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Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

G

GopherFan89

New member
Some friends and I have been discussing lately which conference is the most competitive now that the WCHA no longer exists. Being SCSU fans, some of them have argued that the NCHC is the "most competitive" conference in hockey. One of their key arguments is because of the parity in the NCHC standings. Being a Gopher fan, I have to disagree. Not that I believe that the B1G 10 is the most competitive as the Hockey East also has it's share of heavy hitters and I know that there are some that would argue the merits of ECAC.

With that being said, who do you guys think the most competitive conference is today and will be in the future? And why?
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

Do everyone a favor and repost this thread in 10, 15, and 20 years. Then we'll answer your question.
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

It will be interesting how we judge this (obviously, we won't agree, and the debate will carry on). Comparing a 6 team league and a 12 team league is difficult, for example. Then how much weight do you consider for how high up your top few teams are, and how much the average or median matters. What if a conference has one garbage team and a bunch of modestly good teams battling it out? Just going by the USCHO.com poll, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan are ranked higher than all NCHC teams apart from St. Cloud State. On the other hand, if you look at all the vote getters, you see North Dakota at 18, then UNO, Miami, and UMD. Among all that from the Big Ten is just Ohio State. That's just looking at the Big Ten vs NCHC, of course. I can't forget about Hockey East.

It's not quite like ACC men's lacrosse (until this year), in which it was generally regarded as the best conference, because it had 4 teams, and all 4 regularly made the national tournament.
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

The real WCHA only existed from 1959 to 1965. After that they started adding crappy teams that dragged the league down.
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

<img src="http://denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw3371_medium.jpg"></img>
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

I realize that GopherFan89 doesn't recognize the WCHA, now that the Gophers are not members, but his question was, "which conference is the most competitive?

If you disregard the top and bottom teams, and then take the difference between the winning percentages of the 2nd best team and the 2nd worse teams, the answer is..........The WCHA.
 
Iwearpurple said:
I realize that GopherFan89 doesn't recognize the WCHA, now that the Gophers are not members, but his question was, "which conference is the most competitive?

If you disregard the top and bottom teams, and then take the difference between the winning percentages of the 2nd best team and the 2nd worse teams, the answer is..........The WCHA.
Click to expand...

You're right...the WCHA is the most competitive conference. Sorry for the oversight.
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

What if each conference was a baseball player? Where would you play then and bat them in the lineup?
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

Post WCHA era???? What happened to the WCHA?

According to RPI and Pairwise in the top 25 here is the conference rankings right now...

Strongest Conference today...
1) Hockey East - 8 teams
2) ECAC - 6 teams
3) NCHC - 5 teams
4) Big Ten and WCHA - 3 teams each
5) Atlantic - 0 teams
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

hockeykrazy said:
Post WCHA era???? What happened to the WCHA?

According to RPI and Pairwise in the top 25 here is the conference rankings right now...

Strongest Conference today...
1) Hockey East - 8 teams/10 = 80%
2) ECAC - 6 teams/12 = 66.6%
3) NCHC - 5 teams/8 = 62.5%
4) Big Ten =3/6 =50% and WCHA - 3/10 =30% teams each
5) Atlantic - 0 teams
Click to expand...
=0%

Now if you were to add some sort of weighting system by rank of those teams (1st = 25 pts, 25th +1 point?) it would also be interesting to see the results.
 
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

I included all teams and averaged their overall rankings using RPI.

1) HE = 221/11 = 20.09
2) Big Ten = 6 teams = 1 + 10 +15 + 28 + 40 + 52 = 146/6 = 24.333
3) ECAC = 303/12 = 25.5
4) NCHC = 209/8 = 26.125
5) WCHA = 313/10 = 31.3
6) Atlantic = 578/12 = 48.1666
 
Last edited:
Re: Most Competitive Conference Post-WCHA Era

hockeykrazy said:
I included all teams and averaged their overall rankings using RPI.

1) HE = 221/11 = 20.09
2) Big Ten = 6 teams = 1 + 10 +15 + 28 + 40 + 52 = 146/6 = 24.333
3) ECAC = 303/12 = 25.5
4) NCHC = 209/8 = 26.125
5) WCHA = 313/10 = 31.3
6) Atlantic = 578/12 = 48.1666
Click to expand...


I still think HE and ECAC are the toughest conferences right now. They have 8 and 6 teams in the top 25 and they are playing each other regularly. Tougher competition means higher development barring injuries.
 
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