Re: The Top 25 College Hockey Teams of the NCAA Era
Back in the day, two "west" teams (which were always a part of the WIHL/WCHA) and two "east" teams (which varied, but starting in '62 almost always were part of the ECAC) made the tournament. 6-7 teams were in the WCHA, and while there were significantly more teams in the ECAC, most years only 15-17 had any chance whatsoever to make the tournament. If you were independent you didn't have a chance. That's 21-24 teams for the most part, and I think you could argue that it was even fewer than that. That is where I was getting my numbers. You can't look at every team that was D-1 to get a legit number of teams that could make the tournament. Not even every team in the ECAC had a legit chance. Colby won the ECAC in '62 and did not get an invite. Harvard won the ECAC Regular Season AND Tournament title in 1963 but did not get an invite. Clearly there was a bias as to who should be selected to the NCAA Tournament. It is difficult to say how many teams had a "legit" chance to make the tournament back then, but it was definitely far smaller than the total number of teams that played D-1.
Today, every team has a legit chance to make the tournament based on the Pairwise system. Added to that, each conference gets an auto-bid into the tournament. If Harvard wins the ECAC regular season title and tournament title, they will make the tournament. It's hard to argue that every team (with perhaps UAH as an exception) doesn't have a legit chance to make the tournament. Even UAH can make the tournament despite not being in a conference. It is far more difficult for them, but if they win the right games, they can make the tournament.
As to your point about today's teams having the opportunity to earn more points, I have never suggested otherwise. That is why I had to tweak my formula to account for such an advantage. I believe I mentioned that in my very first post.
At the end of the day, there are parts of the formula which reward older teams, and parts that reward recent teams. I felt that the formula overall skewed towards favoring recent teams, that is why I tweaked the formula to put the older teams on more level ground.
Originally posted by FreshFish
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Today, every team has a legit chance to make the tournament based on the Pairwise system. Added to that, each conference gets an auto-bid into the tournament. If Harvard wins the ECAC regular season title and tournament title, they will make the tournament. It's hard to argue that every team (with perhaps UAH as an exception) doesn't have a legit chance to make the tournament. Even UAH can make the tournament despite not being in a conference. It is far more difficult for them, but if they win the right games, they can make the tournament.
As to your point about today's teams having the opportunity to earn more points, I have never suggested otherwise. That is why I had to tweak my formula to account for such an advantage. I believe I mentioned that in my very first post.
At the end of the day, there are parts of the formula which reward older teams, and parts that reward recent teams. I felt that the formula overall skewed towards favoring recent teams, that is why I tweaked the formula to put the older teams on more level ground.
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