Yesterday's Hockey-D digest included a comment (in response to the idea of a fifth Division I hockey conference) that in basketball the NCAA proivides automatic bids to all conferences, regardless of how "rinky dinky" they are. That used to be true, but recently rules were put in which deny automatic bids to the conference (or playoff) champion if the previous years' success of that league's representative in the tournament has been too dismal. So, it is no longer true that ALL conference winners are automatically assured a place in the competition. ********************************************************************** * Steve Christopher, NMU [log in to unmask] GO 'CATS!!!! * **********************************************************************