What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

UMASS-NEWMASS 2025-2026

kahunak said:
I think this is a good article with some food for thought. I thought a win at UCONN and a OT win in Amherst would have really helped UMASS' NPI since UCONN was rated much higher. Instead nothing really changed. It seems like wins don't move a team so much but a loss is devastating.

dailycollegian.com

Donato: When the numbers lie

Why UMass hockey’s five-point weekend couldn’t outscore the NPI’s conference bias.
dailycollegian.com
Click to expand...
Agree. This guys makes a pretty strong case for UMass.

I think his point about the top to bottom spread being wide in the CCHA vs HEA being much more competitive top to bottom is right on. The result is that it punishes the more competitive leagues for the post season. And the competition in HEA is particularly brutal this year—even the teams at the bottom of the league are decent. It’s hurt HEA all season (although I guess you could argue the league benefitted last season).

I’m a BC fan, but I’d be pissed if I were a UMass fan.
 
I don’t think it’s possible to come up with a completely fair rating system. Especially on the fringes. I certainly won’t shed any tears if/when they lose out on a bid. UMass blew it when they went 2-6 in November.
 
Last edited:
It blows my mind that the Minutemen could finish second. They got to 20 wins so this season is already a success. And they owe it mostly to Hrabel after a seriously bad first half.

They still suck at faceoffs and Murray should be a forward. He’s one of the better offensive players on a team with few scoring options and he is a lousy defender.

Beat UNH, BC and UCONN lose and there it is, the two seed. Incredible.
 
Jack Hanson said:
I don’t think it’s possible to come up with a completely fair rating system. Especially on the fringes. I certainly won’t shed any tears if/when they lose out on a bid. UMass blew it when they went 2-6 in November.
Click to expand...
While no system is perfect, the system used needs to be seen as fair and understandable. A win away and OT win at home against a higher ranked opponent should move the needle a bit. In the wins against UCONN, no movement. Yesterday UMASS beats BC at home and they jump two spots. Strange.
 
kahunak said:
I think this is a good article with some food for thought. I thought a win at UCONN and a OT win in Amherst would have really helped UMASS' NPI since UCONN was rated much higher. Instead nothing really changed. It seems like wins don't move a team so much but a loss is devastating.

dailycollegian.com

Donato: When the numbers lie

Why UMass hockey’s five-point weekend couldn’t outscore the NPI’s conference bias.
dailycollegian.com
Click to expand...
The author of this article doesn't seem to understand how NPI works. A team's NPI is basically just a function of its (1) win percentage and (2) strength of schedule. Which is essentially the same as the Pairwise, yet the author ends the article by saying: "There are many reasons why the NPI doesn’t make sense for ranking collegiate hockey, and it all starts with the move away from Pairwise." If you look at the Pairwise, it's almost exactly the same as the NPI. The author cites things such as some teams' best three wins and worst three losses, but the NPI takes all of these into account--as well as all the rest of those teams' games. The author also refers to some teams moving up or down this past weekend based on their individual results, but the NPI doesn't just look at a team's results, it also looks at the rest of the games throughout the country and how they affect that team's strength of schedule.

Could the NPI be flawed? Maybe, but it's basically the same thing as the Pairwise, and also basically the same thing as RPI, which most other college sports use to determine their postseasons.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top