Good afternoon - On Wed, 6 Mar 1996, Bill Fenwick wrote: > The closest the ECAC ever came to having all four top teams upset in > the quarterfinals was "Black Tuesday" in 1978, when three of them > bought it. The pairings were: > > [8] New Hampshire at [1] Boston University > [7] Providence at [2] Cornell > [6] Brown at [3] Clarkson > [5] Boston College at [4] RPI Ahh, 'tis sad to get old - an occupational hazard of CHDA members like myself :-( My fuzzy memory got at least the gist of this correct, even though a few of the particulars got jumbled in the re-telling; mea culpa for posting without first double-checking with my media guides .... > The only top seed to advance was BU, and they had to go into overtime to > get by New Hampshire, 6-5. Yet another in a long line of heart-breaking UNH losses to the hated Terriers; it was a long drive home from Walter Brown Arena that night .... >Providence won 8-5, Brown won 6-2, and BC beat RPI 7-6 in OT. Providence >then defeated BU (for the second time that season -- those were BU's only >two losses all year, and the Terriers would go on to take the NC$$ Champ- >ionship). Of course Bill is too polite to mention BU's "special dispensation" that allowed them even to get into the NC$$s that year. In those days only 4 teams (an Instant Phinal Phour - no fuss, no muss :-) were invited to the NCAA Tournament (2 East from the 17-team ECAC, and 2 West from the WCHA that at that time included several teams now in the CCHA; no CCHA teams were considered), and the 2 East teams were usually assured to be the ECAC Tournament Champion and runner-up. After BU's tough OT victory over #8 UNH in the 1/4-finals, and then a loss to PC in the semi-finals, it seemed that BU would be sittin' home come NC$$ Tournament time in favor of ECAC Champion BC and BU vanquisher PC. But n-o-o-o-o-o-o .... For the first (and only) time in NC$$ history, a special pre-NC$$ play-in game was ordered played at Schneider Arena in Providence, the winner to advance with BC to the NC$$ Tournament. Never mind that PC had already beaten BU twice that year; BU was perceived as the "best" East representative, and the rules were bent to allow BU yet another chance to advance. Give them their due; they certainly made the most of their "gift" opportunity, running the table in their next three games and claiming the NC$$ Championship. But is it any wonder that NC$$ selection was viewed as "rigged" and slanted towards favorite sons ?? And the exclusion of the CCHA from even being considered was equally as shameful/detrimental to the growth of the sport from its traditional roots in the N'east and Minnesota-Wisconsin axis. It took a while, but eventually the subjective nature of the NC$$ selection process was overhauled and replaced with the more objective PWR/RPI process we're familiar with today. Teams on the bubble for NC$$ can complain all they want, but the process is infinitely more "fair" as it stands now than in the bad old days of the CHDA .... Cheers from the Chesapeake - Jim Go Blue - beat them Bears !!! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.