I don't think there were any huge surprises in the seedings, both a tribute to the good work done by the committee IMO and a tribute to the worthwhile discussion we've had here on the subject. First, the selection show was a waste of an hour. They didn't tackle any of the tough questions despite having access to at least three of the four committee members. Too bad. It was nice to get all the different coaches on to talk about their teams, but there wasn't enough time to do a good enough analysis of all the matchups. Anyway, there were only two situations that weren't really a surprise but were probably the toughest decisions the committee had to make. I had all the seeds right except for these two, although I noted to Erik that there was the potential for these two outcomes. I am referring to NMU getting the 4th seed over MSU, and UNH getting the 3rd seed over BU. 1) NMU-MSU MSU had the edge in win%, strength of schedule, and RPI. But these weren't huge edges. NMU did have the edge in CommOpp, record in last 10, record in last 15, and record vs the other teams among the top 12. In addition, winning the WCHA tourney may have also played a part as Laing Kennedy mentioned "postseason performance" as a consideration; it does not look like NMU would have been seeded higher than 5th had it not won the tourney. Had MSU beaten LSSU in the CCHA semifinal, the CommOpp factor would have swung to MSU. And had they gone on to win the CCHA tourney, the last 10/last 15 factors would have also swung to MSU and I'd expect they would have gotten the nod over NMU. (Though LSSU would have then gotten the 5th seed anyway.) 2) UNH-BU BU had the edge in win% (large) and RPI (small), but UNH had the edge in strength of schedule, last 10, last 15, and CommOpp. Head-to-head was even. Fears that Parker would jockey to get his team seeded ahead of UNH did not come to pass. BU's early exit from the HE tourney likely hurt them too. LSSU's Jeff Jackson seemed upset that winning the CCHA title did not get his team a bye, but the numbers just were against them too much. He suggested that this meant that the committee didn't care about the CCHA tourney. That's ridiculous. He should think more about some of the games his team lost during the season and the effect that those had. On to Providence and Detroit. Quite a few interesting matchups and potentially interesting matchups. Some folks may say they wanted to intentionally set up certain matchups (MSU-BU winner gets Maine, etc.) but I do not think this entered into play. Almost any matchup would have been interesting (say, if NMU had been sent East instead to play BU and then Maine). Perhaps the most interesting thing is that LSSU gets the independent AGAIN! That makes four times in the last five tourneys that the independent has to go through LSSU, who has never dropped an NC$$ series with an independent. This year's matchup should be a good one, though. Anyone who underestimates UAA can expect to watch the next round from home. Finally, Wisconsin's win over CC sealed their bid over Providence. Had they lost to CC, it would have been VERY close (and it was close as it was). --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com