. Lawrence
             5.  Clarkson                   5.  Alaska-Anchorage
             6.  New Hampshire              6.  Clarkson
 
 
      Maine - Number 1 - How could a seed be any easier?
 
      SLU - Number 2?  The Saints are the ECAC Champion,
      were only a point away from the regular season title, and have
      the second best winning percentage in the East
 
            Maine       29 -  3 - 2   0.882
            SLU         22 -  8 - 1   0.726
            B.U.        21 -  8 - 4   0.697
            Clarkson    20 -  9 - 1   0.683
            UNH         22 - 12 - 2   0.639
            Harvard     14 -  7 - 6   0.630
            Providence  21 - 13 - 2   0.611
 
      B.U - Number 3?  Overall record beats UNH, strength of schedule
      a determiner over Clarkson.  Lack of success in Hockey East tourney
      prvents strength of schedule from overcoming SLU's superior winning
      percentage.
 
      Clarkson seeded above UNH?  Superior overall record and a victory
      at UNH.
 
      Where does Alaska-Anchorage fit in?  Beats me - its tougher to
      rate a team that isn't a part of a regular league where many
      games make comparisons easier.
 
      Any chance for ECAC regular season champ Harvard?  I don't think
      so, their winning pct. is considerably below Clarkson's, they
      lose the head-to-head to Clarkson (0-1-1), and their record against
      teams under consideration is something like 1-5-0. Some might
       argue strength of schedule, but getting pasted by Maine shouldn't
      really help a team too much - since it seems to happen to everybody.
      I've heard though that Harvard is still practicing...
 
      Guessing the real selection committee's rationale:
 
      B.U. - Number 2:  They are #3 in winning percentage (in the East)
      and can argue a more difficult schedule than SLU (B.U.'s RPICH
      is #2 in East).  Also having Coach Parker on the selection committee
      probably will help - I know he "leaves the room" when BU is
      discussed, but I assume he participates for the other teams in the
      brackett.  They certainly were not hurt in the seeding last year -
      perhaps with good reason given the eventual results.
 
      UNH over SLU - That old strength of schedule bear again, along
       with UNH's 6-1 victory over SLU (at UNH after SLU had already
       played Harvard and Brown the same weekend).
 
      In fact, SLU played only 1 non-league game at home this year
      - an unfortunate 3-2 loss to BC in their season opener which SLU
       dominated and should have won.  Given their overall 11-1-1 home
      record, its too bad we only got to see them here for 13 of their
      31 games (so far).  How does this number (or %) of home games
      compare to other Eastern schools?
 
      What about Providence?  Assuming that it is the East's turn to
      take the independent (and A-A is certainly deserving of a bid
      on their own merits this year), and assuming that two ECAC teams
      are chosen and that Parker's BU will get a bid, it would seem
      that Providence will be left out.  On the other hand, the committee
      might argue that their record is similar to UNH 22-12-2
      (Providence 21-13-2) and give it to Providence based on a 3-1-0
      head-to-head for the year.  Does this sound unlikely? See the
      Cornell-SLU discussion last year - similar records, SLU knocked
      Cornell out in the tourney semifinals, but Cornell won both
      regular season meetings and the committee has been said to
      give no special weight to tourney games.
 
      Wouldn't a 16 team NCAA tournament be nice?