Steve Christopher writes:
>Second, would a team REALLY rather win the playoffs than the regular
>season title?  I understand that the playoff winner gets an automatic
>NC$$ tournament berth, and that's worth a lot.  However, it's almost
>inconceivable that the WCHA regular season winner wouldn't be invited
>even if it didn't win the playoffs.  (Maybe one of the data gurus out
>there like Mike M. could speak to the success the regular season WCHA
>winner has had in being invited to the NC$$, regardless of playoff
>results--particularly with 16, rather than 12, teams now making up the
>NC$$ tournament, as I recall.)
 
Well, first there are still 12 teams in the tourney, not 16 - there's been
talk for a few years about expanding it to 16, but as long as the number of
eligible teams remains in the low 40s, I don't think they'll go to 16.
It has to do with the percentage of teams being invited getting to be too
high.
 
Since the move to 12 teams, which occurred in 1988, the regular season
champs from all four conferences have always gotten bids.  That was
usually the case under the eight team tourney, but there were notable
exceptions where the regular season champ from a conference fared poorly in
the tourney and actually did not get a bid.  The chance of that happening
now is virtually nil, although technically it could happen.
 
Because teams winning the regular season title are virtually guaranteed a
bid, I'd still say that is very important, but since the 2nd place teams
also tend to get bids, I have to agree with Keith that it could be in a
team's better interest to finish 2nd rather than first and face a weaker
9th place team rather than a tough UAA team in the first round.  I think it
is unlikely that we will see anyone throw games to avoid UAA, especially
when they'd be hosting UAA in the series, but the possibility still exists
since they are hard-wired into that 10th spot whether they were to go 0-34 or
34-0.
 
It is a good point that UAA's record may be partially due to UAA hosting
most of its games this year.  UAA will play an incredible 28 of its 34
games at home this year, and of the six away games, only four will be out
of state (and were already played).  UAA traveled to Alabama-Huntsville and
Mankato for pairs, and will play a pair at intrastate rival UAF.  UAA is
2-1-1 on the road and 8-6-2 at home.  The UAF games are the only away DivI
games UAA has this season before the WCHA playoffs.  That's another reason
the long trip they'll have to make to play the first-place team will be a
factor.
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)    *HMN*