> And they also want to look at the power rankings of conferences
> prospective tourney  teams play in as a factor.
 
While it is possible that this addition to theselection process could
be used to screw over the ECAC, my first thought is that it is
intended to affect the MAAC teams. A quick look at the MAAC schedules
on USCHO shows that the 8 MAAC teams play relatively few NC games this
season and virtually all are against D1 independents like Army, Air
Force and Niagara. (Canisius does have a pair with Mankato but I think
that's it). Given this, the Head-to-head and common opponents portion
of the PWR are probably a wash in every case. So the MAAC leader could
very easily end up winning a bunch of comparisons simply based on RPI,
record against a very small subset of the TUC (one or two MAAC teams)
and last 20.  Maybe playing an all MAAC and independent schedule will
tend to result in a low RPI due to SOS but maybe not... (Don't want to
figure out the math right now).
 
Now I don't remember if any of the MAAC teams are eligible this year
or not due to emerging program status. If any are this rule could
prevent a relatively weak MAAC team from making the tournament just
because the numbers say so. I'm not trying to say that the MAAC teams
shouldn't be given a fair chance at the tournament - they should. But
maybe the statistical tools which have been set up for tournament
selection (RPI, PWR) don't adequately handle an emerging conference
situation.
 
If none of the MAAC teams are eligible, then the rule *could* have been
created now so that it didn't seem like a direct slap at the MAAC when
they do gain eligibility. Of course, that would assume more planning
than I would expect from an NC$$ committee...
 
Just a thought.
 
 
Keith Kannenberg
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: (212) 724-5199
Web: http://mae.cornell.edu/kannenb/
 
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