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Since we are now about 2 1/2 months away from the start of the regular season (and 2 months from my self-imposed starting date for the Contest), it seemed like it was time for the Pre-Pre Announcement. (Excuse me while I move a few mothballs out of the way, the Contest Department is in pretty bad shape at the moment.) The 1994 Hockey-L Regular Season Prediction Contest will consist primarily of picking the correct order of the finishers in each of the four conferences. Points will be awarded (or, in this case, disawarded) based on how far off from the actual position that your pick is. For example, if you pick Maine (to pull one out of the air) to finish 4th in HE and they finish 2nd, that cost you 2 points. Add that up for the 41 (or so) teams in the four major conferences and you have your grand total. Like in golf, low score wins. The tie-breaker between positions will be decided based on the prediction of the total conference points of one team from each of the four conferences. I originally was going to pick one team at random, but I felt that would be sort of unfair to those in the other three conferences, so I decided on one from each conference. I also decided to pick teams that don't have a large following (if any) on Hockey-L, to make it even more of a challenge. Thus, the four teams are: ECAC- Vermont HE- Providence CCHA- Illinois-Chicago WCHA- St. Cloud St. Before I can set the total framework for the contest, I do need some info from someone in three of the four conferences, so that I know what teams are ineligible, etc. So, my set of questions: 1) In Hockey East, how will shootouts (if that is what will be done this season) be scored in terms of points (I realize this may have been dis- cussed [or disgusted, depending on your point-of-view] previously on Hockey-L, but I didn't follow it as closely as some others)? Will it be two points for a shootout win and one for a shootout loss? Also, is UMass-Amherst considered a full member of the conference, and do all their "conference" games count in the conference standings? 2) In the CCHA, I do realize that Alaska-Fairbanks is an affiliate member for the upcoming season. How many of their games against conference opponents count towards that team's conference standings? (Since UAF is an affiliate member, they will not be included in the Contest. Therefore, when ranking CCHA teams, you will only have to rank #1-10.) 3) In the WCHA, I realize that Colorado College is on probation. Do their games count towards the conference standings? If they do, can CC finish anywhere in the standings, or are they automatically assigned to finish 10th? I hope someone out there in the Hockey-L world can answer those for me, as those questions will affect how people pick their teams (and the all-important tie breaker). Well, back to mothballing... The Contest Department will reopen in September for the pre-announcement of the Prediction Contest, during which time hope- fully all my questions will have been answered and the contest will be set up. I had originally scheduled to start accepting entries on October 3 (the day after the baseball season ended) but I may move that up to late September (since the baseball season may end next Friday). Watch this channel for further details as they become available. G. M. Finniss Michigan State University WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when? 73 days until faceoff in East Lansing.... 56 days (or so) until the start of the Contest....