Joe LaCour says:
 
>Whatever happens, the ECAC champion (Clarkson or Cornell :) ) will stay
>home.  The other team goes West - UNLESS CU and CU are the 2 Eastern
>teams.  In that case, both stay East to keep the gate up.
 
        Of course, if either of those two were to win the ECACs with
the current numbers in place, they'd be far and away the lowest-ranked
team in the NCAAs, and thus most deserving of going West.  But then
the committee did keep both Cornell and Clarkson East the last time
the tournament was in Albany, sending higher-rated Lowell West.
 
        Also, if a lower-rated ECAC team won the conference
tournament, with pairwise numbers like the current ones, there would
be three ECAC teams in the NCAAs: Colgate, Yale and the ECAC champion.
 
>I am loathe to send BC West. OTOH, if you want to aviod conference
>match-ups, one HEA team should go West.  Among UNH, BU and BC, who's #3
>on the PWR?  That team goes West.
 
        That would be BC.  UNH and BU win pairwise comparisons with
everyone in the East (remember, it's not your PWR, but how you do in
individual comparisons with the other teams you're competing with),
and get the two byes, unless someone from the ECAC gets an automatic
bye.
 
>I do agree with only 2 ECAC team (right now).  Their out of conference
>record stinks.  Looks like last year was a fluke.
 
        BTW, by my figuring, the ECAC is 14-20-4 against HE teams,
with six games left on the schedule.  So we won't see a repeat of last
year's winning record.
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                     Official Scorer/PA Announcer
                                        U of Utah Ice Hockey Club
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
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