Pairwise committee had tough go

Fri, May 16 2008

— Minnesota State hockey fans were practically foaming at the mouth when their favorite team was left out of the NCAA tournament when the field was unveiled a few weeks ago.
Their biggest complaint — and the beef of many other college-hockey observers, too — was that the Wisconsin Badgers and their losing record moved high enough into the Pairwise Rankings to keep the Mavericks in Mankato and put a rather abrupt end to their best season in five years.
It was a scam and a sham, people insisted, a big-school conspiracy and some special home-team treatment.
Although the tournament committee probably could have used a little more discretion than it did, it simply went straight by the Pairwise numbers, just as it had been instructed to do, according to committee chairman and University of Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi and just as many longtime observers predicted it would do.
Besides, Maturi insisted, the committee members didn’t feel it was the right time nor the right place to start tweaking the system that the sport’s coaches agreed they should use.
If that was the case, then it wasn’t just Wisconsin that bumped off Minnesota State. Ultimately, it was Notre Dame that was the last at-large team to make the final field of 16, edging out the Mavericks by a few percentage points when the numbers were broken down as far as they could go.
By the time the tournament ended Saturday, the committee was able to save some face.
Wisconsin, playing on its home ice at the Kohl Center in Madison, won its first-round game against Denver before losing in overtime to top-seeded North Dakota in the Midwest Regional final.
Then there was Notre Dame.
The Irish took their ticket to the tournament and rode almost as far as they could go, upsetting the West Region’s top seed, New Hampshire, and defending national champion Michigan State before defeating No. 1-ranked Michigan in overtime of the Frozen Four semifinals Thursday night in Denver.
On Saturday, Notre Dame’s bubble finally burst when Boston College won the title game 4-1.
As amazing as Notre Dame’s run was, what might have been more stunning is the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s failure to get a team in the finals for the second year in a row after a run of seven straight appearances and five consecutive championships.
Even with the Mavericks on the outside looking in, there were a record six WCHA teams in the tournament.
Four of them — Colorado College, Denver, St. Cloud State and Minnesota — lost in the first round. North Dakota advanced to the Frozen Four but got crushed 6-1 by Boston College Thursday evening.
The conference’s poor showing has prompted other fans and observers to again question the committee’s credibility, this time wondering how it could have put so many WCHA teams in the tournament.
But who would take their place in the bracket?
After all, the next best team out there was Minnesota State.

Shane Frederick is a Free Press staff writer. Access his college hockey blog through mankatofreepresshockey.blogspot.com/

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