As I should have expected after posting the opening of the Regular Season Contest yesterday, I received a letter from a person at Merrimack who shall remain nameless (though I don't think it would take a great mind to figure out who it is [Man, do you ever sleep or what?] :-) ad infinitum). He informed me that my wording for how the conference position would be determined was confusing. Looking back on it, I tend to agree. What I was trying to say was that in cases of ties in the conference standings, the position would be determined by the playoff order, since they would take into account head-to- head and goals scored etc. I hope it wasn't too confusing to everyone out there in Collegiate Puckdom. Another point was the status of Colorado College. As Paula and Charlie bantered back and forth, I was able to get out of it that CC's probation does NOT affect their postseason eligibility. As that is the case, their position would also be determined by the playoff order. So the overall rule is: the final regular season position (that which will be used to determine how many points each participant is disawarded) is deter- mined by the order of finish in the conference. Where two or more teams are tied (in total number of conference points) the playoff order determines the order of finish, since this will take into account head-to-head etc. (I realize even this may be a bit long-winded, but I'm trying to cover all possibilities.) I also wanted to add a clarification on the tiebreaker. Those that have sent their entry didn't seem to have too much problem with it, but I wanted to give a breakdown of Providence's and Illinois-Chicago's schedules, since they each play all conference opponents 3 times (I provided explanation of Saint Cloud State's schedule earlier and Vermont's is too easy to need explaining). Providence's schedule (24 conference games): PC plays these teams 2 times at home and once on the road: Boston College, Boston University, Merrimack, and Mass Amherst PC plays these teams once at home and 2 times on the road: Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Mass Lowell Illinois-Chicago's schedule (27 conference games): UIC plays these teams 2 times at home and once on the road: Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan, Ohio State, W. Michigan UIC plays these teams once at home and 2 times on the road: Bowling Green, Miami, Michigan State, Notre Dame (UIC has 14 home games and 13 road games in conference) I sort of pruned that information from the composite schedule posted in the Archives by the Nameless One at Merrimack (you know, I sort of like that. I hope he's not offended. :-)). If I screwed up (which the odds are about 3:2 in favor), please somebody correct it and post it to the list. So far we've received 3 entries, but then again it's only September 16. (Hell, I haven't even gotten my tickets yet, which probably won't go on sale until October 1.) So keep those cards and letters coming! (We accept VISA, MC, Discover, AMEX, any fast food coupons, or small bits of change.) G. M. Finniss Michigan State University WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when? 29 days until opening faceoff...