Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>The two division winners each receive a bye in the first round...but that same
>weekend, they meet each other in a winner-take-all game for the MacNaughton
>Cup.
 
I'm not sure this would be acceptable under NCAA rules, because as the
rules read, among the games exempted from the 34 game limit are games
played in conference tournaments, and this would seem to be a game
that isn't part of the tournament.  Thus it would have to count and
would push the teams over the limit, unless they scheduled only 33
non-exempt games in advance.
 
The list of exemptions includes the following (from the 94-95 NCAA
Manual, but I don't believe this part has changed):
 
  17.10.5.3 Annual Exemptions.  The maximum number of ice hockey contests
  shall exclude the following:
  a) Conference Championship.  Competition in one conference championship
  tournament in ice hockey (or the tournament used to determine the
  conference's automatic entry in an NCAA ice hockey championship);
  b) Conference Playoff.  Competition involving member institutions that
  tie for a conference championship.  Such teams may participate in a
  single-elimination playoff to determine the conference's automatic entry
  in an NCAA ice hockey championship without the game(s) being counted as
  a postseason tournament;
 
The winner of the game would presumably receive the regular season
champion bid that has been given out the last couple of years.  But
this is not an automatic bid.  Each conference gets only one "real"
automatic bid, and each year, the conferences decide to award it to
the tourney champion.  Thus, (b) cannot apply.  (unless the WCHA
changed who they gave the auto bid to - not likely.)
 
(a) is a little trickier.  It could be said that the game is used for
purposes of determining who gets seeded 1 & 2 in the conference
championship tourney and thus is part of the tourney.  But it could
also be argued that the game is really meant to decide an overall
regular season champion and thus would not be exempt from the 34 game
limit.  However, how could a game that determines the regular season
champ (and thus determines one of the two bids that the selection
committee extends to all conferences), *also* be part of the postseason
tourney (and thus determines the automatic bid given to the postseason
tourney winner)?
 
Obviously, if the WCHA really wished to do this for the sake of the
Cup, someone would have to investigate these issues and find out the
NCAA's position.  At the least, there is some question as to whether
such a game would be allowed or not.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                 [log in to unmask]           [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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