>If you arrange the latest TCHCR list by order of schedule strength, the top ten
>teams make up the WCHA
 
 
This has happened in past years. You shouldn't be surprised that the
schedules for WCHA teams are bunched together, since 32/34 (94%) to
32/37 (86%) of a team's schedule comes from its league opponents. Basically,
all of the WCHA teams have the same schedule, so why shouldn't their
schedules be ranked about the same?
 
Now, whether you consider these WCHA schedules to be the 10 toughest
in all of college hockey is another matter. This has directly to do with
who they have played out of conference and how thay have done in those
games. I tell ya, it helps when WCHA #8 Duluth splits with ECAC #1 Harvard,
#9 Denver sweeps UAF (who did pretty well vs the CCHA), #10 Tech beats
CCHA #3 LSSU, Wisconsin gives Michigan one of its 2 losses, and so on.
 
As has happened in the past, Hockey East has a very good non-conference
record, too. But the quality of those NC opponents does not seem to be
as high as who the WCHA is trouncing.
 
Keith
PS Check out the TCHCR web pages (http://hydra.bgsu.edu/TCHCR) for
past years.