Greenie writes > ... 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. I want to comment about this but I want to start by asking two = questions. Is this true about HE being the toughest conference? And if = in fact they are, does that help or hurt them at the end of the season? = I'm not intending to argue about it, I'm talking about the rating = systems for the most part here. They've certainly beaten us up in = Fairbanks in the past, but otherwise I haven't seen any conclusive = evidence that it is true this year, unless "toughest" means which I = think it does and I agree that the teams in Hockey East may be more = evenly matched and that it's easier to both move up and fall down (I = partially retract my earlier response about the CCHA on this issue = several weeks ago). I don't think the bottom half of the CCHA and WCHA = are bad teams. On the contrary some of them are pretty good hockey = teams and might be more successful elsewhere, but the entire top half at = least of both conferences are very, very strong. There don't seem to be = as many really strong teams in the other conferences and that's why not = as many are showing up in the polls and upper parts of the rankings. Hockey East is actually somewhat penalized by having played so many = games against ECAC teams which have a less than stellar 18-44-6 record = against the other Division I conference teams and 12-25-5 against HE = (they have however rallied to 6-6-2 in the last 14 games while = continuing to fall to everyone else). That makes the strength of Hockey = East's schedule look worse than it actually may be and is hurting BU in = the CHODR and likely the RPI as well. I don't have the numbers but I'm = pretty sure BU now shows as having played a weaker schedule than = Colorado College to this point. It definitely does in my own computer = rankings. A few weeks ago the common opinion was just the opposite. The hard thing to this point is making any comparison between the WCHA = and Hockey East. They have played the sum total of TWO games against = each other so far. North Dakota beat Northeastern 7-5 and lost to BU = 5-8 on the road very early in the season and they are clearly not the = best team in their conference this year. Unless WCHA teams start = playing HE teams which I think is unlikely given natural rivalries which = all the teams are trying to maintain, we are going to end up in this = position every single year. I'm not even sure that's a bad thing since = it gives us a lot to ponder and argue about, but perhaps Maine could = invite one of the WCHA teams (other than Anchorage since they don't have = any schedule openings although personally I wouldn't mind not playing = them) to play in their tournament in Orono next time around. I just = don't know if any of them will come. There just aren't many games = available for them. As for interconference records to this point, all the conferences are = pretty even, except ECAC which has taken a pounding from the other = conferences for the most part. Ther other conferences are practically = deadlocked. IMO if any conference is going to lose a tournament slot, = the ECAC is still the most likely candidate unless they can really step = up the rest of the way and I don't know how many opportunities they will = have left to do so. I wish them luck anyway! Maine's having pulled = out may have just saved them that 3rd slot however. It's all going to = depend on whether we see upsets in conference tournaments. I have a = feeling we are going to see 4 from the CCHA or WCHA in the final 12. Interconference records through 1/7/95 CCHA WCHA HEAST ECAC TOTAL CCHA - 8-7-1 5-5-0 10-4-1 23-16-2 WCHA 7-8-1 - 1-1-0 9-2-0 17-11-1 HOCKEY EAST 5-5-0 1-1-0 - 25-12-5 31-18-5 ECAC 4-10-1 2-9-0 12-25-5 - 18-44-6 Eric Carlson U of A (Alaska-Fairbanks) '78 [log in to unmask] GO NANOOKS! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.