I've had some private conversations with the folks at
uscollegehockey.com (tim and lee) about how ties are handled.
 
1. How are ties in individual team comparisons handled?
    It appears that the RPI is used as the tie breaker
    The interesting case is Dartmouth V mass lowell where
    dartmouth won H2H but tied in points (dartmouth got H2H and COP
    while lowell got RPI and TUC) and lost the PWR on lower RPI
 
2. How are teams that won the same number of PWRs ordered in the
   ranking?
   A) why is new hampshire over vermont
        Teams get 2 points each
        No head to head
        NH wins RPI
        NH wins comparison point
   B) why is North Dakota over Clarkson
        Teams get 2 points each
        No head to head
        ND wins RPI
        ND wins comparison point
   C) why is Michigan State over Colorado College
        Michigan state wins comparison point 3-2
        even though colorado college has higher RPI
   D) why is Maine over miami
        Maine wins comparison point 2-1
        even though miami has higher RPI
   E) why are st cloud, bu, princeton, and denver in that order
        bu - denver
                denver wins comparison point 3-1
                no h2h
                bu wins RPI point
        bu - princeton
                princeton wins comparison point 3-1
                no h2h
                bu wins RPI point
        bu - st cloud
                st cloud wins comparison point 3-1
                no h2h
                st cloud wins RPI point
        den - princeton
                teams get 2 points each
                no head to head
                princeton wins RPI point
        den - st cloud
                denver wins comparison point 3-2
                denver wins h2h point 1-0
                st cloud wins RPI point
        prin - st cloud
                teams get 2 points each
                no head to head
                st cloud wins RPI point
 
        It appears that the only criterion used for the ordering for
        teams that won the same number of pair wise criteria is the
        RPI.
 
Is that correct?  Note I'm not asking if it is equitable, I'm only
asking if that is how the ordering is made by the selection committee.
 
It seems like the tie breaker for a 2 way tie is who won the
individual comparison, but not for a 4 way tie.  Is that true???
 
 
      charlie shub   University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
[log in to unmask]  -or-  [log in to unmask]  -or-  [log in to unmask]
                    http://www.cs.uccs.edu/~cdash
            (719) 262-3492               (fax) 262-3369
 
 
=================================================
> Date:         Mon, 27 Jan 1997 22:35:33 -0600
> From: Lee Urton <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:      Pairwise Rankings (PWR)
> To: INFO
>
> U.S. College Hockey Online  Pairwise Rankings (PWR)
> Minneapolis, MN                    January 27, 1997
>
> Note: The PWR can be reformatted and redistributed by any media outlet or
> person, provided USCHO's URL (http://uscollegehockey.com/) accompanies
> the results.
>
> Rk Team                GP  W- L- T  Win%  Rk     RPI  Rk  PWR
>  1 Michigan            26 22- 1- 3 0.9038  1 | 0.6301  1 | 22
>  2 New Hampshire       25 19- 6- 0 0.7600  2 | 0.6103  2 | 20
>  3 Vermont             22 15- 6- 1 0.7045  3 | 0.6005  3 | 20
>  4 Minnesota           26 18- 8- 0 0.6923  5 | 0.5800  5 | 18
>  5 North Dakota        26 17- 7- 2 0.6923  5 | 0.5894  4 | 17
>  6 Clarkson            22 15- 7- 0 0.6818  7 | 0.5762  6 | 17
>  7 Michigan State      24 14- 7- 3 0.6458  9 | 0.5340 15 | 14
>  8 Colorado College    26 15- 9- 2 0.6154 14 | 0.5480 11 | 14
>  9 Cornell             19 10- 5- 4 0.6316 12 | 0.5483 10 | 13
> 10 St Cloud            26 15- 8- 3 0.6346 11 | 0.5591  8 | 12
> 11 Boston University   24 13- 6- 5 0.6458  9 | 0.5556  9 | 12
> 12 Princeton           20 13- 5- 2 0.7000  4 | 0.5443 12 | 12
> 13 Denver              26 14- 8- 4 0.6154 14 | 0.5341 14 | 12
> 14 Maine               24 14- 9- 1 0.6042 17 | 0.5408 13 | 11
> 15 Miami               25 17- 8- 0 0.6800  8 | 0.5613  7 | 11
> 16 Lake Superior       29 16- 9- 4 0.6207 13 | 0.5293 16 |  7
> 17 Rensselaer          22 12- 7- 3 0.6136 16 | 0.5209 18 |  6
> 18 Wisconsin           26 13-12- 1 0.5192 22 | 0.5286 17 |  5
> 19 Colgate             21 11- 9- 1 0.5476 19 | 0.5195 19 |  4
> 20 Minnesota-Duluth    26 14-11- 1 0.5577 18 | 0.5073 21 |  3
> 21 Mass Lowell         25 13-12- 0 0.5200 20 | 0.4984 23 |  2
> 22 Dartmouth           19  9- 9- 1 0.5000 23 | 0.4909 24 |  1
> 23 Bowling Green       25 12-11- 2 0.5200 20 | 0.4863 26 |  0
>
>
> The Pairwise Ranking is the ranking system used the NCAA Selection
> Committee in determining selections for the NCAA hockey tournament. The
> PWR compares all teams at or above .500, judging them by five criteria:
> common opponents, record in last 20 games, head to head meetings, record
> against teams at or above .500, and the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
>
> Further details about the computation process can be found at our website.
>
> The current PWR, updated within the hour with current results, can be
> found at http://uscollegehockey.com
>
> INFO-HOCKEY-L is for information only;  send any discussion of this
> article to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Discussion List.
>
 
 
 
      charlie shub   University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
[log in to unmask]  -or-  [log in to unmask]  -or-  [log in to unmask]
                    http://www.cs.uccs.edu/~cdash
            (719) 262-3492               (fax) 262-3369
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
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