Pairwise ranking and which one is right?

[Goon]

UND is ranked 23 in the Sioux Sports Pairwise and the 22nd in the College Hockey News Pairwise.

My question is; which one is the correct one.

[siouxczech29]

It appears that Sioux Sports is breaking the PWR tie by listing in order of RPI ranking.

[BigGreyAnt41]

Here's what Jim said about it a couple weeks ago:

http://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/16285-sioux-uaa/page__st__140__p__529347#entry529347

[GFG]

just use the uscho PWR

[jimdahl]

just use the uscho PWR

The USCHO list is actually least reflective of the three of what the committee has done in the past. If for some reason you don't trust SiouxSports, my personal recommendation would be CHN (though I think it's a little less friendly and a lot less detailed). See my explanation at biggreyant's link above.

I sincerely think it's more useful to show the tie breaker, because if the definition of PWR is a list of how teams will be seeded by the committee, there's no such thing as a tie in seeding, they'll employee the tie-breaker to choose which gets seeded higher. So, why wouldn't you incorporate the tie-breaker into the list? As explained in my link above, the reason USCHO doesn't is historical -- once upon a time we weren't sure what the tie-breaker would be so we all just said "T22"; for the past five years we've had pretty convincing evidence of how ties would be broken, so CHN has started ordering them that way while leaving the ranking "T22" and I've started ranking them that way.

However, it's certailny a bad thing if I'm just confusing the non-PWRheads who wonder why it looks different from CHN, so I'll try to think of some way to keep that useful information in there while reducing the confusion -- e.g. saying #23 (T22), or something like that.

[jimdahl]

Done.

PWR Rankings

Does that make it more clear that UND would be seeded #23, but is in a 3-way tie at 21 for number of comparison won? It's certailny slightly more cluttered, but may be worth it if it can still deliver more useful information than other sources, but reduces the confusion of doing so.

[GFG]

Who in their right mind would have guessed that Ohio State would be ranked #1 in the PWR at the midpoint of the season? I still think they'll be the B1G doormat with Penn State, though.

[nodak hockey fanatic]

At this point and time, it doesn't really matter who is right considering the Sioux wouldn't be in the NCAAs in any scenario. Hopefully they can continue a strong second half surge and work their way back into a spot in the NCAAs. It wouldn't be the first time in Haks era it has happened, but it might be with the most injured and shorthanded team. Go Sioux!!

[jimdahl]

At this point and time, it doesn't really matter who is right considering the Sioux wouldn't be in the NCAAs in any scenario. Hopefully they can continue a strong second half surge and work their way back into a spot in the NCAAs. It wouldn't be the first time in Haks era it has happened, but it might be with the most injured and shorthanded team. Go Sioux!!

And just about the deepest the hole has ever been. Despite Hak's reputation for slow starts, only in the 08-09 campaign have the Sioux been this low in PWR at this time of year.

I'll try to write up something about the implications of this for end-of-year standings soon.

[siouxczech29]

A five game win streak would do wonders for pairwise!

[GFG]

And just about the deepest the hole has ever been. Despite Hak's reputation for slow starts, only in the 08-09 campaign have the Sioux been this low in PWR at this time of year.

I'll try to write up something about the implications of this for end-of-year standings soon.

This will be the hardest because it's probably the least talented team he's had and with the low inter-conference record of the WCHA it will be tough to get back into it. But with all the departures going around out east along with the fact that there is no way 7 CCHA teams will make it into the NCAA tourney, UND has a pretty decent shot. No matter what, these holiday tournaments are huge for the WCHA, especially Minnesota's game against CCHA opponent Notre Dame January 7th.