Tourney snub exposes flaws in system

By Ed Patino

So tell me if this sounds right.
A team finishes with a 27-1-1 record, the best in the country. It wins it's regular season conference championship outright for the second time in as many years. Then, it outscores its opponents 33-7 over four games to win the conference tournament, again. The team had been ranked in the top 10 nationally throughout most of the season.
And this team is not selected to participate in the NCAA Division III hockey national tournament.
So how can a team with these credentials not make the "big dance?" If you find an answer, please tell the Adrian College men's hockey team. They'd sure like to know.
Now I know what you're thinking. Ed, you're a jersey-wearing, flag-waving Adrian College alum, so how can you be objective here? Yes, I'm an Adrian guy through and through, but even the Bulldogs' detractors have to acknowledge something isn't quite right about a 27-1-1 team staying home.
Especially when you look at some of the records of those who qualified for the tournament. The No. 1 seed, Plattsburgh State, has 24 wins. Five teams have fewer than 20 wins (Gustavus Adolphus, Elmira, Neumann, Hobart and Babson), and two of them have 10 or more losses.
The selection process for Division III college hockey is a tricky thing. There are only 11 spots in the tournament, six of which go to conference champions and five are at-large bids.
Ah, the first issue ... at-large bids. Adrian's league, the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association, does not have an automatic qualifier to the tournament. But why? There are eight teams in the league. They play a regular season and conference tournament like the others. In Adrian's case, it won both titles this season, and last season when it finished 26-3 and was shut out of a bid.
Adrian's football conference, the MIAA, didn't have an automatic qualifier back in the day, but that's because they only had six teams. It now has seven teams, and the champion gets an automatic NCAA berth.
On a side note, the MCHA is currently working on a way to get the "AQ" for next year, though 2010-11 sounds more likely.
So we've established that the MCHA champion must earn an at-large berth. Here's another question: What more does Adrian have to do? Did I mention they won 27 of 29 games? In the program's two-year existence, the Bulldogs are 53-4-1. They've led the nation in offense, defense, goals-against average, and boast three of the nation's top scorers.
Another sticking point is strength of schedule. Okay, Adrian does play in a league where only two or three other teams finish with winning records. Its strength of schedule, which according to most NCAA pundits, ranks near the bottom of the country. That, they say, is why Adrian is beating up its competition so convincingly.
Here's where I have to defend my alma mater. This year, Adrian coach Ron Fogarty made some offers to "upper-caliber" teams from the East Coast. Only Neumann accepted. Is there a fear that Adrian will beat these "powerhouses" and disrupt the establishment? It makes you wonder. And if schedule strength is weighted in, how strong is Babson's conference if they can win it with a 13-13-1 record? Yes, a .500 team is in, while a .931 team is out.
That would be like telling the Manchester wrestling team that it went through a weaker region, so the Dutchmen (33-4) would stay home while six or seven teams from another district got to compete in the team state tournament.
Under this rule, stories like Boise State and Utah in college football, and Davidson in basketball last year would never exist
For the record, Adrian has done nothing illegal. There are no probations, sanctions or recruiting violations against the Bulldogs. In two years, all they've done is win. And all they've done is watched the national tournament from the sidelines.
So go ahead, NCAA, have your little tournament. And since we're in the mood to put asterisks next to everything, put one next to this year's "national champion." They didn't compete in a tournament with the nation's best team in it.