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http://www.westerncollegehockeyblog.com/...providence

I have no idea how it all works nor do i want to spend time figuring it out, but i agree with the author--northeastern, alaska and providence should have no shot to making the tournament. With a 20 team cap, would we still be in the running this year?

They had a 25 team cap for a couple years until midway through last season. We benefited then from the change to everyone over .500 in RPI because MSU and someone else WMU swept finished in the range between 25th and 30th where the RPI dropped below .500. It moved WMU into the 3 line instead of a 4 seed.

All he's debating is where the thick black line should be drawn.

As to this year, I think we'd benefit slightly from it being cut at 25 again and significantly from it being at 20 due to the strength of the CCHA (only 1 CCHA team is between 20-32, 4 WCHA, 3 Hockey East, 3 ECAC).....which is probably why they changed it back to the current rule.

I could see them shrinking it down more after the conference changes since at least the Big Ten and NCHC will be playing few conference games. Not sure what everyone else is doing yet.

Edit: Hell, if they change the name from "Teams under Consideration" to "Teams over .500 RPI" for that line, it solves his complaint. As long as they're using a (admittedly poorly written) math formula for the tournament, there is no way for Providence to make the tournament as an at-large right now even if they're "Under Consideration." The same is true for WMU, North Dakota and Notre Dame in this snapshot.