Minnesota hosts Wisconsin: 1/16 & 1/17

[streaker]

Re: Minnesota hosts Wisconsin: 1/16 & 1/17

Uh...except the rpi and krach sos ratings disagree with you.

MSU (11,9), BG (12,10), mtu (20,15)
Meanwhile mn (10,17) and mi (21,18)

The difference is negligible. If anything the wcha's schedules are a bit more difficilt. Cherry picking non-conference schedules is just as ridiculous as what youre arguing. I know msu's has and I believe mtu's sos suffered once getting into the conference schedule.

The difference is not negligible. Minnesota State, BG and MTU all have great records, great road records and deserve their standing. But the proof is in who they played and where they played. MTU has lost 1 road game. BGSU, 2. But to compare their road nc games to Minnesota and Michigan, its easy to see a difference in the quality of opponent which does impact the PWR-especially if you win. The original question centered around that point. But, yes the overall WCHA conference is stronger.

[Bale]

Re: Minnesota hosts Wisconsin: 1/16 & 1/17

The difference is not negligible. Minnesota State, BG and MTU all have great records, great road records and deserve their standing. But the proof is in who they played and where they played. MTU has lost 1 road game. BGSU, 2. But to compare their road nc games to Minnesota and Michigan, its easy to see a difference in the quality of opponent which does impact the PWR-especially if you win. The original question centered around that point. But, yes the overall WCHA conference is stronger.

So, I know this is pointless and means nothing, but your comments got me thinking. What is the reality? We've heard so much from the Big Ten teams that the new conference alignment will allow them to play such better schedules, but is that really the truth? So, I did go back and look at each team's road nc game schedule. What I found is that there are a lot of "big name schools" playing a lot of other "big name schools". Unfortunately for them, many of the big name schools are having down years in the same year. This has given the appearance of a more difficult schedule, but in reality, this year it just shows that name schools are playing each other. Difficulty has nothing to do with it.

What I did was take each school and looked at their opponents. To each opponent I took how many games they have faced each other (only counting road games) and multiplied it with that opponents PWR ranking. I then averaged those totals to come up with a composite SOS for each one. Results are below:

MN- Played SCSU (1 game, 24 PWR), UMD (1,5), BC(1,19), Northeastern (1,28)- Composite SOS 19
MI- Played Ferris (1 game, 29PWR), UML (1,9), BU (1,8), MTU (2,11)- Composite SOS 15
MSU- Played UNO (2 games, 2 PWR), UMD (1,5) - Composite SOS 3
MTU- WI (2,54)- Composite SOS 54
BG- Miami (1,6), OSU (1, 29), Robert Morris (1,25)- Composite SOS 20


So, to answer the question, it depends what you consider negligible. MSU is far and away better than anyone in road nc SOS. MI, MN and BG are pretty close. WI is far behind, mostly because they've only played a single team. Just by looking at the schedules, I can't tell anything. B10 certainly isn't far and away better as suggested. The only thing that's definite is that MSU has played superior opponents and MTU has played subpar opponents.