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SUNYAC 25-26 The start of a new era

The underdog Hobart Statesmen( Oswego #1 in NPI ranking and DIII Hockey News NCAA Tournament projection) take the ice tomorrow night in an early season critical game against the Lakers . Hobart is honored to play on teddy bear night. Both teams have had time to gel, so can't wait for playoff atmosphere hockey.
They are not underdogs. Stop it, Bartman.
 
You sound like a Yankees fan. I know. I am one.
I’m actually a Mets fan but since they are leaving the team faster than we can sign replacements, I might have to consider the Yankees. It’s been pointed out that even if Hobart beats Manhattanville Saturday our NPI might drop us a notch or two, so thank goodness we may claim underdog status again.
 
I’m actually a Mets fan but since they are leaving the team faster than we can sign replacements, I might have to consider the Yankees. It’s been pointed out that even if Hobart beats Manhattanville Saturday our NPI might drop us a notch or two, so thank goodness we may claim underdog status again.
Actually this should happen: *Team's NPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating weak opponent.
 
Which is exactly why people can't take the NPI too seriously this early like you could with PWR.
Makes sense, I never really paid much attention until the NCAAs when it impacted seedings and home ice scheduling, despite my attempt to spin the underdog scenario.
 
The 4th edition of the D3 At-Large Bid Watch/SUNYAC Roundup is here and a little late. Part of me forgot to do it yesterday, the other part was the website not loading for me half the time. Oops. Anyways, just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, Salve Regina happened. We will get to that later.

The SUNYAC went 3-4 in the non-conference since my last post. Definitely not good, but the data is somewhat skewed by the fact that Hobart and Buff St were 5/7 games that were played. Hobart went 2-0 and Buff St got 1 win vs bad Hiram and 2 losses vs nationally ranked Trine so I would imagine the lions share of the results don't change the math all that much. With all that the SUNYAC is now sitting at an 0.522 win% in OOC matchups, which is still 4th in the nation behind the NESCAC, NCHA, and the WIAC. The race for 4th place has gotten as tight as possible as the UCHC and the CNE are right behind them with a 0.521 and 0.52 win% respectively. Those 3 conferences are seperated by 2 thousands of a percent. Absolutely insane. The SUNYAC split is still the same with Hobart and Oswego at the top and then everyone else, while I'm knocking St John Fisher down into the 2nd tier of the UCHC as they got absolutely mollywopped by Geneseo, so now the top tier of the UCHC is for now Utica, Geneseo, and Chatham.

Notable Wins:
#14 UCHC Utica upsets #4 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego at home. For those who know about Oswego's lack of success in the Utica Aud against any team really in the past decade, you could very easily say this game wasn't an upset but a foregone conclusion that Utica was going to win. While that is true, the math doesn't not care of factor info from previous years so despite being down in the 3rd period, Utica capitalizes on 2 major mistakes to get their 1st signature win of the season, while Oswego's misery in the Aud continues.
Unranked UCHC Naz ties #6 NESCAC Hamilton on the road. The UCHC receives a big pickup from an unlikely source. The NESCAC had just re-inserted themselves into the multi-bid conversation 2 weeks ago. But with the reputation the league has for beating up on each other, a result like this to the current bell of the ball in the NESCAC has the potential to make things much more complicated, especially if things tighten up.
Unranked Independent Salve Regina upsets #13 NESCAC Bowdoin on the road. You might be surprised to see the Salve Regina their situation for the past year or so. As I said before, we will cover them very soon.

Notable Losses/Ties
#4 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego loses to #14 UCHC Utica on the road. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
#6 NESCAC Hamilton ties unranked UCHC Nazareth at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
#13 NESCAC Bowdoin loses to Independent Unranked Salve Regina at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.

Weekly Winner: The Salve Regina Seahawks
Yes. You read that right. The Salve Regina Seahawks, the same team that 4 months ago didn't have a coach, a conference, or even more than 12 games on their schedule for this year. They were a program left for dead, with almost 0 chance of ever recovering. Why am I talking about them now? Well, its because at the end of the semester, with one of the 10 easiest schedules in the entire country, they're currently sitting at #5 in the NPI and as D3hockeynews put it 1st barring a disaster, they will be hosting a home game in the 1st round of the National Tournament.

How did they get here? Well, turns out the coached they fired was hated by EVERYONE so after hiring a new coach they decided to kill two birds with one stone and got an immediate invite back to their ex (the CNE) for next year. They were able to get an almost full schedule (24 games) in less than a month and that's where we all left them, congratulating them on starting their rebuild and hoping they could regain what they had lost. What none of us realized until now is in there rush to get a complete schedule , they might've just exposed the biggest flaw in the NPI, and are accidentally using it to their full advantage.

(A good chunk of info was posted b4 me in an tweet on d3hockeynews on twitter, no I am not calling it X. You should absolutely check their coverage on twitter and their website diiihockeynews.com out if you've never heard of them, gotta give credit where it is due)

For those who don't know, they're 6 D-2 hockey teams that exist. There is no national tournament for them, they just have a small conference playoff, and games played by D3 teams against D2 teams do not count towards the NPI and anything regarding the national tournament. And that right there is the major flaw. With those restrictions, it has been traditionally a struggle for D2 teams to fill out their schedules with non-conference games, as there's not much incentive to face them at all with the old math used for the tournament. Salve might've accidentally flipped that traditional weakness into D2's biggest strength with the new NPI. With only having 24 games scheduled, and 4 games against D2 teams, the NPI is only allowed to use Salve's 20 games vs D3 teams as part of it's calculations. Smaller sample size means any Salve win would shoot them up the rankings much higher compared to the other D3 teams. The inverse effect is that any loss would send them down the rankings much more drastically compared to other D3 teams.

So, if you play in a good conference or a top ranked team, you want the biggest sample size possible to mitigate the losses are they are essentially inevitable with your schedule. But, if you play in a bad conference or no conference like Salve, your schedule already stinks and you have a near 0% chance of ever getting an at large bid. When there's 0 risk, you might as well go for the reward. You schedule a bunch of D2 teams to drop the sample size, and bet on yourself to run the table. If you're lucky you just might find yourself at the top. That is on how accident, Salve Regina is #5 in the NPI. Granted, you have to run the table, but they have done that so far sitting at 12-1. They also still have 3 D2 games remaining, which means they've already played 12/20 or 60% of their eligible schedule before Christmas.

Another factor that is unique to Salve and to this year only is their independence status. That means no conference tournament to add to their sample. While some of the actual at large players might have to play an extra 2-6 games depending on which conference their in, we theoretically could see an 11 game gap in sample sizes between them and someone like Adrian who could lose the NCHA tournament after playing 6 games and 3 minigames.

One major caveat to all of this is that this situation is unprecedented in it's nature and its also extremely volatile. We just don't know how the math will shake out at the end, and Salve could also lose their next 4 games and make this all a moot point for now. Tufts and Geneseo are their next games, and its very plausible they lose both of them. Either way you look at it, its's either a 1) Fun and unique sports story or 2) A precursor to events for later. The MASCAC has 11 non-conference games this year, an opportune coach could easily take this to the max and just see how far this new loophole can be stretched for next year. The LEC could use it to a lessor degree to try and building their conference prestige quicker for their big 3. Heck pretty much every eastern team could take advantage of it. It will certainly be entertaining to watch.

Weekly Loser: The Oswego State Lakers
As much as 2 losses to Hobart and Utica aren't the worst results a team could having, the end of semester has been slim pickings, and with how they blew that Utica game, my beloved lakers are this weeks losers. They're still #6 in the NPI for now and if they can avoid the usual slump they have right about now, they just might still be in an at large position. Hobart, Geneseo, and possibly Babson (on the other side of the Oswego tournament) will be tough. Cortland and Buff St are 100% trap games, and you know Platty wants their revenge.

Summary:
I thought this would be a short and sweet edition, and then Salve came in and blew it all up. Hopefully by this time next month the NPI will be fully sorted out and I can no longer rely on the polls for accurate team ratings. NCHA still looking strong to keep their 3 bid status, while the UCHC, SUNYAC, CNE, NESCAC, and Salve Regina fight for those other 2 bids. The last major chunk of non-conference games is upon us, and it will be awesome to see where the dust settles.
 
The 4th edition of the D3 At-Large Bid Watch/SUNYAC Roundup is here and a little late. Part of me forgot to do it yesterday, the other part was the website not loading for me half the time. Oops. Anyways, just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, Salve Regina happened. We will get to that later.

The SUNYAC went 3-4 in the non-conference since my last post. Definitely not good, but the data is somewhat skewed by the fact that Hobart and Buff St were 5/7 games that were played. Hobart went 2-0 and Buff St got 1 win vs bad Hiram and 2 losses vs nationally ranked Trine so I would imagine the lions share of the results don't change the math all that much. With all that the SUNYAC is now sitting at an 0.522 win% in OOC matchups, which is still 4th in the nation behind the NESCAC, NCHA, and the WIAC. The race for 4th place has gotten as tight as possible as the UCHC and the CNE are right behind them with a 0.521 and 0.52 win% respectively. Those 3 conferences are seperated by 2 thousands of a percent. Absolutely insane. The SUNYAC split is still the same with Hobart and Oswego at the top and then everyone else, while I'm knocking St John Fisher down into the 2nd tier of the UCHC as they got absolutely mollywopped by Geneseo, so now the top tier of the UCHC is for now Utica, Geneseo, and Chatham.

Notable Wins:
#14 UCHC Utica upsets #4 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego at home. For those who know about Oswego's lack of success in the Utica Aud against any team really in the past decade, you could very easily say this game wasn't an upset but a foregone conclusion that Utica was going to win. While that is true, the math doesn't not care of factor info from previous years so despite being down in the 3rd period, Utica capitalizes on 2 major mistakes to get their 1st signature win of the season, while Oswego's misery in the Aud continues.
Unranked UCHC Naz ties #6 NESCAC Hamilton on the road. The UCHC receives a big pickup from an unlikely source. The NESCAC had just re-inserted themselves into the multi-bid conversation 2 weeks ago. But with the reputation the league has for beating up on each other, a result like this to the current bell of the ball in the NESCAC has the potential to make things much more complicated, especially if things tighten up.
Unranked Independent Salve Regina upsets #13 NESCAC Bowdoin on the road. You might be surprised to see the Salve Regina their situation for the past year or so. As I said before, we will cover them very soon.

Notable Losses/Ties
#4 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego loses to #14 UCHC Utica on the road. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
#6 NESCAC Hamilton ties unranked UCHC Nazareth at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
#13 NESCAC Bowdoin loses to Independent Unranked Salve Regina at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.

Weekly Winner: The Salve Regina Seahawks
Yes. You read that right. The Salve Regina Seahawks, the same team that 4 months ago didn't have a coach, a conference, or even more than 12 games on their schedule for this year. They were a program left for dead, with almost 0 chance of ever recovering. Why am I talking about them now? Well, its because at the end of the semester, with one of the 10 easiest schedules in the entire country, they're currently sitting at #5 in the NPI and as D3hockeynews put it 1st barring a disaster, they will be hosting a home game in the 1st round of the National Tournament.

How did they get here? Well, turns out the coached they fired was hated by EVERYONE so after hiring a new coach they decided to kill two birds with one stone and got an immediate invite back to their ex (the CNE) for next year. They were able to get an almost full schedule (24 games) in less than a month and that's where we all left them, congratulating them on starting their rebuild and hoping they could regain what they had lost. What none of us realized until now is in there rush to get a complete schedule , they might've just exposed the biggest flaw in the NPI, and are accidentally using it to their full advantage.

(A good chunk of info was posted b4 me in an tweet on d3hockeynews on twitter, no I am not calling it X. You should absolutely check their coverage on twitter and their website diiihockeynews.com out if you've never heard of them, gotta give credit where it is due)

For those who don't know, they're 6 D-2 hockey teams that exist. There is no national tournament for them, they just have a small conference playoff, and games played by D3 teams against D2 teams do not count towards the NPI and anything regarding the national tournament. And that right there is the major flaw. With those restrictions, it has been traditionally a struggle for D2 teams to fill out their schedules with non-conference games, as there's not much incentive to face them at all with the old math used for the tournament. Salve might've accidentally flipped that traditional weakness into D2's biggest strength with the new NPI. With only having 24 games scheduled, and 4 games against D2 teams, the NPI is only allowed to use Salve's 20 games vs D3 teams as part of it's calculations. Smaller sample size means any Salve win would shoot them up the rankings much higher compared to the other D3 teams. The inverse effect is that any loss would send them down the rankings much more drastically compared to other D3 teams.

So, if you play in a good conference or a top ranked team, you want the biggest sample size possible to mitigate the losses are they are essentially inevitable with your schedule. But, if you play in a bad conference or no conference like Salve, your schedule already stinks and you have a near 0% chance of ever getting an at large bid. When there's 0 risk, you might as well go for the reward. You schedule a bunch of D2 teams to drop the sample size, and bet on yourself to run the table. If you're lucky you just might find yourself at the top. That is on how accident, Salve Regina is #5 in the NPI. Granted, you have to run the table, but they have done that so far sitting at 12-1. They also still have 3 D2 games remaining, which means they've already played 12/20 or 60% of their eligible schedule before Christmas.

Another factor that is unique to Salve and to this year only is their independence status. That means no conference tournament to add to their sample. While some of the actual at large players might have to play an extra 2-6 games depending on which conference their in, we theoretically could see an 11 game gap in sample sizes between them and someone like Adrian who could lose the NCHA tournament after playing 6 games and 3 minigames.

One major caveat to all of this is that this situation is unprecedented in it's nature and its also extremely volatile. We just don't know how the math will shake out at the end, and Salve could also lose their next 4 games and make this all a moot point for now. Tufts and Geneseo are their next games, and its very plausible they lose both of them. Either way you look at it, its's either a 1) Fun and unique sports story or 2) A precursor to events for later. The MASCAC has 11 non-conference games this year, an opportune coach could easily take this to the max and just see how far this new loophole can be stretched for next year. The LEC could use it to a lessor degree to try and building their conference prestige quicker for their big 3. Heck pretty much every eastern team could take advantage of it. It will certainly be entertaining to watch.

Weekly Loser: The Oswego State Lakers
As much as 2 losses to Hobart and Utica aren't the worst results a team could having, the end of semester has been slim pickings, and with how they blew that Utica game, my beloved lakers are this weeks losers. They're still #6 in the NPI for now and if they can avoid the usual slump they have right about now, they just might still be in an at large position. Hobart, Geneseo, and possibly Babson (on the other side of the Oswego tournament) will be tough. Cortland and Buff St are 100% trap games, and you know Platty wants their revenge.

Summary:
I thought this would be a short and sweet edition, and then Salve came in and blew it all up. Hopefully by this time next month the NPI will be fully sorted out and I can no longer rely on the polls for accurate team ratings. NCHA still looking strong to keep their 3 bid status, while the UCHC, SUNYAC, CNE, NESCAC, and Salve Regina fight for those other 2 bids. The last major chunk of non-conference games is upon us, and it will be awesome to see where the dust settles.
well with Bart firmly entrenched in the YAC,it will be a tough road to get that auto bid, but NOT impossible, the top dog has to get knocked down sooner or later, after that I would think next yr etc, Oz has to schedule a really tough non-conference schedule to get a shot at the at large bid if they cant get by Bart and the rest of the YAC....Let's Go Laker!!!
 
Another factor that is unique to Salve and to this year only is their independence status. That means no conference tournament to add to their sample. While some of the actual at large players might have to play an extra 2-6 games depending on which conference their in, we theoretically could see an 11 game gap in sample sizes between them and someone like Adrian who could lose the NCHA tournament after playing 6 games and 3 minigames.
The NCHA tourney format is:

Quarterfinal: 2 + mini
Semifinal: 1
Final: 1

So the max is 4 + a mini. The minigame does not count towards the NPI.
 
The NCHA tourney format is:

Quarterfinal: 2 + mini
Semifinal: 1
Final: 1

So the max is 4 + a mini. The minigame does not count towards the NPI.
Ahh just the 1st round is 2 games ok. And yeah I knew the mini games don't count. So a 9 game gap could open between salve and other at large teams. 25 regular season games plus 4 conference playoff games.
 
The "D2 loophole" is a fun thought experiment, but I highly doubt that is why Salve scheduled 4 games against D2 teams. They were almost certainly just desperate to fill out their schedule.
Agreed which is why I said they accidentally discovered it. If this plays out in there favor though, it may no longer be an accident in the future. We will have to wait and see.
 
well with Bart firmly entrenched in the YAC,it will be a tough road to get that auto bid, but NOT impossible, the top dog has to get knocked down sooner or later, after that I would think next yr etc, Oz has to schedule a really tough non-conference schedule to get a shot at the at large bid if they cant get by Bart and the rest of the YAC....Let's Go Laker!!!
We all know what can happen in the SUNYACs..Many times the favorite has gone down, even with home ice.
 
The 4th edition of the D3 At-Large Bid Watch/SUNYAC Roundup is here and a little late. Part of me forgot to do it yesterday, the other part was the website not loading for me half the time. Oops. Anyways, just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, Salve Regina happened. We will get to that later.

The SUNYAC went 3-4 in the non-conference since my last post. Definitely not good, but the data is somewhat skewed by the fact that Hobart and Buff St were 5/7 games that were played. Hobart went 2-0 and Buff St got 1 win vs bad Hiram and 2 losses vs nationally ranked Trine so I would imagine the lions share of the results don't change the math all that much. With all that the SUNYAC is now sitting at an 0.522 win% in OOC matchups, which is still 4th in the nation behind the NESCAC, NCHA, and the WIAC. The race for 4th place has gotten as tight as possible as the UCHC and the CNE are right behind them with a 0.521 and 0.52 win% respectively. Those 3 conferences are seperated by 2 thousands of a percent. Absolutely insane. The SUNYAC split is still the same with Hobart and Oswego at the top and then everyone else, while I'm knocking St John Fisher down into the 2nd tier of the UCHC as they got absolutely mollywopped by Geneseo, so now the top tier of the UCHC is for now Utica, Geneseo, and Chatham.

Notable Wins:
#14 UCHC Utica upsets #4 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego at home. For those who know about Oswego's lack of success in the Utica Aud against any team really in the past decade, you could very easily say this game wasn't an upset but a foregone conclusion that Utica was going to win. While that is true, the math doesn't not care of factor info from previous years so despite being down in the 3rd period, Utica capitalizes on 2 major mistakes to get their 1st signature win of the season, while Oswego's misery in the Aud continues.
Unranked UCHC Naz ties #6 NESCAC Hamilton on the road. The UCHC receives a big pickup from an unlikely source. The NESCAC had just re-inserted themselves into the multi-bid conversation 2 weeks ago. But with the reputation the league has for beating up on each other, a result like this to the current bell of the ball in the NESCAC has the potential to make things much more complicated, especially if things tighten up.
Unranked Independent Salve Regina upsets #13 NESCAC Bowdoin on the road. You might be surprised to see the Salve Regina their situation for the past year or so. As I said before, we will cover them very soon.

Notable Losses/Ties
#4 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego loses to #14 UCHC Utica on the road. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
#6 NESCAC Hamilton ties unranked UCHC Nazareth at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
#13 NESCAC Bowdoin loses to Independent Unranked Salve Regina at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.

Weekly Winner: The Salve Regina Seahawks
Yes. You read that right. The Salve Regina Seahawks, the same team that 4 months ago didn't have a coach, a conference, or even more than 12 games on their schedule for this year. They were a program left for dead, with almost 0 chance of ever recovering. Why am I talking about them now? Well, its because at the end of the semester, with one of the 10 easiest schedules in the entire country, they're currently sitting at #5 in the NPI and as D3hockeynews put it 1st barring a disaster, they will be hosting a home game in the 1st round of the National Tournament.

How did they get here? Well, turns out the coached they fired was hated by EVERYONE so after hiring a new coach they decided to kill two birds with one stone and got an immediate invite back to their ex (the CNE) for next year. They were able to get an almost full schedule (24 games) in less than a month and that's where we all left them, congratulating them on starting their rebuild and hoping they could regain what they had lost. What none of us realized until now is in there rush to get a complete schedule , they might've just exposed the biggest flaw in the NPI, and are accidentally using it to their full advantage.

(A good chunk of info was posted b4 me in an tweet on d3hockeynews on twitter, no I am not calling it X. You should absolutely check their coverage on twitter and their website diiihockeynews.com out if you've never heard of them, gotta give credit where it is due)

For those who don't know, they're 6 D-2 hockey teams that exist. There is no national tournament for them, they just have a small conference playoff, and games played by D3 teams against D2 teams do not count towards the NPI and anything regarding the national tournament. And that right there is the major flaw. With those restrictions, it has been traditionally a struggle for D2 teams to fill out their schedules with non-conference games, as there's not much incentive to face them at all with the old math used for the tournament. Salve might've accidentally flipped that traditional weakness into D2's biggest strength with the new NPI. With only having 24 games scheduled, and 4 games against D2 teams, the NPI is only allowed to use Salve's 20 games vs D3 teams as part of it's calculations. Smaller sample size means any Salve win would shoot them up the rankings much higher compared to the other D3 teams. The inverse effect is that any loss would send them down the rankings much more drastically compared to other D3 teams.

So, if you play in a good conference or a top ranked team, you want the biggest sample size possible to mitigate the losses are they are essentially inevitable with your schedule. But, if you play in a bad conference or no conference like Salve, your schedule already stinks and you have a near 0% chance of ever getting an at large bid. When there's 0 risk, you might as well go for the reward. You schedule a bunch of D2 teams to drop the sample size, and bet on yourself to run the table. If you're lucky you just might find yourself at the top. That is on how accident, Salve Regina is #5 in the NPI. Granted, you have to run the table, but they have done that so far sitting at 12-1. They also still have 3 D2 games remaining, which means they've already played 12/20 or 60% of their eligible schedule before Christmas.

Another factor that is unique to Salve and to this year only is their independence status. That means no conference tournament to add to their sample. While some of the actual at large players might have to play an extra 2-6 games depending on which conference their in, we theoretically could see an 11 game gap in sample sizes between them and someone like Adrian who could lose the NCHA tournament after playing 6 games and 3 minigames.

One major caveat to all of this is that this situation is unprecedented in it's nature and its also extremely volatile. We just don't know how the math will shake out at the end, and Salve could also lose their next 4 games and make this all a moot point for now. Tufts and Geneseo are their next games, and its very plausible they lose both of them. Either way you look at it, its's either a 1) Fun and unique sports story or 2) A precursor to events for later. The MASCAC has 11 non-conference games this year, an opportune coach could easily take this to the max and just see how far this new loophole can be stretched for next year. The LEC could use it to a lessor degree to try and building their conference prestige quicker for their big 3. Heck pretty much every eastern team could take advantage of it. It will certainly be entertaining to watch.

Weekly Loser: The Oswego State Lakers
As much as 2 losses to Hobart and Utica aren't the worst results a team could having, the end of semester has been slim pickings, and with how they blew that Utica game, my beloved lakers are this weeks losers. They're still #6 in the NPI for now and if they can avoid the usual slump they have right about now, they just might still be in an at large position. Hobart, Geneseo, and possibly Babson (on the other side of the Oswego tournament) will be tough. Cortland and Buff St are 100% trap games, and you know Platty wants their revenge.

Summary:
I thought this would be a short and sweet edition, and then Salve came in and blew it all up. Hopefully by this time next month the NPI will be fully sorted out and I can no longer rely on the polls for accurate team ratings. NCHA still looking strong to keep their 3 bid status, while the UCHC, SUNYAC, CNE, NESCAC, and Salve Regina fight for those other 2 bids. The last major chunk of non-conference games is upon us, and it will be awesome to see where the dust settles.
This is all fine and dandy...but until there is more data and/or Salve Regina has the inevitable losses coming to 1 or 2 stronger programs, this will all be for not. I think this a lot of hot air over a situation that will almost assuredly work itself out. And as another poster implied, Salve didn't actively want to schedule D2 games, they probably did what they had to survive to try and get closer to a full schedule since they had to schedule 25 non-conference games instead of of the 6-9 most have to get.
 
This is all fine and dandy...but until there is more data and/or Salve Regina has the inevitable losses coming to 1 or 2 stronger programs, this will all be for not. I think this a lot of hot air over a situation that will almost assuredly work itself out. And as another poster implied, Salve didn't actively want to schedule D2 games, they probably did what they had to survive to try and get closer to a full schedule since they had to schedule 25 non-conference games instead of of the 6-9 most have to get.
And if they do run the table, you could make an argument that 19-1 is worthy of an at large bid even with a weak SOS.
 
This is all fine and dandy...but until there is more data and/or Salve Regina has the inevitable losses coming to 1 or 2 stronger programs, this will all be for not. I think this a lot of hot air over a situation that will almost assuredly work itself out. And as another poster implied, Salve didn't actively want to schedule D2 games, they probably did what they had to survive to try and get closer to a full schedule since they had to schedule 25 non-conference games instead of of the 6-9 most have to get.
I sure hope it will be all for naught, I want oz to get an a large bid and i dont want to type another essay. Alas, this is this situation we're currently in and it is fascinating to talk about the very least.
 
I haven't been able to do some investigating because of some health issues I am dealing with. But 2 transfers out of the Plattsburgh program both Junior Defensemen Simon Singher and Sam D'Amico.

Career Stats
Sam D'Amico 12 GP 0 G 2 A 2 Pts
Simon Singher 33 GP 1 G 3 A 4 Pts
 
What a dismall showing by the Cards in the last 2 periods. The Cards coach seemed to not make any changes. Defense was soft. The goalie for Canton put on a great preference and good for him. Cards are jn a very tough spot in the SUNYACS.
Oswego '88
 
The final edition of the D3 At-Large Bid Watch/SUNYAC Roundup is here and instead of being a little late I am very late. Luckily not too much to talk about so hopefully this one should be a breeze.

The SUNYAC now currently has an OOC record of 28-29-2 which puts them 7th overall out of the 10 conferences which is not good. Shockingly they have a chance of being a multiple bid league. Skidmore, Cortland, and Platty are not having good years at all compared to what they've been the past 5 years, whereas Fredonia has appear to have joined Morrisville as perennial bottom feeders in d3 with their track records the past few years. I know Jeff Meredith is a legendary coach, but after almost 50 years its possible he's behind the times now and maybe the program could use a refresh with a new leader at the helm. Then again, its possible the problems affecting them could be affecting all the other public schools. Time will eventually tell us, but in the meantime the conference as a whole seems to not be as strong as it once was.

Notable Wins:
Unranked SUNYAC Skidmore upsets #8 CNE Curry on the road. While I did state Skidmore is having a down year, they're still a trap team for every opponent they face. Good result to help boost the SUNYAC.

Unranked MIAC St Johns upsets #12 NCHA Trine at home twice. I would imagine a bus ride from Indiana to Minnesota in early January is not an easy task, but the math does not care about excuses or travel, the MIAC takes a bite out of the NCHA's dominance out west. Worth noting the MIAC does have a winning record against the NCHA this year at 17-13-3.

Unranked NESCAC Williams ties #6 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego on the road. This game was a wild one. Oswego end the 1st up 3-0, got thoroughly outplayed the next 2 period, were down 5-3 with 4 minutes to go, when 2 penalties and puling the goalie allowed them to get a 6v3 goal and 6v4 goal to squeak out a tie. While Williams does not have a good record, they've played some good teams like Babson, Oswego, and Hamilton close, which is just another piece of evidence as to why the NESCAC is the best conference this year.

#8 CNE Curry upsets #5 NESCAC Hamilton. Curry offsets that Skidmore loss by taking a bite out of the best team in the best conference. Curry and UNE are in a dogfight with Bowdoin for an at large bid, so this result has some pretty decent ramifications....if not for the next game on the list.

#13 NESCAC Bowdoin upsets #7 CNE UNE on neutral ice. This results pretty much cancels out the previous result, but still makes the fight for those at large bids that more interesting.

Unranked NESCAC Tufts upsets #9 UCHC SUNY Geneseo on neutral ice. Geneseo continues to be jeckyl and hyde this year. They have some absolutely bizarre results and it appears they're almost eliminated from the at large bid fight with this result and a loss to Manhattenville.

Monthly Winner: The Hobart Statesmen

Now Hobart hasn't played any tough teams since the break, so how can they possibly be winners if they barely did anything? Well its mostly because everyone behind them just kept losing. Pretty much every other team in the top 15 has had some sort of bad loss or tie since play resumed. In the words of the late great Al Davis, "Just win baby" and thats exactly what Hobart did.

Monthly Loser: The Geneseo Knights

After beating Salve Regina to start the semester on the right foot, dropping two games to Tufts and Manhettenville is not a result you expect from a team as highly ranked as them. They also have a stretch coming up where they play 4 road games against Chatham, Oswego and Utica. After thinking Utica was down and out of the count for the at large, the tables have now turned and its Geneseo who's going to need the auto bid or a miracle to be in the national tournament.

Summary:
Last time I did one of these it appeared certain teams and leagues were locks for multi-bids. Now pretty much ever spot is up for grabs as one mistake can easily send your team down the pecking order. While spots 1-2 in the NPI have pretty much been the same since November, spots 3-15 have been a revolving door, and hopefully with these posts we point to and show how we got into this chaotic mess. It will be an exciting month to watch (or live stats if ur team is in th LEC screw you Flo Sports), remember to refresh you NPI tabs every hour, and last but not least, thank you all for reading and chiming in with your thoughts.
 
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