Name Three Words That Describe Me

Mpls Ju e-mailed me the other way to point out the tags on a recent post on MGoBlog this past week. I didn't get a chance to catch up on that site until this morning, but I finally got to see the recent post about hockey, bitching, and math.

While you are all certainly welcome to read this post, I don't expect you to fully understand what he is bitching about. Afterall, it's about a computerized ranking system and college hockey. However, I've become very familiar with the Pairwise Ranking (PWR) system used to seed the college hockey NCAA tournament field, especially since Michigan is once again at risk of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1990 after a disgusting loss to conference bottom feeder Bowling Green last night. A loss to Michigan State tonight and Michigan's Pairwise Ranking will likely fall below #14, which puts them at risk of missing out on an at-large berth into the tourney with 4 regular season games left (all on the road).

I generally agree that there are countless flaws in the PWR process. However, I am not quite as upset about this system given the alternative. Would you want a completely objective ranking system that all parties understood even if there were some arbitrary pieces to it or would you prefer a little more subjectivity with the potential for controversy, back-room deals, and scandal? I'll take the PWR for now.