@ Bemidji (2/22-2/23)

[TommyG]

I'm sure several of these items have been previously brought up.
Out of Conference schedule is fine.
League is fine, just don't loss or tie to the bottom teams that are awful.

Let's look at 4 games and see how drastically looses and tie against awful teams kill your pairwise.

Current Pairwise - .5418 good for 16th.

Robert Morris (56th Pairwise) lost 10/12. Change that a W
Alaska Anchorage (60th Pairwise) Tied 11/9. Change to a W
Ferris State (57th Pairwise) Tied 12/7. Change to a W
Ferris State (57th Pairwise) Lost 1/25. Change to a W

Changes Pairwise to .5676 good for 6th and at this point a guaranteed At-large. Beat the good teams and don't loss to the awful teams, Those four games against AWFUL teams are holding this team back from potentially being a national #2 seed.

Maybe the NCAA should give us an exemption and let us in anyway. Just submit your post. “We really should be a 2 seed”

[mbenecke]

Maybe the NCAA should give us an exemption and let us in anyway. Just submit your post. “We really should be a 2 seed”

I understand that you're being sarcastic here, but this is a serious gripe about the current state of the program. We're 4 games that this team 100% should have won from being securely in and fighting for a #1 seed. That's as close and frustrating as it gets.

[TommyG]

At large teams don’t lose/tie 4 games against the bottom of college hockey. Our SOS is 44th and going down. It’s all an illusion...we are ranked and just on the outside, but if you want to get in, you either have to be close to perfect or stop scheduling Atlantic hockey teams.

[pdt1081]

At large teams don’t lose/tie 4 games against the bottom of college hockey. Our SOS is 44th and going down. It’s all an illusion...we are ranked and just on the outside, but if you want to get in, you either have to be close to perfect or stop scheduling Atlantic hockey teams.

Or your other conference members need to win more than 10 non-conference games combined.

[TommyG]

At large teams don’t lose/tie 4 games against the bottom of college hockey. Our SOS is 44th and going down. It’s all an illusion...we are ranked and just on the outside, but if you want to get in, you either have to be close to perfect or stop scheduling Atlantic hockey teams.

Or your other conference members need to win more than 10 non-conference games combined.

Agreed...but that just shows the quality of our conference schedule. We win games but we don’t collect many quality wins. This year is probably the most good wins we’ve had, but it’s still not enough when most of your wins are against below avg to bad teams.

[mbenecke]

At large teams don’t lose/tie 4 games against the bottom of college hockey. Our SOS is 44th and going down. It’s all an illusion...we are ranked and just on the outside, but if you want to get in, you either have to be close to perfect or stop scheduling Atlantic hockey teams.

Or your other conference members need to win more than 10 non-conference games combined.

Agreed...but that just shows the quality of our conference schedule. We win games but we don’t collect many quality wins. This year is probably the most good wins we’ve had, but it’s still not enough when most of your wins are against below avg to bad teams.

Part of this is why I'm hearing that the wheels of conference re-alignment may be turning again very soon...

[TommyG]

At large teams don’t lose/tie 4 games against the bottom of college hockey. Our SOS is 44th and going down. It’s all an illusion...we are ranked and just on the outside, but if you want to get in, you either have to be close to perfect or stop scheduling Atlantic hockey teams.

Or your other conference members need to win more than 10 non-conference games combined.

Agreed...but that just shows the quality of our conference schedule. We win games but we don’t collect many quality wins. This year is probably the most good wins we’ve had, but it’s still not enough when most of your wins are against below avg to bad teams.

Part of this is why I'm hearing that the wheels of conference re-alignment may be turning again very soon...

Conference realignment wouldn’t help with our strength of schedule. Your likely replacing bad teams (Alaska’s) with bad teams (Robert Morris, Niagara, Canisius) . You’d lose Minnesota State and Bemidji and gain Miami and Western.
I don’t think major realignment will happen anyway. WCHA May need to add a couple Atlantic teams, I think eventually the NCHC will add ASU and poach Minnesota State. Miami and Western aren’t leaving unless their budget becomes a major issue. No one from NCHC wants to get stuck in the WCHA/relaunched CCHA because they know it’s a major step down for recruiting and at large aspirations.

[pdt1081]

Conference realignment wouldn’t help with our strength of schedule. Your likely replacing bad teams (Alaska’s) with bad teams (Robert Morris, Niagara, Canisius) . You’d lose Minnesota State and Bemidji and gain Miami and Western.
I don’t think major realignment will happen anyway. WCHA May need to add a couple Atlantic teams, I think eventually the NCHC will add ASU and poach Minnesota State. Miami and Western aren’t leaving unless their budget becomes a major issue. No one from NCHC wants to get stuck in the WCHA/relaunched CCHA because they know it’s a major step down for recruiting and at large aspirations.

Robert Morris, Canisius, and Niagra are being held back by being members of Atlantic Hockey. They just started allowing full allotment of scholarships within the last 5 years (don't think it was even that long).

Realignment is coming. The current distribution of teams in the "West" is unsustainable. The Big Ten is waiting on Illinois to make a decision. That's going to be the key domino that starts everything. Illinois says no, ASU goes to the Big Ten for hockey.