Defending the Kingdom

by user 70.162.35.208

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how UNC should get an automatic bid to the big dance for being the reigning champion. They made it in anyway, without a “Reigning Champ Automatic Bid.” Today, the Frozen Four bracket was announced. For those who don’t know, “Frozen Four” is the clever name for the NCAA Hockey championship. One team missing from the bracket: University of Denver, the 2-time defending champions.

At least in the NCAA Basketball, even after the 35+ automatic bids, there are still 31 at large bids left, enough to include every deserving team. If UNC had been #66 this year, the committee would have bumped off one of the other at-large bids to include UNC. Not so in hockey. There is only a 16-team playoff, with 6 automatic bids. That means 10 teams are still at-large, which might seem like a lot, except that the automatic bids come largely from bad conferences. The WCHA and Hockey East are the only big name conferences in hockey, and they only have two automatic bids. Usually, the 10 at-large bids come from these two conferences, which generally have 90% of the top 25 teams in the country. Those extra four automatic bids, given to Bemidji State, Harvard, Holy Cross, and Michigan State (The only automatic bid that is justified), take up four teams that should make the tournament, such as Denver.

Denver is one of the biggest hockey towns in the country, from the Avalanche, to the Pioneers, down to the Littleton Hawks, one of the best club hockey organizations in the country. To keep Denver out of the tournament is ridiculous. Denver finished ranked #11 in the country, ahead of 6 teams that made the tournament. They also finished 2nd in the WCHA, arguably College Hockey’s best conference, ahead of 3 other WCHA teams who made the tournament.

It’s ridiculous to think that a team of this caliber does not even have a chance to play for the championship. Especially when they are defending it. There should be a new rule in all college sports, no matter what happens, no matter where the defending champion finishes in the regular season, they should have a chance to defend their crown. The 35+ automatic bids in basketball, the 6 automatic bids in hockey, and all other automatic bids in any other sport, should all have one more automatic bid added to them, the "Defending the Kingdom" automatic bid. While there will be controversy, as some teams may not be up to caliber as they previously were, examples like this, where a two-time defending champion, ranked #11 in the country, is left out of the hunt, should provide enough support for the "Defending the Kingdom" bid.

Date

Thu 03/23/06, 12:51 am EST <pageTools></pageTools>

DNLLegend

1348 days ago

Score 0

Not a hockey fan, but this is well reasoned from top to bottom.

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MetsJetsDevilsDraft Pick

1348 days ago

Score 1

If Denver has a gripe so too does Colgate and Dartmouth. They tied atop the ECAC closely followed by Cornell and Harvard. While Dartmouth probably lost any chance of getting into the tourney because of the 10-1 shelacking at the hands of Harvard in the playoffs, it is tough to understand how the two teams who were the best in the regular season could both not make the tournament. It would be like the top 2 teams in the in the Big east not making it into the NCAA tourney because they lost in their conference final four.

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Jpnance

1348 days ago

Score 0

While your proposal for a "Defending the Kingdom" bid may happen to make sense in this case, it's an extremely flawed general solution. What if this year's UNC basketball team (which lost 7 players, mind you) had gone 0-30 and didn't win their conference tournament? They still deserve to be in the Big Dance? Would you even try to tell me that this year's UNC team was the one which won last year? I seem to remember Raymond Felton, Sean May, Sean McCants, et al. being on that team.

Did USC deserve an automatic spot in this year's Rose Bowl? Do my Texas Longhorns deserve an automatic spot in next year's Fiesta Bowl? If not, why is football different?

It's unfortunate that a team ranked #11 will not be included in its sport's championship playoff, but they did not have a sufficiently impressive season within the rules which govern their playoff. They neither won their conference tournament nor were considered one of the ten best teams not to win a conference tournament. You could certainly argue their worth of being in the tournament, but the fact remains that, in college hockey, #11 is a bubble team. Sometimes they'll get in, sometimes they won't, but just because they won last year doesn't mean they deserve it any more than any other team.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

1348 days ago

Score 0

Since you know NOTHING about college hockey you should probably just shut your gob and talk bouncy ball.

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Madproof9Red-Shirting

1347 days ago

Score 0

Haha, "ananoymous fanatic," if you're going to talk shit, back it up, and don't be an anonymous little bitch. This point is a little flawed, it's true it can't apply to every sport, but it's still a good idea. And this guy does know about college hockey. Everything he says is correct, all the statitics are correct. All the divisions blow except for the WCHA and Hockey East. DU should be in the tournement. Why are you saying he knows nothing about college hockey?

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Anonymous Fanatic #2

1347 days ago

Score 0

"All the divisions blow except for the WCHA and Hockey East" Funny, in 4 years of having season tickets in Ithaca, I never saw anyone from one of these conferences pick up a win vs. Cornell (in ithaca, lets not talk about unh). I specifically remember a very thorough trouncing of BU in back to back games a few years ago...the chants still linger in my memory..."hockey least! hockey least!"

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Madproof9Red-Shirting

1338 days ago

Score 0

So Cornell squeezes out a win every once in a while, big deal. The Atlanta Hawks have 22 wins on the season, that doesn't mean they don't suck horribly. A team from the WCHA has won the championship the last four years, and five out of the last seven. The other two of those seven... Hockey East! The only other conference that I said sucked that you can argue against is the CCHA, even though besides having Miami, the conference isn't that great anymore. They used to be, but it's gone downhill. They have Michigan, who has won the most championships out of any team, but hasn't won in almost 10 years, and Lake Superior used to be good, winning 2 titles in the early 90's, but not anymore. Those are the only two teams in that conference that were powerhouses in recent memory. Those three conferences though combine for the last 18 championships, and for 53 out of the 58 championships ever won in NCAA hockey. So I don't get where you are saying that the other conferences don't suck, because obviously they do. As for Cornell, the last time they won was 1970. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1970. Look where they are now. Winning a couple games here and there doens't mean your any good.

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