Steve writes: >This is probably just adding fuel to the fire, and it's probably been >discussed ad infinitum in years past, but why does there even have to be >automatic bids? Why can't we just have the 12 BEST TEAMS in the >tournament? I agree that you'd like to do this ideally, but making all the tourney bids at-large ones (which is in effect what you're doing when you select the "12 best teams") would instantly render each league's post-season tournament meaningless. Imagine some sixth-place team somewhere which suddenly gets hot in March and goes on an unbelievable run, winning the league's tour- nament championship. Then the NC$$ selection committee comes along and says, "Gee, that's nice, but we know that in reality you stink, so we'll pick some other teams and let you stay home." Without a guaranteed NC$$ bid, there really isn't much of a reason to have a post-season tournament; playing for bragging rights seems a poor substitute. Perhaps the NC$$ *should* just pick the 12 top teams and the league post- season tourneys should be done away with -- but they make money for some- body, so that would be a bit of a hard sell. -- Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are strictly those of: Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to: Cornell '86 and '94.5 | [log in to unmask] LET'S GO RED!! DJF 5/27/94 "Cozza, there's a train leaving at 4:00. Be under it." -- from a letter that Yale football coach Carm Cozza is supposed to have gotten when he lost his coaching debut in 1965