> And they also want to look at the power rankings of conferences > prospective tourney teams play in as a factor. While it is possible that this addition to theselection process could be used to screw over the ECAC, my first thought is that it is intended to affect the MAAC teams. A quick look at the MAAC schedules on USCHO shows that the 8 MAAC teams play relatively few NC games this season and virtually all are against D1 independents like Army, Air Force and Niagara. (Canisius does have a pair with Mankato but I think that's it). Given this, the Head-to-head and common opponents portion of the PWR are probably a wash in every case. So the MAAC leader could very easily end up winning a bunch of comparisons simply based on RPI, record against a very small subset of the TUC (one or two MAAC teams) and last 20. Maybe playing an all MAAC and independent schedule will tend to result in a low RPI due to SOS but maybe not... (Don't want to figure out the math right now). Now I don't remember if any of the MAAC teams are eligible this year or not due to emerging program status. If any are this rule could prevent a relatively weak MAAC team from making the tournament just because the numbers say so. I'm not trying to say that the MAAC teams shouldn't be given a fair chance at the tournament - they should. But maybe the statistical tools which have been set up for tournament selection (RPI, PWR) don't adequately handle an emerging conference situation. If none of the MAAC teams are eligible, then the rule *could* have been created now so that it didn't seem like a direct slap at the MAAC when they do gain eligibility. Of course, that would assume more planning than I would expect from an NC$$ committee... Just a thought. Keith Kannenberg Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: (212) 724-5199 Web: http://mae.cornell.edu/kannenb/ HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.