Without conferences to play in, those schools would not have hockey programs. Division I men's hockey has the lowest ratio of tournament teams to total teams (16 of 59, meaning more than 25 percent of all teams make the tourney). If the CHA falls apart and those schools are not absorbed by other leagues, which may well be the case, there are going to be 54 teams and a number of other sports are going to take notice of the discrepancy (even in the money-maker of men's basketball, fewer than 20 percent of the teams get in). People may argue that the NCAA makes money off the Frozen Four (which it does) and would never go back to a 16-team tourney, but, in reality, they would make the same amount of money with a 12-team field. ------------------------- Craig Roberts 320 Blake Road N., #606 Hopkins, MN 55343 952-930-1984 (Home/Fax) 763-442-1320 (Cell) [log in to unmask] ----Original Message Follows---- From: NE Hampton <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Comley: AH-CHA Play-In Game Needed Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:30:08 -0500 No, I completely disagree with this, it is a worse than wrong conclusion. There may be correlation, but no causation. The number of schools is what made the NCAA expand the field from 12 to 16, not the number of conferences or the number of automatic bids. You eliminate those conferences and their automatic bids, but keep the number of schools the same (they become independents or join the other conferences (for example Bemidji State and Air Force joint the WCHA) and nothing would be forced to change -- even the 16 team tournament would remain. The big winner in all of this is the ECACHL -- they were the ones called weak sisters and poor puppies before Atlantic Hockey and CHA came along, so now these two conferences take the heat previously heaped upon ECACHL. But to suggest that Atlantic Hockey and CHA are in any way, shape or form responsible for the 16 vs 12 team tournament is at best pure fantasy. Nathan Hampton _________________________________________________________________ Exercise your brain! Try Flexicon. http://games.msn.com/en/flexicon/default.htm?icid=flexicon_hmemailtaglinemarch07