While looking through the ranks of teams from the various objective ratings
systems (i.e. those based only on data rather than subjective poll responses),
I noticed that the TCHCR and RPICH ranked the Western teams consistently
higher than the CHODR and, conversely, that the CHODR ranked the Eastern teams
consistently higher than TCHCR and RPICH.  I did not actually regress the
results, but a statistically significant variation is clear from just
eyeballing the results.  Here are some of the most obvious differences between
the ratings, and they are by no means the only examples:
 
>                                 HOCKEY-L    TCHCR     RPICH     CHODR
>     Team                Record    Rank      Rank      Rank      Rank
>
>     Wisconsin           12-5-1      3         2         2         7
>     Boston University   12-4        4         7         3         2
>     Harvard              8-3-1      8        18        17         3
>     RPI                  8-5       10        17        11         9
>     Brown                6-4-2     15        23        19        12
>     Minnesota            7-8-3                9        13        24
>     Western Michigan    10-7-2               13         9        23
>     Boston College       8-6-1               26        26        10
 
The only blatant exception to the rule was in the case of Northeastern, which
was rated better in the TCHCR and RPICH despite being an eastern team:
 
>                                 HOCKEY-L    TCHCR     RPICH     CHODR
>     Team                Record    Rank      Rank      Rank      Rank
>
>     Northeastern        10-3-2      9         8         6        14
 
I am wondering if the differences shown in the ratings are just a fluke caused
by the different bases between the ratings systems (my first thought) or if
they actually reflect a real difference between styles of play in the east and
west.  Obviously, the different bases have a significant effect on teams ranks,
but that really does not explain why the geographic split is so pronounced.
Any thoughts?
 
 
Brian F.
CU '91, '92
Go Big Red!