Steve K writes: >I strongly dissagree! HE gets 3 and ECAC 1, that means that >even with the Independent Bid the West gets 7 teams. No way! I wasn't advocating the West get 7, since after all the Independents are not limited to getting 1, it just typically works out that way. Perhaps this could be they year they get 2, though I doubt it since there are so few of them and they're not all that strong. Still the CCHA and WCHA have a lot of strong teams this year, the bulk of the top 10. A more likely scenario is that ECAC gets 2, Independents 1, and the rest 3. I just don't think the ECAC teams will last very long. Which doesn't mean I don't support the ECAC, just that I think this is a weak year for the Conference. JH