Various rankings for Men's Division I College Hockey, through 2004-02-29.(*) Compiled by Wayne T. Smith School KRACH RHEAL HEAL RPI PWR --------------------------------------------------------- 1 North Dakota 1 1 2 1 1 2 Boston College 2 2 1 2 2 3 Minnesota-Duluth 3 4 5 4 4 4 Maine 4 8 3 3 3 5 Wisconsin 5 5 6 7 8t 6 Minnesota 6 10 12 6 6 7 Denver 7 12 13 10 8t 8 Michigan 8 3 4 5 5 9 St. Cloud State 9 13 14 11 14t 10 Colorado College 10 14 18 14 16t 11 New Hampshire 11 15 7 8 7 12 Notre Dame 12 6 8 12 11t 13 Ohio State 13 9 11 9 11t 14 Miami 14 7 10 13 10 15 Michigan State 15 11 17 17 14t 16 Providence 16 23 24 15 19t 17 Massachusetts 17 22 20 16 16t 18 Cornell 18 19 16 18 19t 19 Colgate 19 17 9 19 13 20 Dartmouth 20 26 19 21 18 21 Mass.-Lowell 21 28 28 20 21 22 Western Michigan 22 16 23 23 22 23 Alaska-Anchorage 23 29 43 35 24 Alaska-Fairbanks 24 18 31 28 25 Rensselaer 25 27 21 22 23 26 Northern Michigan 26 21 29 33 27 Brown 27 24 22 25 24t 28 Boston University 28 31 35 26 24t 29 Ferris State 29 20 26 29 30 Northeastern 30 33 38 27 27 31 Michigan Tech 31 38 49 40 32 Bowling Green 32 25 37 36 33 Bemidji State 33 40 27 30 34 Harvard 34 30 30 31 35 Minnesota State 35 43 53 42 36 Union 36 32 34 38 37 Merrimack 37 41 44 32 38 Niagara 38 34 25 34 39 Clarkson 39 39 33 37 40 Yale 40 37 39 41 41 Lake Superior 41 35 47 45 42 Holy Cross 42 47 15 24 24t 43 St. Lawrence 43 36 41 44 44 Nebraska-Omaha 44 42 52 47 45 Vermont 45 44 51 49 46 Mercyhurst 46 45 32 39 47 Alabama-Huntsville 47 46 40 43 48 Findlay 48 48 48 51 49 Quinnipiac 49 51 36 46 50 Princeton 50 50 57 54 51 Sacred Heart 51 55 42 48 52 Wayne State 52 49 55 55 53 Air Force 53 52 50 53 54 Connecticut 54 53 45 50 55 Canisius 55 54 46 52 56 Army 56 56 54 56 57 Bentley 57 57 56 57 58 American Int'l 58 58 58 58 (*) Special note for this week: Mass.Lowell has admitted to unknowingly using an ineligible player in games from 2003-12-27 through 2004-01-24. UML won 5 of those games: 12/28/03 Union 3 vs Mass.-Lowell 5 nc 01/03/04 Massachusetts 0 at Mass.-Lowell 3 he 01/04/04 Mass.-Lowell 1 at Massachusetts 0 he 01/10/04 Mass.-Lowell 3 at Michigan State 2 nc 01/16/04 Mass.-Lowell 4 at Merrimack 3 ot he There seems to be some question as to whether the forfeited games will be (1) treated as wins by the opposition, (2) ignored (no contest) or (3) remain as played for purposes of ranking for the NCAA tournament. Treatment (1) is exactly what most people think of when they hear "forfeit". Treatment (2) seems most fair to this reporter, as the opposition didn't earn a win while UML's use of an ineligible player should mean the opposition shouldn't have a loss. Treatment (3) seems to have little or no rationale, but ... will probably apply in this case. Since the NCAA Infractions Committee will almost certainly not rule on the UML administrative lapse before the NCAA Tournament selection, NCAA rules seem clear: NCAA Tournament selection will include these forfeits AS PLAYED. So I'm reversing my previous several weeks treatment (2) to this week USING ALL GAME RESULTS AS PLAYED This matches current USCHO.com treatment and the opinion of several people that know more of this business than I! For your information, here is the current NCAA Bylaw 31.10.5: NCAA Bylaw 31.10.5 Forfeits Neither the outcome nor the statistics in any completed contest are reversible by a forfeit due to postgame administrative actions, except as provided in Bylaw 31.10.5.4 or by Committee on Infractions decisions. The actual results of the contest and the statistics shall be entered as such in both teams all-time records, as well as in the coaches records and in individual statistics. Contests later forfeited shall be denoted by the institution with an asterisk and a footnote. For more information, go to ncaa.org, select rules and eligibility, and search for "abrogated". Finally, I'll note that Hockey East has and will use treatment (1): For Hockey East purposes, UML lost the forfeited games and their opponents won them. Whew! .. wts The above RPI rankings are unofficial. For individual rankings and season composites, please visit http://Maine.edu/HEAL/ Game scores for these rankings have been provided by US College Hockey Online, sometimes supplemented by other sources. USCHO's composite of all Division I men's ice hockey games is available at http://uscho.com/ in the section marked Men's Division I schedules. In addition, USCHO has extensive information about KRACH, its underlying methods and history, as well as the methods used by the NCAA. This ranking report is available for republication without restriction. It may be reformatted or used in part without restriction. Reference to the HEAL web site or the author (Wayne T. Smith; [log in to unmask]) is appreciated.