>And again, the essential concept of PWR is exactly what the committee
>does ... again, the only difference is, they don't total up the wins.
>
>The reason why they should is the same reason why, for example:
>   If Yale has more wins than Clarkson, but Clarkson beat Yale twice in
>the season --- that doesn't mean Clarkson wins the ECAC regular season
>title.  That would be silly.
>
>Same thing for seedings in the tournament, in my opinion .... I think
>the team with the most total wins should get the nod -- then if there's
>a tie, break it by RPI or head-to-head comparison - whatever.
 
But Adam, the reason this works for awarding a regular season championship
in any conference is that each team plays the same number of games that are
being used in the total (eg for the ECAC, there are 22 specific games for
each team that are counted in the total). Even then, there is a
questionable discrepancy in the WCHA because the schedule is not balanced.
 
However, when comparing teams for NCAA bids, the teams overall record is
used, and not all teams have the same number of games in their overall
record.  This I believe has always kept the Ivies in a slight disadvantage
in the national polls, because other teams play many more games early in
the season, and thus can potentially have a double digit win column when
the Ivies have played only 4 or 5 games. (Conversely, it makes it easier
for an Ivy to be one of the last schools in the country to still have an
undefeated record for the season, as Cornell and Princeton did this year).
 
So how do you compare two teams by total wins when one team has played 8
more games that the other?  One, you go by win percentage rather than total
wins.  Two, you figure out a way to count the same number of games for each
team, specifying beforehand which games will be counted (as conferences do
with conference vs. nonconference games; this would be tedious at best when
done on a national level).
 
Paulette Dwen
Cornell '89 '96
 
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