On Mon, 20 Feb 1995, Ryan R Bowman wrote:
 
> I think 16 teams in the tournament is too many, after all, there are only
> like 44 teams in division 1 hockey.. Personally, I say take the top 12
> from the NCAA selection poll and thats final.. therefore you have the 12
> best teams in college hockey playing in the end, not rewarding a team for
> winning a playoff tournament and such.. you just get teams that have been
> playing the best hockey year-roun
 
In talking about the number of teams in a hockey playoff, it is important
to be aware of some recent actions taken by the NCAA.  As followers of
Division II hockey are aware, the NCAA postponed a recent requirement of
40 teams for a national championship after a successful lobby from the
men's gymnastics programs.  The new requirement, once enacted in 1996-97,
will require a sport to have at least 40 programs in order to sponsor a
national championship.  This requirement is scheduled to increase to 50 in
1998-99.
 
Water Polo, which currently has 41 sponsoring institutions, has cut down
the number of teams qualifying for the national championship from 8 to
4.  While this is a regional sport (every national champion has come from
California), there are three conferences and programs across the country.
 
Getting back to hockey, the fact that the sport is currently divided into
3 divisions may have an affect in the future of the championships.  The
postponement of the NCAA regulation for sponsoring schools is for the sport
itself, not for a particular division (as followers of D-II hockey have
discovered).  If the NCAA continues to push for minimal schools per
championship, college hockey may find itself combined into one, at most two,
divisions to continue to sponsor a national championship.
 
At this point in time, I don't think you'll see any movement to increase
the number of teams in the postseason.  Not until there are a lot more
programs offering Division I college hockey, which isn't in the
forseeable future.
 
 __________________________________________________________
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* Robb Dunn                         University of Michigan *
* Project Administrator                   Sport Facilities *
*                                      Research Laboratory *
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* [log in to unmask]            Cal '93, Michigan '94 and '97 *
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