Once again, it's time to announce this year's Pick the Post-season
Tournaments contest! Try out your prognosticating skills by predicting
the game results and champions of each of the six Division I conference
tournaments!
This year's contest will be in three parts. The ECAC, CCHA, Atlantic
Hockey, and Big Ten regular seasons have ended (ECAC will end this
afternoon), while Hockey East and the NCHC will continue through this
weekend. So this part of the contest will deal only with the ECAC, CCHA,
Atlantic Hockey, and Big Ten. After next weekend, I'll send out separate
mailings for Hockey East (their tournament starts mid-week) and the NCHC.
As in the past, I'll be running two contests in one. The first will give
higher weighting to the latter stages of the tournaments, and the second
will give equal weight to all results (see under Scoring below). There
will be contest #1 and #2 winners for each of the six tournaments, plus #1
and #2 overall Prognosticating Gods.
Just to preserve their immortality, last year's winners were:
Contest #1 Contest #2
ECAC: Sean Keller Sean Keller
Hockey East: William Sangrey Scott Kaplan
WCHA: Jim Dixon Jim Dixon
NCHC: Tony Buffa Tony Buffa
Atlantic Hockey: Nathan Hampton Nathan Hampton
Big Ten: Scott Kaplan Scott Kaplan
Overall: Nathan Hampton Scott Kaplan
The first playoff games are on Friday, March 4th at 7:00 PM EST, so the
deadline for this part of the contest will be Friday, March 4th at 6:00 PM
EST.
The tournament formats are as follows:
ECAC:
All twelve teams make the playoffs. The top four seeds receive a bye into
the quarterfinals, while the remaining eight meet in the first round in a
best-of-three series. Seeds 5 through 8 host the first-round games. All
games are played "to conclusion".
The four first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
The top four seeds host the quarterfinal round, which is a best-of-three
series. The lowest-remaining seed plays at #1, the second-lowest at #2, and
so on.
The four quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two seeds
meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
CCHA:
All eight teams make the playoffs. The top four seeds host the quarter-
finals, which are a best-of-three series. All games are played "to
conclusion".
The four winners advance and are reseeded.
The semifinal round is a single game, in which the highest-remaining seed
hosts the lowest seed, while the second-highest seed hosts the third seed.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher seed
hosts.
Atlantic Hockey:
All ten teams make the playoffs. The top six seeds receive a bye into the
quarterfinals, while the remaining four meet in the first round in a best-
of-three series. Seeds 7 and 8 host the first-round games. All games are
played "to conclusion".
The two first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
The top four seeds host the quarterfinal round, which is a best-of-three
series. Among the first-round winners, the lowest-remaining seed plays at
#1 and the second-lowest at #2. The #6 seed plays at #3, and #5 plays at
#4.
The four quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two seeds
meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
Big Ten:
All seven teams make the playoffs. The top seed receives a bye into the
semifinals, while the remaining six meet in the quarterfinal round in a
best-of-three series. Seeds 2 through 4 host the quarterfinals. All games
are played "to conclusion".
The three quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
In the semifinal round, the #1 seed hosts the lowest seed in one semifinal
game, while the next-highest seed hosts the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher seed
hosts.
Hockey East (starts next week):
All eleven teams make the playoffs. The top five seeds receive a bye into
the quarterfinals, while the remaining six meet in the first round in a
single game. Seeds 6 through 8 host the first-round games. All games are
played "to conclusion".
The three first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
The top four seeds host the single-game quarterfinal round. Among the
first-round winners, the lowest-remaining seed plays at #1, the second-
lowest at #2, and so on. The #5 seed plays at #4.
The four quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two seeds
meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
NCHC (starts next week):
All eight teams make the playoffs. The top four seeds host the quarter-
finals, which are a best-of-three series. All games are played "to
conclusion".
The four winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two seeds
meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
Scoring:
Contest #1:
Each correct first round/quarterfinal winner is worth 3 points. Giving the
correct number of games in the series is worth an additional point (does not
apply to Hockey East). Sorry, but if you get the winner wrong, you get
zippo, even if you get the number of games right.
Correct semifinal game winners are worth 8 points.
Correct championship game winners are worth 16 points.
So the maximum total points for each league would be:
ECAC 64
CCHA 48
Atlantic Hockey 56
Big Ten 44
Hockey East 53
NCHC 48
There will also be two tiebreakers for each conference. The first will be
the predicted final score of the championship game, with the closest score
winning. For example, if you predict 5-2 and the actual score is 4-2,
you're one off; if the actual score is 4-3, you're two off.
The second tiebreaker will be the total number of goals scored in the entire
tournament.
If there is a tie for the overall winner, the tiebreaker will be who
performed best in the greater number of individual tournaments.
Contest #2:
Each correct result from each round is worth 2 points. So you get 2 points
for each quarterfinal/first round winner you pick (regardless of whether or
not you forecast the correct number of games), 2 points for each semifinal
winner you pick, and so on.
The maximum total points for each league would be:
ECAC 22
CCHA 14
Atlantic Hockey 18
Big Ten 12
Hockey East 20
NCHC 14
Tiebreakers will be the same as for Contest #1.
An official entry form will follow sometime Monday. Questions, comments,
and entries can be sent to [log in to unmask] . Simply hitting "reply"
MAY NOT WORK -- be sure to check the Email address before you send.
Thanks and good luck!
--
Bill Fenwick DJF 5/27/94
Cornell '86 and '95 JCF 12/2/97
LET'S GO RED!!