I hope that the rise of SLU and Clarkson in the poll is reflected in
the NCAA selections.
 
It is almost humorous that the NCAA poll lists 15 teams.  Why not 12; or
better yet 16 (only 1 more!).  Which raises my real question.
 
I don't understand why the NCAA hockey tournament has only 12 seeds.
The B-ball NCAA tournament was 48 teams only a few years ago, and they
made the change to a symmetrical (power of 2) field of 64.  Why not
make the hockey NCAAs 16 seeds.  That is the same proportion of
increase that the B-ball NCAAs made in going from 48->64 and would
allow for these 'bubble' teams (Prov, NMU, etc.) to make the show.
Again comparing to the B-ball tourney, I think it is fair to say that
all the really competitive teams have been included in the field of 64,
but 12 doesn't cover hockey well enough.
 
As far as the extra games involved in a field of 16, those make up for
the limit on games which prevents cross-conference games (that would
have made the team ranking easier)!
 
If we take the 16 teams listed in the poll (given the tie for 15), it
looks to me like a field that cuts off all this debate about who gets
'overlooked' by the selection committee.  It also fairly(?) distributes
these 4 extra slots amongst the 4 conferences :-)
 
 
-John