John H. wrote earlier that he would hold up the "Give Smoke an Assist" sign
every time MSU scored tonight.  Those of us who will watch the game on PASS
(or Prime, or whatever) probably won't be seeing too much of John tonight,
since I think it is pretty unlikely that MSU is going to put a lot of pucks
in the net.  Then again, neither will UM.  This game (and tomorrow night's
here at Munn) have all the makings of one of those 2-1, 3-1, or 3-2 ugly
ones that could go either way.  They'll probably be exciting, but not
pretty.  Don't expect anything special from MSU tonight as far as sitting
back and waiting for the mistake or opening up the offense dramatically to
force UM to play a much tighter defense.  Expect a lot of hitting, a lot of
up and down action, but not a lot of scoring (gee, almost sounds like some
dates I used to have).  Drop the puck and let the war commence.
 
Since a lot has been written recently about the proposed jump of UAF to the
WCHA (and I've added my $1.00-2.98 comments), one has to consider the ram-
ifications that this will have on the CCHA.  Leaving the conference with
11 teams will probably force the CCHA to actively recruit a twelfth team.
UAF's move will probably result in somwhat of a "domino effect," similar
but not of the same magnitude as happened when Penn St. joined the Big Ten.
As for the immediate future, however, the playoff system in this conference
will probably be a mess.  The CCHA might have to go to allowing only the
top 8 in the playoffs to avoid having the #1 team sit for 8 days on the
sidelines.  As it is now, each of the top 6 in order gets to choose whether
to play the lowest seed or UAF.  Considering UAF's record, it's been a pretty
easy decision (which means they'll end up in Big Rapids on March 11 this
year).  Without that twelfth team, however, the playoffs become more comp-
licated.  Using all 11 would have to go something like this:
 
                First weekend- Top 5 get byes
                                #6 vs. #11
                                #7 vs. #10
                                #8 vs. #9 (best 2 of 3)
                Second weekend- #1 vs. 8-9 winner
                                #2 vs. 7-10 winner
                                #3 vs. 6-11 winner
                                #4 vs. #5 (all on Friday)
                                Semis- 1, 8, or 9 vs. 4 or 5
                                       2, 7, or 10 vs. 3, 6, or 11(Saturday)
                                Finals on Sunday
 
The ultimate solution for the conference, however, is going to have to be a
twelfth.  Look for the recruitment of someone like Northern Michigan to
switch conferences, since there probably aren't a lot of schools in this
area of the country who could easily move up to DivI.
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?
 
By the way, I already expect not to be able to talk from Sunday through at
least Tuesday.