Re: The definitive tournament speculation thread
Josh, great info , It is good to see someone is willing to carry the load while everyone tries to poke holes in the theory .
Just one quick request , other than the obvious autobid , what alignment of the stars favors a Pool C bid for the Cards ,if any exist.
Root for parity in the ECAC-West and NCHA, with those teams beating up on each other, Plattsburgh to keep winning, and maybe a few losses from Geneseo. The Cardinals are actually in a pretty strong Pool C position, especially if they can get to the SUNYAC Final against Oswego.
I guess I was under the impression that the final four sites were all predetermined these days...likley to be in the West given the east hosting the past few.
My comment might have just been some good-natured ribbing at the people of the state of Minnesota...
JC - Still the top 8 Eastern teams are all from New York State, and Norwich has the top-ranked SOS outside of the SUNYAC or ECAC/W. Contrast with last year when the NESCAC had 5 or 6 of the top 11 in NCAA ranked teams.
This is very easily explained actually. The "east" is essentially two regions: New York and New England. The small number of games between these two sub-regions means that a small number of results between them will skew overall totals. A great example of this was NUProf's computer rankings two years ago when things got all screwy based on a few abnormal results between the east and west regions.
If you look at
this table you can see "New York" has had strong success against "New England" this year. The SUNYAC carries a 9-3-0 record against the ECAC-East, 3-2-1 against the NESCAC, and 9-0-0 against the NE. The ECAC-W comes in at 1-1-2 against the East, 4-0-1 against the NESCAC, and 8-0-1 against the NE with one win against the MASCAC. The total of that puts New York at 35-6-5 against New England, or a winning percentage of 0.8152. That not only pushes up New York's winning percentage, but also their collective strength of schedule, since those teams are now playing each other in conference play.
Last year the SUNYAC was 6-3-3 against the ECAC-E, 6-3-1 against the NESCAC, 8-2-0 against the NE and 2-0-0 against the MASCAC. The ECAC-West was 0-1-1 against the East, 1-3-1 against the NESCAC, and 6-5-0 against the NE. That translates to a New York record of 29-17-6, or a .6154 winning percentage, which is why the numbers tilted much more towards New England last year.
With the second primary criterion seemingly being so skewed, and an unwritten bias to ensure two Western teams make the FF, (with all due respect)
Just like in 2007, right?
I don't think anyone will come close to predicting what will emerge from the oxygen deprived NCAA cavern this season. (although I have been known to err in the past)
I think the fact I just broke down
why this year's numbers are so different than last year's is kind of encouraging...
Up to Date PWC's
National <== though this table does not look accurate
The national table is notorious for being screwed up. Best to ignore it for anything other than COP and just use the regional tables. That's essentially what the committee does anyways.