07-08 State Tournament

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:50 pm

notahockeyguy wrote:rumor on the street is BSM wants to go back to A as soon as they can

Bad rumor - don't believe it.

ghshockeyfan · Post by **ghshockeyfan** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:45 pm

MNHockeyFan wrote:
notahockeyguy wrote:rumor on the street is BSM wants to go back to A as soon as they can
Bad rumor - don't believe it.

I would believe that they'd go U19AAA like SSM before they'd go MSHSL A

keepitreal · Post by **keepitreal** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:59 am

ghshockeyfan wrote:This is exactly my point of wanting current year results to dictate team placement in the higher level (we'll say "AA" for now) tourney.

I don't think it's fair to force an A school to move up for 4 years. Maybe 2, but 4 is crazy. Better yet would be a year-to-year evaluation.

Privates may not have the "luxury" of a feeder, but also have the "luxury" of taking from everyone else's feeder. That's the difference I believe. Yes, some are better at attracting disproportionate amounts of high talent. Those are the teams that I think belong out of A. This is where the correlation breaks down between school size and which groups they shoudl be playing/competitive with.

I'm not anti-private but I am pro-"spirit" of the class A setup. (when we have no other choice (i.e. tiers...))

Any class A tournament (or tier II or whatever) would be rendered completely meaningless as the best class A teams would no longer be there. It would die a painful death. Likewise, any class A team that happens upon a very successful team, will suddenly be thrust out of it's league into a low AA seeing to be spanked in the first round by some colossal metro program. I fail to see how this would advance the sport. If anything, barring O/E rule changes, it would create more dominance by attracting even more top players to the top AA schools.

If we want to go back to single class, then go for it. But this year-to-year bouncing of a team's class up or down will very rarely or perhaps never allow a small school to visit the Xcel center without a ticket, and the tier II/class A participants would probably be a collection of underachieving metro schools year after year, i.e., who cares? Some parts of the state will never have a participant past the first "round of 64" I'd be willing to bet.

All my opinion BTW...not sure I get it though.

ghshockeyfan · Post by **ghshockeyfan** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:07 pm

I think my "solution" is too complex for people to understand. Plus, it's change, and we all hate that even though it's often best.

The goal of the current MSHSL setup is NOT well defined - or maybe I don't understand the goal.

We obvioulsy want to maintain a Class A tourney that is really a T2 with small school privates then being afforded the right to knock off those public schools.

What amazes me the most is that teams/coaches/communities don't aspire to be the best. Not just the best of the "small schools."

A top 20 in A in the state means that teams 15-20 aren't even above average overall. To me, that says that A is already a T2 tourney with some exceptions...

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 8:17 pm

ghshockeyfan wrote:I think my "solution" is too complex for people to understand. Plus, it's change, and we all hate that even though it's often best.

The goal of the current MSHSL setup is NOT well defined - or maybe I don't understand the goal.

I certainly don't have any inner knowledge of their goals, but from a distance you would have to say that they value tradition a great deal and are reluctant to make major changes. The other obvious goal is to make sure all areas of the state are given the chance to be represented at the tournamant, as geographical location is the main driver in determining which teams are in which section.

ghshockeyfan wrote:We obvioulsy want to maintain a Class A tourney that is really a T2 with small school privates then being afforded the right to knock off those public schools.

What amazes me the most is that teams/coaches/communities don't aspire to be the best. Not just the best of the "small schools."

A top 20 in A in the state means that teams 15-20 aren't even above average overall. To me, that says that A is already a T2 tourney with some exceptions...

I look at boys' hockey to see what the girls' Class A tournament may become when the girls' game matures a bit more. I enjoy watching the Class A boys' tournament as there is some very good hockey being played. In girls I think the same will develop over time. Even this year, when going in Blake was the overwhelming favorite, they had to play well to win their last game, which was decided by just one goal. And Blake was a very good team that could give any AA team all they wanted, and maybe more.

The more I think about it, the more I think of the 'ol saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."