Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

[gfmorris]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

As a follow-up to Sean's excellent research, it's important to note that the CHA didn't have an AQ until 2003-04.

GFM

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 8 teams 34 regular season champions have not made the tournament. Three in the 8 team field, 2 coming from the ECAC as it split into three division each with its own regular season champion, eight in the 12 team field, and twenty-three in the 16 team field.
Eight Teams
1981 – ECAC East – Boston College
1983 – CCHA – Bowling Green
1984 – ECAC East – Boston College (tie)
...

By conference the MAAC/Atlantic Hockey has 13; the CHA had 7; the ECAC has 7; the WCHA has 3; Hockey East has 2; the B1G has 1; and the CCHA had zero.

Sean

In '83 BG should have been invited over Duluth but this was back in the day when there was little in the way of objective measurement and the coach of a team in consideration (who was also on the selection committee) could politic his way in.

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

As a follow-up to Sean's excellent research, it's important to note that the CHA didn't have an AQ until 2003-04.

GFM

The CHA RS champion Niagara in 2000 also won the league tournament and made the NCAAs as an at-large. The only other RS champion to win the league tournament before 2004 was Wayne State in 2002, This brings up the question of how many RS champions also won their league tournament titles, but that will have to wait for another day.

Sean

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

In '83 BG should have been invited over Duluth but this was back in the day when there was little in the way of objective measurement and the coach of a team in consideration (who was also on the selection committee) could politic his way in.

Since there was no objective measurement your statement is just an opinion and I'm only dealing with historical facts. If someone runs the numbers for the the 1982-83 season that would give an objective measurement to determine if your opinion is true that would be great, but even then there likely would be debate. I looked at Bowling Green's schedule and results for that season and the first thing I noticed was the insular scheduling of the CCHA, with 32 of 36 games being league contests. Of the four non-conference games Bowling Green played they lost and tied Wisconsin at home, and lost to DII Lowell and defeated Brown at the RPI Invitational.

Sean

[gfmorris]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

The CHA RS champion Niagara in 2000 also won the league tournament and made the NCAAs as an at-large. The only other RS champion to win the league tournament before 2004 was Wayne State in 2002, This brings up the question of how many RS champions also won their league tournament titles, but that will have to wait for another day.

That's an exercise for the interested student!

GFM

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

Since there was no objective measurement your statement is just an opinion and I'm only dealing with historical facts. If someone runs the numbers for the the 1982-83 season that would give an objective measurement to determine if your opinion is true that would be great, but even then there likely would be debate. I looked at Bowling Green's schedule and results for that season and the first thing I noticed was the insular scheduling of the CCHA, with 32 of 36 games being league contests. Of the four non-conference games Bowling Green played they lost and tied Wisconsin at home, and lost to DII Lowell and defeated Brown at the RPI Invitational.

Sean

Here are some other facts you overlooked. On selection Sunday that year BG was the #2 ranked team in the nation and Duluth was not ahead of us. We’d been #1 earlier in the year. We ended the year 28-8-4 and had the leading scorer in the nation. All this while Duluth was 2 games above .500 in oWCHA league play and didn’t win their conference tourney either.

Agree that it's my opinion we got jobbed that year because there was no objective measure in place at that time. Had there been, your table would look different. Good news is that we paid everyone back for the snub the following year.

[Ed Trefzger]

Re: Power rankings making conference play irrelevant

By conference the MAAC/Atlantic Hockey has 13; the CHA had 7; the ECAC has 7; the WCHA has 3; Hockey East has 2; the B1G has 1; and the CCHA had 1.

Sean

You could put an asterisk next to RIT in 2007. They were not eligible for the NCAA post-season. That was their first year in Atlantic Hockey and the second year transitioning from D-III.