A “real” conference? Come on. Chris “Dilks.” How about a real last name? Your blog continues to show its short-sightedness. You consistently whine, whine, whine, yet try and keep some of your high school glory going by going to Minnesota high school games and ragging on the CHL.

Last I checked, the CHA was an NCAA-sanctioned conference. It is not one of the “other” conferences, but rather one of six in NCAA D-I. I understand you are totally entitled to your opinions, but maybe stick to what you know best – staying up late watching scrambled porn on your mom’s TV in the basement.

Nothing against the CHA but to get an auto bid to the NCAA hockey playoffs, teams should have to win a certain number of games in their conference tournament to qualify to get into their tourney final. With only four teams (three of which have losing records) , the CHA should have had three game playoffs in their semis (since each team is automatically in the semi-finals). At least that way you make it harder to have exactly what happened - two teams with season-losing records getting to their conference final each with one tourney win. As it is, a losing record CHA team was ‘automatically’ going to get into their finals and now they have two.

The braintrust for the NCAA qualifying requirements should go back to the drawing board - they have created this inequity and should publicly apologize to the higher ranked ‘Bubble Teams’ that worked their tails off to earn a tourney invitation only to be bumped by such an inequitable process. The saying, ‘The game is not on level playing field’, certainly rings true for NCAA college hockey.

Hey - everyone likes to see an underdog get a chance but there should be equity and balance in the hurdles required to “EARN” your invitation.

Is there any other college sport that provides an opportunity for a losing team to get into a post-season tournament with only two wins in a league playoff??

Congratulations and best wishes to Niagara or A-H.

As a “funny” twist, after Michigan’s sweep of Michigan State tonight, the Wolverines are tied for 16th in the PWR. With 2 wins at the Joe they get the auto-bid of course, but a win and a tie and a little luck put U-M into 15th. But because of UAH’s (Congratulations to the Chargers!) auto-bid, it would take an enormous amount of luck after a split at the Joe to get Michigan an at-large bid, by enough teams slipping to put Michigan into (at least) 14th.

Who’d a thunk that the CHA getting two into the NCAA tournament (one that is 12-17-3 overall) for the ¿first? time, it could be one of the things (along with poor/inconsistent play by the Wolverines for most of the season) that end U-M’s tournament streak at 19.

look at what we do for college hockey, they’re lucky to have us. those bums in those inferior leagues shouldn’t get to touch our zambonis. look at what a lousy contribution those crummy teams made last year. we sent four great ccha teams to the tournament, and look how great we did. we had the vaunted michigan program, and they, oops, wait, that’s right, that weak league aha contestant called air force shut us out 2-0. well, ok, that one doesn’t matter, look at red hot and highly heralded notre dame! they, oops, that’s right that weak league cha contestant called bemidji state beat us to death 5-1. shoot. well, ok, let’s look at a team we put up against a team from a really good conference. we sent the pomp and circumstance of ohio state to play bu, and, ok, we all know that bu shredded us on that one. thank heavens for miami of ohio last year. because after the ccha stunk it up with three first round losses, the wcha did the exact same thing — three first round losses. wow, what majesty. meanwhile, both the aha and cha won their first round games, and the weak cha contestant called bemidji state made it to the frozen four. heck with them look how many wcha teams were in the frozen, oh, that’s right, not a single wcha team made it to the frozen four last year. and then the wcha had the nerve to reject bemidji state from entering the wcha? well, how bad do you want them to make you look, huh? guess that was pretty smart to keep that weak team from that weak conference out. from the sounds of your note, all you want to do is have the wcha teams be able to hide behind each other and i suppose same for the ccha as well. that way if we lose to ourselves, or each other, we can continue to talk about how great we are, and how those other conferences are so inferior. goodness knows we wouldn’t want to play against anyone who fine tunes a different style of hockey . . . you sound like that bum texas football coach nack brown who called his brother and some other voters to get texas into a bcs bowl game a few years back, when they were ranked out of real contention. all he could talk about was the “history.” history doesn’t play games today. meanwhile everyone thought it would be so great if michigan won the ccha and got to go the ncaas. even if they were ranked lower. wait, isn’t that exactly what alabama huntsville just did? so it’s ok for us, but not for them? aren’t the rules the rules? grow up, quit living in the past and trying to justify tournament selection today based on games that were played ten and twenty years ago. get your diapers out of the wad they are in, and accept that neither the wcha nor the ccha should be allowed to hide behind themselves or each other, and that it is good for college hockey, yes, good for college hockey, when fresh blood comes in and is given a chance to reinvigorate the scene. all our ccha and wcha teams have to do to get in the tournament is to play solidly all season long. then they can’t complain about a team like alabama huntsville getting in on a conference win because they’ll be in the tournament anyway. or, you can do like michigan did, which, oh,, that’s right, they did what alabama huntsville did.

so was this an example of one of your “deserving” teams?

no, i think the key phrase was “from a real conference” — right? right!! who in the world are you to say what is a real conference and what is not?