There has been more conspiracy theories on HOCKEY-L of late regarding Maine and NCAA bids than ever came out about JFK's murder. I'll tell what Maine has done, and why it is EXTREMELY unlikely they will receive a bid, and why discussing whether or not they would accept such a bid is completely ridiculous. According to Maine Athletic Director Suzanne Tyler, whom I talked to today regarding this issue, Maine has informed the NCAA through the enforcement staff that Maine has "removed ourselves from consideration" by the tournament selection committee. It should also be noted that Hockey East Commissioner Bob DeGregorio is also on the NCAA Selection Committee. Dr. Tyler told me that she has also informed DeGregorio of Maine's wishes, not to be considered for a NCAA Tournament bid. Now, judging from those two facts it would seem virtually impossible that Maine would receive a bid. Of course whenever dealing with the NCAA nothing is ever "certain" but don't preoccupy yourselves with the idea Maine will be participating because they won't be. As Wayne said, they didn't spend all this money on this investigation to pull that. What maybe is more important to consider however is how the NCAA Selection Committee will deal with Maine's removing themselves from consideration. They may not be considered as a "Team Under Consideration (TUC)" by the committee. Therefore, all games teams played against Maine this season would not count in the selection process. This could have positive and negative effects for teams across the nation. Perhaps Erik and/or Tim should run their programs with Maine, and their games totally out of the picture since we can't be sure which will be used. Certainly this is a real issue for teams. It appears real likely to me that Maine in fact will be removed from the TUC. We never are totally sure what the committee will do, so there is no way of being sure. This is what Maine has asked however, to be removed from consideration. Does the NCAA Selection Committee read this verbatim or do they infer something else from this? That is the real question now. --- Deron Treadwell - [log in to unmask] University of Maine - GO BLUE! BEAT LOWELL!! Owner/Administrator: Maine Hockey Discussion List UMaine Hockey on the web: http://maine.maine.edu/~dtread41/mehockey.html --- HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.