June 26, 2009
Committee Addresses Some Issues at Annual Meetings
CHN Staff Report
College Hockey America has been recommended for an automatic bid in its last season of play, by the Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee at its recent meetings.
The recommendation still needs final approval by a wider NCAA committee.
The CHA will disband after this season. It has been playing with just four teams, below the NCAAs usual minimum of six necessary to receive an automatic bid. In prior years, the CHA took advantage of an obscure NCAA rule to get the autobid with five teams, but last year it slipped to just four, meaning it needed an official waiver/exemption.
Given that this is the final year of the CHA, granting that waiver for one more year seemed practical, especially in light of Bemidji State's Frozen Four run this past season.
The ice hockey committee also has recommended the addition of a video-exchange policy with specific requirements of which game must be distributed to an opponent and the quality of the recording.
And it clarified a point of the NCAA tournament selection criteria, confirming in writing what was understood in practice last season. The "Record vs. Team Under Consideration" criteria is actually, in practice, now a "Record vs. Top 25 of RPI" criteria. Teams in the Top 25 of RPI have been, by definition, a TUC — it was one and the same. But a new rule, started last year, booted teams out of consideration if its overall win percentage was under .500, even if it was in the top 25 of RPI. Thus necessitating a clarification that, regardless, for purposes of Record vs. TUC, games against that sub-.500 team still count — they are not discarded, or replaced with the next team.
Finally, the committee formally recommended Holy Cross associate athletic director Bill Bellerose to be the new chair, replacing Steve Cady.
