Regionals and NCAA Selection

[www1.ncaa.org]

Regionals for 2002-03 will be in Worcester, Providence, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis.

TUC will be re-defined to RPI >= 0.500 from win% >= 0.500.

RPI will be 25-50-25 instead of 35-50-15.

L16 will be eliminated as a selection criterion.

Sorry if some of this is repeat information, I'm just summarizing the linked article. The elimination of L16 caught me by surprise; had there been any speculation about that before?

I suspect dropping the L16 is an attempt to lessen the effect of a Mercyhurst playing (and perhaps winning) its last 16 games against weak MAAC opponents. Should a 16-0 Mercyhurst record against MAAC teams give them an advantage over a Hockey East or CCHA school that finishes out something like 14-2?

Right, last 16 was the one selection criterion which was completely ignorant of strength of schedule, so rather than try to adjust it for SOS, they just dropped it (in the process also making RPI more important).

So, the upshot is schedule strength is now far more important than before.

The followig teams qualified as TUC this year but would not have with this criteria:

+ Harvard
+ Dartmouth
+ Sacred Heart
+ Holy Cross

See a pattern?

Wouldn't Harvard still have been a TUC because they won the ECAC championship?

John T. Whelan '91 wrote:

Right, last 16 was the one selection criterion which was completely ignorant of strength of schedule, so rather than try to adjust it for SOS, they just dropped it (in the process also making RPI more important).

Seems like if you want to interpret it this way, its intent is to prevent teams from the ECAC, MAAC, and CHA from getting at-large bids. Out of curiosity, if anyone can calculate this without too much trouble, would we have gotten one last year without L16 as a criterion?

I was planning to do a re-calculation of last year's PWCs with the new selection criteria, but it won't be for at least a week, since I have to do little things like move all my stuff to New Orleans in the meantime.

ursaminor wrote:

Wouldn't Harvard would still have been a TUC because they won the ECAC championship?

Yes, assuming they haven't changed that rule.

I even thought about amending that after I reread it but figured (1) wasn't sure and (2) ah, save the keystrokes...