> And wouldn't it be interesting, if, say, Canisius went undefeated > playing such a schedule - how would the NCAA selection committee treat them? Oh, I think I know. The first year they would be ignored (the committee would repeal the "we must follow the rating system" rule with some pseudo-official gibberish, if necessary). Everyone would scream. Then, depending on politics, one of the following two things would happen: 1. The new rule would be that you had to play a certain percentage of your games interconference, otherwise you were excluded from automatic qualification. or 2. The "other" conference would be extended an automatic bid. And everyone would scream. So, if they could manage it, the number of NCAA bids would be upped to 13 or 14. Or, more likely, another rule would exclude any conference from getting an automatic bid unless they had at least N+1 members, where N was the number of members of the "other" conference. There is a card game like this called "screw your neighbor." However, I personally would support efforts to reinforce the quality of the tounry field. And before Machnik jumps on me, no that is NOT the same thing as getting rid of the auto bids altogether. :-) :-) :-) Greg Berge Cornell 86, 99 8-time and Defending ECAC Champs -- "Just count the rings." Let's Go Red! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.