{"id":24666,"date":"2002-06-12T13:49:25","date_gmt":"2002-06-12T18:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2002\/06\/12\/recap-ice-hockey-committee-meetings\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:54:27","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:54:27","slug":"recap-ice-hockey-committee-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2002\/06\/12\/recap-ice-hockey-committee-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap: Ice Hockey Committee Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tweaks to the NCAA tournament selection criteria and the selection of additional tournament regional sites were foremost on the agenda at the NCAA men’s ice hockey committee meetings, which concluded last week in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
In addition, College Hockey America<\/a> was officially granted the sixth automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n Given that, and the MAAC’s acceptance two years ago, almost all of the potential changes to the selection criteria<\/a> focused on how to make them more equitable given the wider differences in the overall strengths of the six Division I conferences.<\/p>\n “We looked very closely at the selection criteria,” said Ian McCaw, athletic director at Northeastern and incoming committee chair.<\/p>\n There were four areas of focus:<\/p>\n “We don’t have a final product,” said McCaw. “We did spend a lot of time discussing it.”<\/p>\n McCaw said there would a conference call next week to further discuss the issues.<\/p>\n The NCAA’s Executive Committee is expected to rubber stamp the expansion of the NCAA men’s hockey tournament to 16 teams when it convenes in August.<\/p>\n To prepare for that, the ice hockey committee chose two additional regional sites, one in the West and one in the East, for each of the next two years.<\/p>\n “We made tentative decisions, pending approval [of expansion],” McCaw said. “Obviously, we feel very good about it, but that’s the final hurdle.”<\/p>\n McCaw said the sites of the extra regionals will not be disclosed until given approval by the NCAA Championships and Competition Cabinet, which meets June 25-27.<\/p>\n “In the past, word has leaked out before the cabinet has approved [the cities], which puts them in a difficult position,” McCaw said.<\/p>\n Six Eastern sites — Providence, R.I.; Manchester, N.H.; Lake Placid, N.Y.; Rochester, N.Y.; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Lowell, Mass. — were known to have applied, along with six Western sites — Green Bay, Wis.; Madison, Wis.; Minneapolis; St. Cloud, Minn.; Grand Forks, N.D.; and Grand Rapids, Mich. <\/p>\nRegionals<\/h4>\n
Regionalization<\/h4>\n