Nathan Boyle writes:
 
>In the same NCAA news, I also read that the hockey committee has decided
>to look at the final 15 games of the season rather than the last 20 when
>looking at teams for the tourney.  And they also want to look at the
>power rankings of conferences prospective tourney  teams play in as a
>factor.
 
        The article in question is on the web at
 
http://www.ncaa.org/news/19980803/active/3529n17.html
 
According to the on-line copy, it's the last sixteen games, not
fifteen.  That change is not surprising, given that they hinted at
last year's meeting that 20 was too many games to count as "recent".
 
        But the bit about how the committee "reserves the right to
evaluate each team based on the relative strength of their respective
conference using the overall conference ratings percentage index (RPI)
in determining competitive equity" is frighteningly vague.  I would
guess that this is to give the committee a way out if one of the MAAC
teams "accidently" scores well in the Pairwise.  (If so, it would seem
to indicate a lack of confidence in the system.)  Either that or the
dream of ECAC-Bashing WCHA fans has come true.
 
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
Attention ECAC:   Eight is Enough--Flush the Final Five!
 
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