1) Just when I thought that Hockey-L was much quieter this year than last year, there comes the controversy of which teams leave their regions. I agree with Robin Lock that it is amazing that there have not been any complaints over which teams were selected -- perhaps a first, and certainly the first since I joined H-L. As to which teams should have been sent west, the one thing that I don't think has been mentioned is which teams would attract more local interest in the Albany area -- Lowell or Clarkson/Cornell. Most of the discussion has been with regard to how the institutions in question has been treated. Although I am far from the NY Capital District, I am pretty sure that either Clarkson and Cornell, because of long-standing rivalries with RPI, will draw more interest than Lowell locally. I know that I disliked both of these fine institutions long before I ever heard of UMass-Lowell or either of the two colleges which were combined to form it. Should this, another attendence issue, have been a concern, I think so. Nothing personal is meant against Lowell in this regard. 2) I am impressed that Kurt Stutt managed to come up with a system where RPI would get a bye last year. It even sounded logical on first read. Then on second read it became apparent to me that too much weight is being given to games within conference for selecting the four at-large teams after each league gets two teams. (I wrote this at home prior to receiving the Hockey-L Digest containing Wayne Smith's statement to the same effect as the last sentence.) Now if Kurt can only come up with some logic under which a 10-22-3 team can make the tourney this year. Let's see, we got to somehow weight the two victories over Air Force a lot. :-) 3) Have the rosters for the eastern all-star game been released yet? 4) Re whether not having a consolation game hurts the CCHA. Every game that is played benefits the winning team and hurts the loser. By the way that the RPI is constructed, other teams benefit or are hurt slightly by each game also. This in turn influences the selection criteria. The point to note is that the expected value from a game averaged over all teams should be zero. That is, where there is some benefit there is also some loss. I have not done the math but it is possible that there are slight fluctuations because not all teams play the same number of games, so the benefits for an additional game may outway the losses or vice versa slightly in a given case. In any case, averaged over many years, having or not having a consolation game should not affect the CCHA. 5) Does anyone know if channel 53 in Virginia decided to pick up the 8 first and second round games this weekend? The announcer kept saying that they would if the station reached its monetary goal which they were a couple of hundred dollars short of when they signed off. They intended to broadcast six games, mostly on tape delay, on Saturday and go until after midnight. The last two games would be shown on Sunday. I know that last year they were in a similar situation and broadcast them anyway, however they got nowhere near their stated goal during the NCAA broadcasts. It actually surprises me that there do not appear to be any other stations around the country who decide to do the same thing. Last Saturday they showed the two first round games and the championship game of the ECAC tourney. I saw the last period of the Cornell-Clarkson game and the championship game. It was very entertaining to hear the man in the studio who was asking for money being a source for all sorts of wrong information. He stated that Harvard had played well enough that they would be sure to get an NCAA bid even if they lost when it was obvious to those who understood the selection criteria that they would only go if they won. He also stated that Wisconsin was going to be in the tourney. At least he knew better than to state that RPI would be going. :-( Ralph Baer RPI '68, '70, '74 HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.