Not to belabor the NC$$ seedings issue any more than is absolutely necess- ary, but there was one decision by the selection committee that really surprised me, and I don't think it's been mentioned yet. I'm referring to Lake Superior getting the #1W seed over Michigan. Not that it matters much, since both teams are getting a bye, but... By my calculations, Michigan has the edge in three of five selection cri- teria: Division I record, record among common opponents (i.e. the rest of the CCHA), and record among teams "under consideration." The Lakers get the edge in strength of schedule, with the head-to-head series even at 2-2. Looking at the last three criteria, the Last 10 and Last 15 are basically a wash (Michigan was slightly better in its last ten games, Lake Superior had the slight edge in its last 15), leaving us with conference tournament result, which favors the Lakers. Thus, the Wolverines have the edge in four categories while Lake Superior wins three, with one even. The numbers I came up with (which I hope are accurate) are below. "Schedule strength" comes from RPICH. For "Teams considered", I wasn't sure who the selection committee was considering for bids. I was pretty certain that the top 16 in the latest RPICH received some consideration (the twelve tourney teams plus RPI, Michigan State, UMass-Lowell, and New Hampshire). However, committee chairman Laing Kennedy also indicated that Providence (#20 in RPICH) was considered too, so I also looked at records against the top 20 (which would also add Michigan Tech, Western Michigan, and Ferris State to the mix). It looks like Michigan has the edge in this category no matter what, though. Lake Superior Michigan Edge Div. I record 27-7-5 (0.756) 28-6-2 (0.806) Michigan Schedule strength 0.5612 0.5551 LSSU Head-to-head 2-2 (0.500) 2-2 (0.500) Even Common opponents 23-3-5 (0.823) 24-3-2 (0.862) Michigan Teams considered (16) 5-7-2 (0.429) 6-4-1 (0.591) Michigan (20) 10-7-3 (0.575) 11-5-2 (0.667) Last 10 8-1-1 (0.850) 9-1 (0.900) Michigan Last 15 13-1-1 (0.900) 13-2 (0.867) LSSU Tourney results 5-0 Champion 2-1 Lost to LSSU LSSU in semifinals To me, it looks like the committee weighed the tournament result, and the fact that Lake Superior bumped off Michigan on the way to the championship, fairly heavily. I'm not saying that's wrong, but it was my understanding that post-season games don't carry any more weight than regular-season games as far as the selection committee is concerned. -- Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to: Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask] LET'S GO RED!! "Before I met my wife, I had had virtually no experience with women. I remember on our wedding night, I tried to inflate her." -- Jonathan Katz