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WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

MavsFan said:
Since I haven't been contacted about purchasing tickets, would I be correct to think that the schedule will be played in empty arenas?
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I think at this point we just don't know. Too many variables to have a definitive answer. And I honestly think the policies are going to vary - by location and over time you may have multiple answers.
 
So the WCHA release said that they still haven't determined the format for the conference playoff, but it will be held over the 2nd and 3rd weekends of March. That leads me to believe that the following single game format is not off the table.

Regular season champion hosts this group: 1st vs 8th, 4th vs 5th. Winners play each other for right to advance.
Regular season runner-up hosts this group: 2nd vs 7th, 3rd vs 6th. Winners play each other for right to advance.

Two advancing teams play at the home of the better seed the following weekend for Sauer Trophy.

The snag is of course - what happens if an Alaska team finishes as #1 or #2? Can a league that is essentially folding up at the end of the year afford to send 3 teams there? Is it possible to predetermine the locations of the two quarterfinal/semifinal weekends (even though you run the risk that the two host schools could end up in the same pod)?
 
Another interesting note - the league kept each team with 9 home and 9 away games, with the designated travel partner series being a home-and-home. That means that BG and UAH play on Wednesday and Saturday the final weekend to allow for travel. Bemidji and Mankato will be a Thursday-Saturday, and Anchorage-Fairbanks have not nailed down which days they will play yet.

Of course even though they will all play each other twice, the schedules are not fully equal due to where games will be played. NMU and UAA get both Minnesota State and Bowling Green at home, while Tech has to travel to both. Tough draw for Bemidji who has to go to BG, Tech, Fairbanks, and a single in Mankato. Also tough on UAF who visits BG, Mankato, and Tech. No one makes the Alaska trip twice (except of course UAA and UAF).
 
Obviously the Pairwise will be useless this season. With so few inter-league games being played (8), there will not a decent way to compare leagues this season. It will be interesting to see what happens with the NCAA tournament selection process. Something else to watch will be how that process may carry over to future seasons. Is it possible the Pairwise will no longer be used to decide participants?
 
Given the limited (or zero) TRUE non-conference play for all schools this year, (Michigan Tech for example has 18 conference games plus 10 additional "non-conference" in-conference games) I think simply giving two invites to all conferences makes the most sense for the NCAA tourney. Let the conferences do what they wish with those bids. My vote would be one for regular season champ, one for post season champ. If both are the same team then the second place regular season team fills the second slot.
AH, Big, ECAC, HE, NCHC, WCHA x 2 = 12 slots

Give one additional tourney slot to conferences with 10+ teams to be awarded as the conference sees fit (regular season runner up, post season runner up, blind draw, whatever)
AH, ECAC, HE, WCHA x 1 = 4 slots

There's your sixteen team field. Sorry ASU and LIU, everyone is making sacrifices this season.

Anything based on media/coaches polls, human committee, etc will be a disaster so just set the rules before the first puck even drops next month so everyone knows the plan going into the season.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
Given the limited (or zero) TRUE non-conference play for all schools this year, (Michigan Tech for example has 18 conference games plus 10 additional "non-conference" in-conference games) I think simply giving two invites to all conferences makes the most sense for the NCAA tourney. Let the conferences do what they wish with those bids. My vote would be one for regular season champ, one for post season champ. If both are the same team then the second place regular season team fills the second slot.
AH, Big, ECAC, HE, NCHC, WCHA x 2 = 12 slots

Give one additional tourney slot to conferences with 10+ teams to be awarded as the conference sees fit (regular season runner up, post season runner up, blind draw, whatever)
AH, ECAC, HE, WCHA x 1 = 4 slots

There's your sixteen team field. Sorry ASU and LIU, everyone is making sacrifices this season.

Anything based on media/coaches polls, human committee, etc will be a disaster so just set the rules before the first puck even drops next month so everyone knows the plan going into the season.
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So only two spots for the NaCHo, but 3 for AH? Yeah, that would go over well. Like Griff Loughran sitting with the Misfits. This one is a non-starter.

I'd imagine it will be more based on past performance rather than basic participation numbers.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
Given the limited (or zero) TRUE non-conference play for all schools this year, (Michigan Tech for example has 18 conference games plus 10 additional "non-conference" in-conference games) I think simply giving two invites to all conferences makes the most sense for the NCAA tourney. Let the conferences do what they wish with those bids. My vote would be one for regular season champ, one for post season champ. If both are the same team then the second place regular season team fills the second slot.
AH, Big, ECAC, HE, NCHC, WCHA x 2 = 12 slots

Give one additional tourney slot to conferences with 10+ teams to be awarded as the conference sees fit (regular season runner up, post season runner up, blind draw, whatever)
AH, ECAC, HE, WCHA x 1 = 4 slots

There's your sixteen team field. Sorry ASU and LIU, everyone is making sacrifices this season.

Anything based on media/coaches polls, human committee, etc will be a disaster so just set the rules before the first puck even drops next month so everyone knows the plan going into the season.
Click to expand...

+1 on everything here, except for the final 4 spots you go by conference historicals. Nachos, B1G, HE, and ECAC each get the third bid.

Edit: And if ASU finishes in the top 3 (based on whatever the B1G rules are), the B1G can decide if they're worthy. The Sun Devils made a deal with the devil, let the devil decide.
 
John J. MacInnes said:
Another interesting note - the league kept each team with 9 home and 9 away games, with the designated travel partner series being a home-and-home. That means that BG and UAH play on Wednesday and Saturday the final weekend to allow for travel. Bemidji and Mankato will be a Thursday-Saturday, and Anchorage-Fairbanks have not nailed down which days they will play yet.

Of course even though they will all play each other twice, the schedules are not fully equal due to where games will be played. NMU and UAA get both Minnesota State and Bowling Green at home, while Tech has to travel to both. Tough draw for Bemidji who has to go to BG, Tech, Fairbanks, and a single in Mankato. Also tough on UAF who visits BG, Mankato, and Tech. No one makes the Alaska trip twice (except of course UAA and UAF).
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The schedule is based on the rival pairings. You play one team from each pair at home and the other on the road. The two teams in each pair has opposite home/road schedules.

For instance: Tech has Fairbanks, Huntsville, Bemidji & LSSU at home, NMU plays those teams on the road.

Bemidji has Anchorage, Huntsville, LSSU & NMU while Minnesota State travels to play those teams.
 
TalonsUpPuckDown said:
+1 on everything here, except for the final 4 spots you go by conference historicals. Nachos, B1G, HE, and ECAC each get the third bid.

Edit: And if ASU finishes in the top 3 (based on whatever the B1G rules are), the B1G can decide if they're worthy. The Sun Devils made a deal with the devil, let the devil decide.
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Thank you for suggesting the Devil decide! Makes it an easy decision! ;)
 
John J. MacInnes said:
So only two spots for the NaCHo, but 3 for AH?
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Because under my proposal the spots are not awarded based on performance, simply conference size so that's why I didn't slot the Big or NCHC for three spots.

Past years' teams are not playing in this year's tourney so past program performance should mean nothing in picking the field. Just give each conference a nearly equal shot to win the title because there isn't going to be enough non-conference play to establish anything relative between the conferences. That's why anything with human bias is the worst possible scenario. Its why teams with losing or barely 0.500 records end up in media polls week after week, year after year. "Well they're normally much better than their current 7-10-2 record, so I voted for them Top 10 in spite of their record..."

AH - 3/11 = 27.3% of conference teams in the tourney
Big - 2/7 = 28.6%
ECAC - 3/12 = 25.0%
HE - 3/11 = 27.3%
NCHC - 2/8 = 25.0%
WCHA - 3/10 = 30.0%

One could argue the WCHA is the outlier, but if you give one of those spots to the ECAC or NCHC (the two lowest %) they jump to 33.3% and 37.5% respectively. If you need an excuse for why the WCHA would have three, just site the obvious tried and true excuse... Western bias.
 
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JohnsonsJerseys said:
Because under my proposal the spots are not awarded based on performance, simply conference size so that's why I didn't slot the Big or NCHC for three spots.

Past years' teams are not playing in this year's tourney so past program performance should mean nothing in picking the field. Just give each conference a nearly equal shot to win the title because there isn't going to be enough non-conference play to establish anything relative between the conferences. That's why anything with human bias is the worst possible scenario. Its why teams with losing or barely 0.500 records end up in media polls week after week, year after year. "Well they're normally much better than their current 7-10-2 record, so I voted for them Top 10 in spite of their record..."

AH - 3/11 = 27.3% of conference teams in the tourney
Big - 2/7 = 28.6%
ECAC - 3/12 = 25.0%
HE - 3/11 = 27.3%
NCHC - 2/8 = 25.0%
WCHA - 3/10 = 30.0%

One could argue the WCHA is the outlier, but if you give one of those spots to the ECAC or NCHC (the two lowest %) they jump to 33.3% and 37.5% respectively. If you need an excuse for why the WCHA would have three, just site the obvious tried and true excuse... Western bias.
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Should read "...past program performance should mean nothing in terms of $$ or whining when picking the field."

I don't disagree with your point or your math, but as a former boss of my once said, "The chimp doesn't tell the gorilla how it's gonna be."
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
Given the limited (or zero) TRUE non-conference play for all schools this year, (Michigan Tech for example has 18 conference games plus 10 additional "non-conference" in-conference games) I think simply giving two invites to all conferences makes the most sense for the NCAA tourney. Let the conferences do what they wish with those bids. My vote would be one for regular season champ, one for post season champ. If both are the same team then the second place regular season team fills the second slot.
AH, Big, ECAC, HE, NCHC, WCHA x 2 = 12 slots

Give one additional tourney slot to conferences with 10+ teams to be awarded as the conference sees fit (regular season runner up, post season runner up, blind draw, whatever)
AH, ECAC, HE, WCHA x 1 = 4 slots

There's your sixteen team field. Sorry ASU and LIU, everyone is making sacrifices this season.

Anything based on media/coaches polls, human committee, etc will be a disaster so just set the rules before the first puck even drops next month so everyone knows the plan going into the season.
Click to expand...

2 Autobids per conference, 3 teams per Regional, 1 seeds get a bye. Determining the 1 seeds is the biggest problem you face, but could be done by conference head-to-head. If a conference doesn't actually play teams from another conference, they can't get a 1 seed. Sorry, but for this season you work what you have.
 
For this year set the conference bid allotment now like above... Come March, all teams assigned a number... They draw for spots 1-16 on the tourney bracket....
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
AH - 3/11 = 27.3% of conference teams in the tourney
Big - 2/7 = 28.6%
ECAC - 3/12 = 25.0%
HE - 3/11 = 27.3%
NCHC - 2/8 = 25.0%
WCHA - 3/10 = 30.0%
Click to expand...

My other argument against this is that it gives the "East" 9 teams and the "West" only 7. I suppose since the NCAA keeps shunting all the regionals to the east that means less travel, but who knows if all the regional sites are still in play anyway?

This may be the year to make it a true West vs East again and keep the regions separated until the Frozen. No unnecessary cross-country travel, just back to mini-regionals on campus sites at the top 2 teams in each region. You can avoid conference matchups in the first round easily with the autobids.
 
John J. MacInnes said:
My other argument against this is that it gives the "East" 9 teams and the "West" only 7.
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There will never be a good solution to that issue because the vast majority of the teams are concentrated in the Northeast. Even if you make the Western edge of NY and PA the dividing line of East vs West (which is nowhere near the center of the country, the West still only has 25 team with 36 in the East. So if someone from an Eastern conference gets pulled into a "West" regional/bubble it's not a huge deal. Best case scenario there is Air Force gets one of the bids. Problem solved.
 
Assuming the Ivies don’t play this year (which seems to be increasingly likely) then you could argue the ECAC probably shouldn’t get two bids.
 
Rumor going around that both Alaska schools have been provided the opportunity to "op out" of the league for this season. And, that there's a chance they both do so. They have until this coming Monday or Tuesday to decide. Would be a horrible way for UAA to conclude their program. Hope they stick it out. Then again, with Covid numbers where they're at, it's looking like things might get delayed a bit longer.
 
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