Cornell presence at Thursday's game

[melissa]

good reason. RPI's band is decent, unlike the horrible Dartmouth one. There's also the fact that I like some of the RPI fans....

Realistically, if Cornell can't win at LP I hope that Clarkson or RPI do. I don't intend on being vocal about cheering RPI on during the game, but I'd be lying if I said tha I didn't want to see Dartmouth leaving before the friday games.

[Josh '99]

So then by your definition, Keith, is it OK to root for Clarkson ( ::yark:: ) against Harvard because playing Clarkson in the final is better for our NCAA selection criteria?

[jtwcornell91]

Actually, I have a complicated set of allegiances that kick in when Cornell doesn't have a direct interest in a game, and just about all of them tell me I'd like to see RPI beat Dartmouth (and Clarkson beat Harvard).  Just look at the 2000 title game, where Cornell fans pulled for RPI and Colgate fans for SLU, for purely emotional reasons.

[Keith K]

Sure, it's then OK to pull for Clarkson.  But then again, maybe you think it would be easier to beat Harvard the way they've played down the stretch and certainly increasing Cornell's chances of winning the Final is more important than increasing our RPI/TUC.

Basically, I'm not really rooting for anything except Cornell wins in the ECAC tournament and am rooting for things that help us in the other tournaments (e.g. Lowell, NMU and UAF losing).

[rhovorka]

...and that's really the Catch-22 here.  Say Team A is awaiting the winner of a game between Team B and Team C.  Team C is very evenly matched with Team A...very close in the standings to one another, both bubble teams for an NCAA at-large bid,  but Team C beat team A twice during the regular season with 2 OT wins.  Team B is just plain horrible and Team A and everyone in the league has had their way with them all season.  Nationally ranked #1 Team D is lurking in the other bracket and is 27-2-0 on the season...it's just assumed they will easily win the tournament final.

You are a fan of Team A.  Who do you pull for in the Team B-Team C game?  A win against Team C would pretty much lock up an at-large bid.  But you have just as much of a chance of Team C ending your season.  Should Team B put together a Belarus-like upset of Team C, Team A has a decent chance of an easy ride into the Finals to face Team D.  But a win vs. Team B actually hurts your chances of an at-large bid due to wacky things happening in other conferences, and your only hope would be to upset Team D for the auto-bid.

Let's make our current, real-life situation more clear-cut.  Say it's next year, and all 12 ECAC teams are in.  Instead of Dartmouth, say that RPI is playing UVM for the right to play Cornell (UVM was #11 and had a 9-point season...Cornell already advanced to the final FOUR, and the RPI-UVM series went to a 3rd game).  Who do you pull for?

[KeithK]

Easy. Cornell. :-)