Hi Bill, and thanks so much for doing this again. I guess I am one of the people who missed it last year but then again I’m retired and this is fun! Tony. Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 3, 2024, at 5:51 PM, Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > I opted not to do this last season due to the lack of activity on HOCKEY-L, > and then I heard from a few people who wondered what happened with the > contest, so I’m giving it a try this year. > > 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, 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, the winners from two years ago were: > > Contest #1 Contest #2 > ECAC: Sean Keller Sean Keller > Hockey East: Sean Keller Sean Keller > CCHA: Andy Weise Andy Weise > NCHC: Scott Kaplan Scott Kaplan > Atlantic Hockey: Jim Dixon Scott Kaplan > Big Ten: Andy Weise Sean Keller > Overall: Sean Keller Sean Keller > > The first playoff games are on Friday, March 8th at 7:00 PM EST, so the > deadline for this part of the contest will be Friday, March 8th at 6:00 PM > EST. > > I confess I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize that Atlantic Hockey > already started their post-season on March 2nd with the first-round games. > So anyone who picks Atlantic Hockey can start with this weekend’s quarter- > final round and I’ll give you 9 free first-round points for Contest #1 and 6 > free first-round points for Contest #2. > > 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 > single game. 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. (Augustana is a provisional member of the > CCHA and is not eligible for the post-season) The top four seeds host the > quarterfinals, 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 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 quarterfinal round, which is a best-of-three > series. 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 semifinal round is a best-of-three series, 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. > > 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. For those > rounds that are a series, giving the correct number of games played in the > series is worth an additional point. 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, except for Atlantic > Hockey, which has a best-of-three semifinal series. Similar to the quarter- > final scoring above, predicting the semifinal series winner is worth 7 > points, and giving the correct number of games in the series is worth an > additional point. > > Correct championship game winners are worth 16 points. > > So the maximum total points for each league would be: > > ECAC 60 > CCHA 48 > Atlantic Hockey 57 (9 free) > 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. (For Atlantic Hockey, do not include the first-round games) > > 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 20 (6 free) > Big Ten 12 > Hockey East 20 > NCHC 14 > > Tiebreakers will be the same as for Contest #1. > > An official entry form will follow soon after I post this. 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!!