Pam Sweeney quoth:
 
>Well, I think they'd have a hard time (given the current** ratings)
>justifying giving a second Eastern team a bye.  Beyond that the advantages
>may be more questionable, but I think there'd certainly be a lot of room
>for complaint (about getting "screwed") if they gave, say, Vermont a
>first-round bye instead of a third Western team if the numbers remain like
>this**.
 
Sorry gang, but I heartedly disagree. The first-round byes are given to the
two best teams from East, and the two best teams from the West. Just
because a set of rankings will place a number of Western teams ahead of
Vermont wouldn't mean that Vermont would lose it's first-round-bye
(assuming that Vermont remains the second best team in the east).
 
What I think everybody here needs to remember is that the tournament is
designed to represent all of Div I college hockey; it's not designed so
that all of the best teams make the tournament. If there are say 5 teams
from the WCHA that are "better" than every single team from the HEA, will
the HEA and ECAC lose any seeds (besides their two playoff-winning seeds)?
Doubtful.
 
The simple reason here relies on intra-conference play. Imagine this
(you'll really have to loosen your mind up on this one): The best 8 teams
in Div I hockey belong to the same division; note here I say "best," and
not "top ranked." If these 8 teams play each other 3+ teams during the
season, and they're all powerful teams, what will happen to their records?
Sure the RPI would help, but keep in mind that the RPI depends heavily on
the record of the teams you're playing against. If the best teams beat up
on each other, while the "weaker" teams develop season-ending records with
single-digit-losses and one or two games against "top" teams, the "weaker"
teams will end up with better records and comparable RPI ratings.
 
A current example of this is Hockey East; a majority of the media and most
of the ranking systems will rank HEA as the toughest division in Div I; yet
the polls and RPI rankings of individual teams put only one or two HEA
teams in the top 10.
 
If the season continues the way it is now, it is very likely that they
might give one of the Eastern seeds to a Western team; but I wouldn't count
on it going farther than that.
 
>
>Remember that the committee did give Lowell a number-3-West seed two years
>ago when two Eastern teams ended up ranked 5-6 nationally, thus giving both
>#3s to Eastern teams, so there certainly is precedent to show that they
>would put a top Western team out East.
 
Also, wasn't it three years ago Lowell was "screwed" when the gave the #6
east seed to a team from the West (Wisconsin?)
 
 
greenie
 
S P O O N ! !
(go BU)
 
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