{"id":24316,"date":"2001-12-11T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2001-12-11T17:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2001\/12\/11\/diii-tournament-expanded-to-9-teams\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:54:21","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:54:21","slug":"diii-tournament-expanded-to-9-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2001\/12\/11\/diii-tournament-expanded-to-9-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"D-III Tournament Expanded to 9 Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"
The NCAA announced today that the Division III men’s hockey tournament will expand to from eight to nine teams beginning this season.<\/p>\n
Dan Harris, athletic director at Milwaukee School of Engineering and chairman of the Division III Men’s Hockey Committee, confirmed that a second Pool “C”, or at-large bid, will be granted beginning with the current 2001-2002 season.<\/p>\n
“It’s been in the works for some time,” said Harris. “The NCAA is looking to expand the size of Pool ‘C’, and hockey was a natural since the ratio of bids to teams is 7.5 to 1 and we are very close to that.”<\/p>\n
There are currently 67 Division III men’s programs, so nine NCAA berths would be a ratio of 7.4 to 1.<\/p>\n
The six Automatic Qualifiers remain (ECAC East, ECAC Northeast, MIAC, NESCAC, NCHA, SUNYAC), plus the single Pool “B” berth available to teams from the ECAC West and MCHA.<\/p>\n
Pool “C” bids are available to teams from the conferences given automatic qualifiers as a second chance or at-large berth. Going to nine teams increases the size of Pool “C” from one to two teams.<\/p>\n
Harris originally said the play-in game between the two lowest Eastern seeds would be on Wednesday, March 6, 2002. On Thursday, he said the committee is considering holding the game on Tuesday, March 5.<\/p>\n
As many as four or as little as two western teams will be extended bids based on a nine-team field. <\/p>\n
In the scenario where there are three western teams, the winner of the play-in game would most likely be shipped west to face the number one western seed. Otherwise, it will be paired against the highest eastern seed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NCAA announced today that the Division III men’s hockey tournament will expand to from eight to nine teams beginning this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n