Kevin writes:
 
>My understanding is that the ECAC or any of the other leagues did not give
>an automatic bid to the regular season champ until last year (after then #1
>Colorado College was snubbed when it lost to #10 team).  The bid has
>always gone to the tournement champion.
 
This is correct -- prior to last year, the NC$$ handed out only one
automatic tournament bid per conference, and each conference awarded that
bid to their own tournament winner.  Last year, the NC$$ gave each
conference two automatic bids, and all the conferences elected to give
those bids to the regular-season champ and the conference tournament
winner.  Note that the NC$$ hands out auto bids, but does *not* say who
they have to go to -- as far as I know, there isn't any reason a conference
couldn't decide to give their two bids to the tourney winner and runner-up
(or the fifth-place team and consolation-game winner, for that matter).
But that decision has to be made in advance, and in fact, I think the
conferences have to decide what to do with their auto bids before the
season starts.
 
Bill Fenwick
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