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Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

F

Freddie

Whipping Dead Horses Since 1955
After a 1 year hiatus, the Bottom-Feeders Bracket/FutileFour tournament is back!

Everything works backwards from that 'other' national tournament so many folks get all worked up about this time of the year. The 16 team field takes the lowest ranked teams (we use KRACH, just to be different), with automatic bids to the last place team in each conference.

This year, YOU; the faithful followers of USCHO are invited to be ad-hoc members of the selection committee. Ad-hoc is a fancy way of saying that you are welcome to be part of the discussion, but the real committee is under no obligation to take anything you say seriously.

That said, as we have always felt that it best to keep the details of the selection process as fuzzy as possible, we are open to any suggestions; especially if they can contribute to outright silliness.

Several rules we have used in past years are open for discussion this year, specifically:

The "Atlantic Hockey Rule" which stated that no team finishing in the top half of their conference standings can earn a spot in our tournament...no matter how bad their conference is.

The "Bowling Green Rule" which stated that no team that advances to the semi-finals of their conference tournament can earn a spot, no matter how bad they were during the regular season.

Based on past criteria, the field for this year's event (if the season ended today) would look like this:

1. Sacred Heart
2. Alabama-Huntsville
3. Army
4. American International
5. Bentley
6. Penn State
7. RIT
8. Bemidji State
9. Michigan State
10. Alaska-Anchorage
11. Harvard
12. Michigan
13. Clarkson
14. Northeastern
15. Maine
16. Cornell

Note 1: Canisius, Air Force, Connecticut, and Mercyhurst would have all qualified if not for the "Atlantic Hockey Rule"
Note 2: Michigan, Cornell and Penn State would be making their first appearances in the event's history (but, of course, this is Penn State's first year in D1 play)
Note 3: Although we have not been able to determine this positively (records from this event are routinely destroyed for reasons of public health) we believe this may be the first time in modern history that neither Bowling Green nor Michigan Tech will qualify...but there's still several weeks of hockey to play!

We welcome any suggestions, especially those that may contribute to low quality of this event.
A separate thread exists for venue selection.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Sacred Heart obviously has a record to run on. Huntsville has no conference which could give them an edge. Army has no chance at being in for a long haul. Penn State could sneak in with their clever "club hockey playing DI" strategy. nice to see some newcomers - Michigan, Cornell, Maine.

should be an interesting year.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Hockey East should get two autobids this year since two of the teams don't even make the conference tournament. What is more futile than that?

I also believe UAH and Penn State deserve autobids for this year.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

I believe epic falls should be rewarded. For example, since UMD recently won A NC, if they are close they should be able to jump teams.... lets say 5 spots or so
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

So glad to have the real FF back - really missed the excitement of last year's "event"!
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

As of this weekend's play, the updated field for the BFB looks like this:

1. Sacred Heart
2. Alabama-Huntsville
3. Army
4. American International
5. Canisius
6. Bentley
7. Penn State
8. Alaska-Anchorage
9. Michigan State
10. Bemidji State
11. Northeastern
12. Michigan
13. Harvard
14. Clarkson
15. Maine
16. Minnesota-Duluth

New to the field: Canisius and Minn-Duluth
Dropped out: RIT and Cornell

Elimination of the "Atlantic Hockey" rule (as explained in an earlier post) would bring RIT and Mercyhurst in to the field, but drop Maine and UMD out. Discussion?
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Freddie said:
New to the field: Canisius and Minn-Duluth
Dropped out: RIT and Cornell

Elimination of the "Atlantic Hockey" rule (as explained in an earlier post) would bring RIT and Mercyhurst in to the field, but drop Maine and UMD out. Discussion?
Click to expand...

I would advocate leaving the AH rule in place - this tournament needs at least one NCHC team in it
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

drshoen said:
I would advocate leaving the AH rule in place - this tournament needs at least one NCHC team in it
Click to expand...
I think the days of the AH rule should be over. Bentley beat Northeastern, UConn beat Merrimack, RIT beat Michigan, Holy Cross beat Clarkson and Yale, Niagara beat Clarkson and is currently 10th in the PWR and could conceivably get an at-large bid if everything breaks exactly right. Mercyhurst has wins over Maine and Robert Morris has wins over Ohio State and Miami. Even perennial bottom feeder AIC has 2 non-conference wins, albeit over the two independents, Penn State and Huntsville. Bottom line is that the days of the AHA teams being automatic wins on the schedule are over. Well except Sacred heart...
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Jim said:
Even perennial bottom feeder AIC has 2 non-conference wins, albeit over the two independents, Penn State and Huntsville.
Click to expand...
Methinks that they also beat the current #1 team in the country. :D
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

I'd say leave the Atlantic Hockey rule in place. Good to get some different teams and different conferences involved.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Jim said:
I think the days of the AH rule should be over. Bentley beat Northeastern, UConn beat Merrimack, RIT beat Michigan, Holy Cross beat Clarkson and Yale, Niagara beat Clarkson and is currently 10th in the PWR and could conceivably get an at-large bid if everything breaks exactly right. Mercyhurst has wins over Maine and Robert Morris has wins over Ohio State and Miami. Even perennial bottom feeder AIC has 2 non-conference wins, albeit over the two independents, Penn State and Huntsville. Bottom line is that the days of the AHA teams being automatic wins on the schedule are over. Well except Sacred heart...
Click to expand...

But having said that, if the AH rule is revoked, the 16 team field would right now include 7 of the 12 teams from AH, including several of those you mentioned above. While I agree with you that the conference is better, it's still quite a bit below the other conferences.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

jjmc85 said:
Hockey East should get two autobids this year since two of the teams don't even make the conference tournament. What is more futile than that?

I also believe UAH and Penn State deserve autobids for this year.
Click to expand...
In fact, they should be the de-facto number ones, since at the end of the regular season, these will be the only teams eliminated from that other tourney.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

UncleRay said:
In fact, they should be the de-facto number ones, since at the end of the regular season, these will be the only teams eliminated from that other tourney.
Click to expand...
Although I can understand that, it sets a poor precedent because there will be three HEA teams in that category next season.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

drshoen said:
But having said that, if the AH rule is revoked, the 16 team field would right now include 7 of the 12 teams from AH, including several of those you mentioned above. While I agree with you that the conference is better, it's still quite a bit below the other conferences.
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure "quite a bit" is applicable. I htink it is slowly but surely catching the ECAC. Maybe not at the very top, but over all. I sort of see it like this:
HHHHHHHHHHH (Hockey East)
EEEEEEEEEEEE(ECAC)
AAAAAAAAAAAA(AHA)
)
I had a much better graph, really very cool, but couldn't get it to paste...Oh well, you get the idea.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Jim said:
I'm not so sure "quite a bit" is applicable. I htink it is slowly but surely catching the ECAC. Maybe not at the very top, but over all. I sort of see it like this:
HHHHHHHHHHH (Hockey East)
EEEEEEEEEEEE(ECAC)
AAAAAAAAAAAA(AHA)
)
I had a much better graph, really very cool, but couldn't get it to paste...Oh well, you get the idea.
Click to expand...

So, you're saying that the 7-12 AHA teams could beat ECAC's #12 Harvard more than 5 out of 10 times? Even going up to Cornell and Colgate at 10/11? Doubtful.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Ralph Baer said:
Although I can understand that, it sets a poor precedent because there will be three HEA teams in that category next season.
Click to expand...
I believe we join the other Everybody-Gets-A-Participation-Trophy leagues next year. But the nWCHA sees common sense and doesn't take their two least-deserving teams to the league tourney.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

UncleRay said:
I believe we join the other Everybody-Gets-A-Participation-Trophy leagues next year. But the nWCHA sees common sense and doesn't take their two least-deserving teams to the league tourney.
Click to expand...
Then I will retract that remark. :)
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Look, I know we all think the tournament should be for the worst of the worst, but the fact remains that if you can't get fail to get the job done in your own league, you shouldn't be in the national tournament, end of story.
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

this is being overthinked. f&$* the f&$&-in rules. no rules, no rules, no rules. free the futile four!
 
Re: Bottom-Feeders Bracket; Road to "FutileFour" team selection process

Ralph Baer said:
Although I can understand that, it sets a poor precedent because there will be three HEA teams in that category next season.
Click to expand...

I wish.

Also, get rid of the AHA rule. If Vermont can finish in 8th in Hockey East and still make the NCAAs, I see no reason why an AHA team can't finish 4th and still make the BFB.
 
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