As Mike Machnik pointed out in a private post to me, the NC$$ does limit the fraction of teams in the national tourney. Since bball is 64, I am guessing it to be 25%, hence hockey should expect about 11 or 12, which puts it at or over the limit. My suggestion was partially whimsical, but partly with the idea of perhaps eliminating the league tournaments (I know, they make lots of dough!) and replacing them with some early round games with all the teams in the tourney. Maybe the NC$$ would make an exception ( :-) ) in trade for not having to make the picks and ticking off some team like CC last year! All I know is the free-for-all was a lot of fun in the old Illinois prep tourney, but, alas, I believe they are now segregated into divisions... Tony Buffa RPI '64