Error during command authentication.
Error - unable to initiate communication with LISTSERV (errno=111). The server is probably not started.
Since we are now exactly ONE MONTH away from the start of the college hockey regular season (all of us except for Western Michigan, but they're weird anyway :-)) and Mr. Selig is about to do to baseball what two World Wars couldn't do (cancel the Series), it seemed about time to start: THE FIRST INAUGURAL (at least I think it's the first one) HOCKEY-L REGULAR SEASON PREDICTION CONTEST! Contest Central has been tidied up a bit here, and although it's been un- characteristically hot in East Lansing (that is, everything but the football team), the smell of hockey is in the air (especially considering the first snowfall will be here in about 6 weeks)! (I realize I hadn't planned to start it this early, but is it EVER TOO early for hockey?) OK, basic rules (some of you were here for the Pre*3 and the Pre*2 announce- ments, so bear with me): The object of the contest is to pick the correct order of finish in the four major conferences in Division I (Hockey East, ECAC, CCHA, and WCHA). This is based on CONFERENCE RECORD only (I realize interconference and especially intersectional games are fun, but...). Points will be awarded (or disawarded) based on how far from the actual finish of each team you are. (Did everybody get that? If somebody did, tell me, because I got lost while I was writing it.) For example, if you predict that Northern Michigan will finish 3rd in the WCHA and they finish 2nd, you get 1 point. If they finish 6th, you get 3 points. The person who ends up with the lowest total wins (just like in golf, except here you can't break par, unless they're playing the International with the weird scoring system) and gets all the latest fabulous prizes...well, on second thought, we'll just mention your name here, but with a lot of fanfare!!!! In case of a tie (and there are ALWAYS ties) the tiebreaker is the person closest to the TOTAL number of conference points for one team from each of the four conferences (and by conference points, I mean the 2 for a win, 1 for a tie or in HE a shootout loss stuff). I'm using this because I thought it would be a bit tougher to do and would also give me a wider range of numbers to work with. I also chose one from each conference so as to not favor one area of the country over another. The four teams were chosen by yours truly, with an eye to picking teams in each conference that didn't have huge followings on Hockey-L (which meant BU, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, and my own beloved Spartans were right out) so as to make people think just a little bit harder. So, the four teams are: Hockey East- Providence (24 conference games, 2 for win, 1 for shoot- out loss) ECAC- Vermont (22 conference games, 2 for win, 1 for tie) CCHA- Illinois-Chicago (27 conference games, 2 for win, 1 for tie) WCHA- Saint Cloud State (32 conference games, 2 for win, 1 for tie) Providence plays all other members of HE 3 times Vermont plays all other members of ECAC twice Illinois-Chicago plays all other "full" members of CCHA 3 times Saint Cloud State plays 7 members of WCHA 4 times, but does not play Denver at home or Michigan Tech on the road (so only 2 games against Denver and MTU) The final order of finish in the conferences will be that determined by their playoff order (except for the bottom 2 teams in ECAC who don't qualify and Colorado College, which is on probation). Colorado College's order of finish will be determined by what would have been their playoff position had they been eligible for postseason. (Somebody else may rememver this better than I do, but will there only be 8 in the CCHA playoffs this year? If so, the order for the two or three left out (if UAF makes the playoffs) will be determined by record, same as for the ECAC non-qualifiers.) Since the University of Alaska-Fairbanks is still only an "affiliate member" of the CCHA, they will not be included in the standings for the conference. (Sorry, Nanook fans, but next year isn't that far off.) For those of you who like the "cut out and send" format, I will include it at the end of this message and the others that I will send out before the end of the contest (I'm planning one at the end of September and roughly one a week in October until the deadline). I will also give the list of team names for each conference (it doesn't have to appear exactly as I've written it, I will accept abbreviations as long as I can understand them). Deadline for entries will be: Friday, October 14 at 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time since that will be the first day of the season (I realize the first conference games aren't until the 15th, but what the hell...). I will also post my picks the day before the deadline, so nobody thinks I'm cheating when I win. :-) ad infinitum I'm hoping we can top the roughly 136 entries we got last year for the NCAA tournament pool. But time will tell... An overall analysis of the picks will be given roughly 2 or 3 days after the deadline and I will also give monthly or bimonthly updates throughout the season. So, good luck and start thinking! G. M. Finniss Michigan State University- Contest Central WVU (man, do they suck or what?) '87, UTenn (watch out, Gators!) '92, MSU (do we have to play Notre Dame now) who the hell knows when? 31 days until opening faceoff against BG..... --------------------------------(cut here)----------------------------------- Hockey-L Regular Season Prediction Contest Entry Name: Team you mostly follow: E-mail address: Hockey East ECAC 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 8. 8. 9. 9. 10. 11. 12. CCHA WCHA 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 8. 8. 9. 9. 10. 10. Tiebreaker (Sum of conference points of Providence, Vermont, Illinois- Chicago, and Saint Cloud State) (as in 2 for a win, 1 for a tie or shootout loss [HE only]): ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ List of teams: Hockey East ECAC ___________ ____ Boston College Brown Boston University Clarkson Maine Colgate Mass Amherst Cornell Mass Lowell Dartmouth Merrimack Harvard New Hampshire Princeton Northeastern RPI Providence Saint Lawrence Union Vermont Yale CCHA WCHA ____ ____ Bowling Green Alaska Anchorage Ferris State Colorado College Illinois Chicago Denver Lake Superior State Michigan Tech Miami Minnesota Michigan Minnesota Duluth Michigan State North Dakota Notre Dame Northern Michigan Ohio State Saint Cloud State Western Michigan Wisconsin Entery due date: 14 October 1994, 5:00pm Eastern Daylight Time