>I'm sure that this has been covered before, but is each conference >guaranteed two teams in the NC$$ playoff picks. Yes!!! From the archives (since questions like this come up over and over again): ======================================================================== =Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 10:04:41 -0500 =Reply-To: Keith Instone <[log in to unmask]> =Sender: College Hockey discussion list <[log in to unmask]> =From: Keith Instone <[log in to unmask]> =Subject: The NCAA selection process as I know it Here's the selection process as I understand it. This has been explained to me several times by Phil Buttafuoco at the NCAA, so I think I have everything right by now. The only new rule this year (the "CC rule") is 2.5. 1. Each of the 4 leagues (CCHA, ECAC, HEA, WCHA) is given 1 automatic bid to award any way they want. They have to specify how the auto-bid is awarded at the beginning of the season. In theory, they could say the last place team gets the auto-bid, but that would be kind of dumb. The only two logical choices are the regular season winner or the play-off winner. All 4 leagues have always chosen the play-off winner. 2. The season ends and the four auto-bids are determined. 2.5 If any conference regular season champion did not receive an auto-bid, they are selected as an at-large team. This is not so much an official rule that you will find in a book somewhere, but is a statement made by the current selection committee, declaring what will happen. This not quite like the auto-bid, so I call it a "courtesy bid". Out of courtesy for the regular season champion, the committee will select them over some other team in the conference. 3. Each conference is guaranteed two teams, so at this point, if a conference only has 1 team selected, another is chosen from that conference. The selection criteria of RPI, head-to-head, common opponents, record in last 20 games, and record against teams under consideration are used to select teams. (You can find these criteria listed in some NCAA handbook.) Again, this two-team-minimum is just an announcement by the selection committee that this is what they will be doing. Again, this is a courtesy bid--out of courtesy to each conference, the committee will select a second team, even if the numbers do not indicate that it is deserving. 4. The remaining at-large teams are truly at-large, since they can come from any conference (and the independents). There will always be 4 of these teams. They are chosen based on the same criteria in #3. 5. The 12 teams are seeded.... (won't get into that right now) What is important, and what is often misunderstood, is that: --the conference has to decide BEFORE THE SEASON how it determines the auto-bid --if the same team wins both the regular season and play-offs, the LEAGUE does not get to pick a second team (the committee does) In essence, with the addition of rule 2.5, the committee is saying that they will pick the regular season winner as your second team, if it did not win the play-offs. They will ignore the RPI and the other criteria in this instance. So, in my own lingo, you have: automatic bids (4 teams) regular-season-champion-courtesy bids (0-4 teams) conference-courtesy bids (0-4 teams) true-at-large bids (4 teams) Keith =============================================================