Conference Tournaments / NCAA Bubble

[Trotsky]

Hypocrisy? It's sports fandom.

I definitely enjoy the hate directed at the Yankees by the locals in Boston; I just have a hard time reciprocating. I guess I'm a bad fan.

Nah. Fandom just means you have a right to irrationally hate a bunch of guys (or uniforms) that really have no impact on your life. It doesn't mean you have to.

Speaking of which, the NCAA selection show featured the Quinnipiac team standing around looking very clean cut.

[scoop85]

Hypocrisy? It's sports fandom.

I definitely enjoy the hate directed at the Yankees by the locals in Boston; I just have a hard time reciprocating. I guess I'm a bad fan.

Nah. Fandom just means you have a right to irrationally hate a bunch of guys (or uniforms) that really have no impact on your life. It doesn't mean you have to.

Speaking of which, the NCAA selection show featured the Quinnipiac team standing around looking very clean cut.

You were expecting the Hell's Angels look perhaps? :-P

[Trotsky]

Hypocrisy? It's sports fandom.

I definitely enjoy the hate directed at the Yankees by the locals in Boston; I just have a hard time reciprocating. I guess I'm a bad fan.

Nah. Fandom just means you have a right to irrationally hate a bunch of guys (or uniforms) that really have no impact on your life. It doesn't mean you have to.

Speaking of which, the NCAA selection show featured the Quinnipiac team standing around looking very clean cut.

You were expecting the Hell's Angels look perhaps? :-P

Well, Rand Pecknold does have a sort of serial killer vibe about him.

[RichH]

Hypocrisy? It's sports fandom.

I definitely enjoy the hate directed at the Yankees by the locals in Boston; I just have a hard time reciprocating. I guess I'm a bad fan.

Nah. Fandom just means you have a right to irrationally hate a bunch of guys (or uniforms) that really have no impact on your life. It doesn't mean you have to.

Speaking of which, the NCAA selection show featured the Quinnipiac team standing around looking very clean cut.

A friend who was working in the Bristol campus tonight texted me that she passed by the QU hockey team in the hall as they were getting a tour (I'm sure for the selection show visit). "sweet & very well behaved," she said.

[jtwcornell91]

One potential bid stealer is eliminated. Norte Dame (who is in position for a possible at large bid) has beaten Ohio State.

On a positive note, ND wore "normal colored" uniforms: white jerseys, blue pants, gold trim. Not neon green eyesores.

But Ohio State wore helmets painted like their football helmets. ::yark::

Very sad to note that all of the teams that made the final CCHA tournament were complicit in its demise (two Big Ten, one NCHC and one Hockey "East").

[Trotsky]

One potential bid stealer is eliminated. Norte Dame (who is in position for a possible at large bid) has beaten Ohio State.

On a positive note, ND wore "normal colored" uniforms: white jerseys, blue pants, gold trim. Not neon green eyesores.

But Ohio State wore helmets painted like their football helmets. ::yark::

Very sad to note that all of the teams that made the final CCHA tournament were complicit in its demise (two Big Ten, one NCHC and one Hockey "East").

The CCHA still exists, it's just called the WCHA.  

I for one really enjoy that the MacNaughton Cup and Broadmoor Trophy will now be contested and won by schools like Lake Superior, Bowling Green, and Alabama-Huntsville.

[Jim Hyla]

From the USCHO post-tourney article:

Perhaps it was only fitting: The Bulldogs didn't show up on the ice, so why should we have expected them to appear for a press conference?

Yale ditched the obligatory post-game presser following the consolation-game loss, with nary a word of explanation. Per colleague Nate Owen, who was live at the scene:

"[The media] waited for a few minutes... someone went back to find [Yale], said they were showering and would be out. Then they came back and said they had already gotten on the bus and left."

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/ecac-blog/2013/03/25/now-the-fun-begins/#ixzz2OZbnOyAI

And from the Hockey East article:

While I believe the Eagles will be playing in the most forgiving of the four regional sites, that luck of the draw won't be enough if they give up breakaways by the bushel the way they did against BU.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/hockey-east-blog/2013/03/25/jack-parker-bcs-demise-and-prime-time-lowell/#ixzz2OZeIwbdS

and:

(As an aside to the North Dakota fans who are upset that their team won't be in the East Regional, you didn't get placed in the easiest regional, but you didn't get put in the toughest one either (that being the Northeast).  And as an eighth seed, you deserve, in theory, the toughest second-round matchup, not the easiest.

(So you're really getting what you deserve even though the selection committee's reason for not giving you Quinnipiac — surely the weakest overall number one seed in memory — was attendance, not justice.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/hockey-east-blog/2013/03/25/jack-parker-bcs-demise-and-prime-time-lowell/#ixzz2OZefPQOC

[Jim Hyla]

The new WCHA is getting off to a great start. As written on USCHO they announced their new format for their Final Five Tournament.

The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings will play in a best-of-three first-round series at the home site of the top four finishers, followed by the four first-round winners advancing to the WCHA Final Five the following weekend, which would consist of two semifinal games on the first day of the event followed by the Broadmoor Trophy title contest on day two.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/2013/03/24/wcha-announces-future-playoff-sites-new-playoff-format/#ixzz2Ob4U322V

Or is it The Final Four, or just bad writing?::screwy::

[Chris '03]

The new WCHA is getting off to a great start. As written on USCHO they announced their new format for their Final Five Tournament.

The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings will play in a best-of-three first-round series at the home site of the top four finishers, followed by the four first-round winners advancing to the WCHA Final Five the following weekend, which would consist of two semifinal games on the first day of the event followed by the Broadmoor Trophy title contest on day two.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/2013/03/24/wcha-announces-future-playoff-sites-new-playoff-format/#ixzz2Ob4U322V

Or is it The Final Four, or just bad writing?::screwy::

The Final Five (tm) seems like something the Big Ten should hold onto since making sense has never much mattered to them.

[Swampy]

The new WCHA is getting off to a great start. As written on USCHO they announced their new format for their Final Five Tournament.

The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings will play in a best-of-three first-round series at the home site of the top four finishers, followed by the four first-round winners advancing to the WCHA Final Five the following weekend, which would consist of two semifinal games on the first day of the event followed by the Broadmoor Trophy title contest on day two.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/2013/03/24/wcha-announces-future-playoff-sites-new-playoff-format/#ixzz2Ob4U322V

Or is it The Final Four, or just bad writing?::screwy::

Or poor math?

[Jim Hyla]

More on Allain not showing up for the post-game news conference from Ken Schott.

Allain embarrass ECACH

It was not a great championship round for Yale. The Bulldogs were shut out by Union and Quinnipiac.

After Saturday's loss to Quinnipiac, the media waited for Yale coach Keith Allain to come to the dais for the postgame press conference. They waited, and waited, and waited.

Allain decided not to show up. Nor did any of his players.

This is unacceptable. The league needs to come down hard on Allain and Yale. Now, Allain isn't a media-savvy coach. His answers and short and bland.

However, he is not above the league where he can blow off the media. And it's not the first time. He was a no-show for last Tuesday's conference call for the championship round.

Allain embarrassed the ECACH, and he embarrassed Yale. It was a classless act. There is no excuse for his actions. He should be severely reprimanded.

And on AC.

The Dutchmen may be the only ones that will miss Atlantic City. I can speak for the rest of the ECACH nation and say, "Good riddance!"

The three-year stay in Atlantic City was a disaster for the league. Start with the attendance, or lack there of. The announced attendance for Friday's semifinals was 3,145, and 4,017 for Saturday's games. Were those numbers that were provided by Boardwalk Hall from the New Jersey Lottery Pick-4? Or were those numbers for the seats NOT filled? Or were those numbers the three-year total attendance?

[Trotsky]

This is unacceptable. The league needs to come down hard on Allain and Yale.

Hell hath no fury like the media scorned.

I think the beat writers of the ECAC might have just a bit of a case of inflated self-importance.  ::wank::

[Rosey]

This is unacceptable. The league needs to come down hard on Allain and Yale.

Hell hath no fury like the media scorned.

I think the beat writers of the ECAC might have just a bit of a case of inflated self-importance.  ::wank::

Is it really inflated? The press might have outnumbered the fans in Atlantic City this year.

[Trotsky]

This is unacceptable. The league needs to come down hard on Allain and Yale.

Hell hath no fury like the media scorned.

I think the beat writers of the ECAC might have just a bit of a case of inflated self-importance.  ::wank::

Is it really inflated? The press might have outnumbered the fans in Atlantic City this year.

Is that our measuring stick for importance?  

When media types feel snubbed (as they appear to more often than operatic divas) they have the luxury of reporting about themselves to themselves using themselves.  That's not news; it's a circle jerk.

[Rosey]

This is unacceptable. The league needs to come down hard on Allain and Yale.

Hell hath no fury like the media scorned.

I think the beat writers of the ECAC might have just a bit of a case of inflated self-importance.  ::wank::

Is it really inflated? The press might have outnumbered the fans in Atlantic City this year.

Is that our measuring stick for importance?  

When media types feel snubbed (as they appear to more often than operatic divas) they have the luxury of reporting about themselves to themselves using themselves.  That's not news; it's a circle jerk.

I don't disagree with you; I was mostly making a flippant comment about the lack of interest in ECAC hockey.

That said, if there's a league policy about attending post-game press conferences and Allain violated it, he should be sanctioned. The alternative is an even bigger media black hole for the ECAC, which struggles as it is to get coverage for a league that very few people give a crap about. (24 years and counting. Is this the year? I'll go out on a limb and say, "Probably not".)

The media circle-jerk isn't the issue here: rather, the issue is that college hockey media could completely ignore the ECAC and almost no one would care. The ECAC is like the sub-Saharan Africa of college hockey: virtually no one covers it, and everyone—including most of the alumni and students of the ECAC schools themselves—mostly seems okay with that.