Rich Hungerford writes:
 
>I agree with the people who have been saying drop back to 8 teams or go up to
>16.  This regional format with the first night bye is not making it.
 
Huh?  Apparently you did not attend the Knick Regionals in person.  I seriously
doubt if anyone in the audience Friday and Saturday night in Albany would agree
with that statement.  Four great games, emotion, atmosphere, incredible skill--
this is a failure?  Three of thefour games were decided by a single goal, and
I can't believe there was anyone in the hockey community that would have
predicted the Clarkson romp over Western Michigan.  In fact, a Las Vegas
bookmaker wouldn't have taken a bet that Murphy would turn-in a near shut-out
causing the vaunted CCHA Mustangs to self-destruct in the third period.
 
>Why not go with 16 teams and have 4 regionals, one hosted by each conference.
 
There already is, it's called the conference tournament.  16 teams is
ridiculous, twelve teams is already beyond the NC$$ ratio of total D-I teams to
playoffs.  Further, 16 teams makes an absolute mockery of the regular season.
The only deserving team in the next four for a bid would be Bowling Green, but
they will readily admit they didn't do what they had to do to earn themselves
a chance at the plate.  I caould see even more moribund play by teams at the
end of the season who know they have make the playoffs and now are only i
interested in resting their regulars.
 
>of course you could go back to campus sites
 
Sure.  Why draw 12,400 when you could do 3 or 4 thousand and shut out a lot of
fans who want to see college hockey. :-;
 
Sorry to about the heavily laced sarcasm, but I would like to hear some logical
evidence to support the idea to return to campus sites in the East.  The only
credible argument IMHO is the Mike Machnik opinion that the games belong to
the students.  That would leave a lot of Get-a-Lifers out of the picture
however.
*********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                     RPI Engineers--An Underachieving Team
[log in to unmask]        Go Cats Go!
 
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