trilogy wrote:Roman Legion wrote: Blake and Breck should be considering for both boys and girls.  I am certain that they are losing players to BSM and AHA for both sexes.
 
When was the last time Breck was in the state tournament? (answer-0)Blake was but they haven't dominated for a bunch of years have they? Why would these privates go AA when they aren't consistently dominating A? I wouldn't recommend that, as a coach of an A school I would look to set up games with AA schools for the competition and still play A until a dominant streak emerged.
 
FWIW - I agree.  That was kind of my point in what I said above.  There is a difference too between hockey oriented private schools and those that don't attract the top talent but just offer hockey as a sport to participate in.  That's somewhat true of public schools too now I think.  This is why I'd like to see tiers like the boys of the early 90's.  MSHSL wants Classes for participation/experience of HS tourney for many schools beyond those that just ahve the most students to draw from.  The flaw in the correlation between school size & team ability is evident far more in Girls Hockey I believe.
I'd like to see the top 64 teams by a power ranking be seeded for regional tourneys to get to 8 8-team Class A or Tier 1 sections.
The remaining teams could do the same for A or T2.  The best teams would then be playing for AA/T1 and not playing down at A/T2 and you wouldn't ahve to declare this for 4 years as you have to do now for Class A vs. AA.  Someone here has to tell me why we don't do this...  The logistics are not that difficult but there needs to be flexibility to determine sections based on which 64 teams make the top vs 2nd level.  This isn't that hard as sections now regularly play at one site or teams have to keep home ice open to host as needed as high seed in 1st round (this wouldn't change).
The drawback here (as with approving co-ops sometimes) is that there isn't incentive to work harder for those bigger schools that are just complacent being T2/co-oped.  But this would eliminate a team that stays A that really should be AA as they're afraid of the 4 year commitment, or even are a surprise team for a year or two...
If anyoje would complain about this it would be the Class A teams that are in the last few selected for the top 64.  Last year for example this would be a team that I'm familiar with, and I'd have no problem with this...  It would actually point to "success" I think of A programs that are homegrown to "make" the top/T1 tourney...  And maybe force AA programs that aren't co-ops to consider or work to develop their programs...
If we did this, here's the top 64 from last year (T1):
RK	CLASS	TEAM	RATING
1	AA	Eden Prairie	5050.090
2	AA	Stillwater	721.142
3	AA	Benilde-St. Margarets	547.955
4	AA	North St. Paul Polars	466.016
5	AA	Cloquet/Esko/Carlton	452.276
6	AA	Roseville	394.796
7	AA	Wayzata	309.030
8	A	South St. Paul	244.910
9	AA	Cretin-Derham Hall	236.256
10	AA	Edina	235.252
11	AA	Burnsville	216.981
12	AA	Academy of Holy Angels	212.013
13	A	Hibbing	211.494
14	A	Warroad	204.675
15	AA	Bemidji	202.813
16	AA	Coon Rapids	190.014
17	A	Blake	181.317
18	AA	Henry Sibley	169.417
19	AA	Centennial	167.802
20	AA	Hopkins	157.034
21	AA	Eagan	155.744
22	AA	Anoka	126.364
23	AA	Elk River	104.512
24	AA	St. Paul Blades	89.147
25	AA	Roch. Mayo	76.659
26	A	Farmington	76.271
27	AA	Chaska	75.830
28	AA	Maple Grove	59.661
29	A	New Prague	57.244
30	AA	Moorhead	53.391
31	AA	Hill-Murray Pioneers	52.401
32	AA	Grand Rapids/Greenway	49.772
33	AA	White Bear Lake	46.002
34	A	Alexandria	45.906
35	A	Crookston	45.331
36	AA	St. Cld. Tech	44.462
37	AA	Chisago Lakes/Pine City	37.806
38	AA	Blaine	37.608
39	AA	Hastings	33.768
40	AA	St. Francis/North Branch	29.964
41	AA	Park Center	23.580
42	A	Shakopee	23.577
43	AA	Forest Lake	20.705
44	A	Silver Bay/Two Harbors	20.374
45	AA	Bloom. Jefferson	19.934
46	A	Mahtomedi	19.605
47	AA	Eastview	19.494
48	A	Totino-Grace	19.491
49	AA	Minnetonka	18.859
50	AA	Duluth East	18.715
51	A	Austin	18.122
52	AA	Proctor/Hermantown/Marshall	17.748
53	AA	Prior Lake	16.915
54	AA	Sartell/Sauk Rapids Stormn Sabres	16.498
55	AA	Lakev. North	16.418
56	A	Mankato West	15.461
57	AA	Irondale	15.008
58	A	New Ulm	13.846
59	AA	Cambridge-Isanti	13.800
60	AA	Apple Valley	12.268
61	A	Roseau	12.245
62	AA	Owatonna	9.664
63	A	Simley	9.189
64	AA	Mounds View	8.226
Here would be T2:
65	A	Breck	8.148
66	AA	Woodbury	7.906
67	AA	Brainerd	7.818
68	AA	Rob. Armstrong	7.799
69	AA	Andover	6.922
70	A	Faribault	6.682
71	AA	Buffalo	6.678
72	AA	St. Cld. Icebreakers	6.547
73	AA	River Lakes Stars	6.492
74	A	Lakev. South	6.335
75	AA	Spring Lake Park/St. Anthony	6.101
76	A	Marshall	5.623
77	A	Albert Lea Tigers	5.380
78	AA	Winona Winhawks	5.082
79	AA	Park of Cottage Grove	4.325
80	AA	North Wright County River Hawks	4.098
81	A	Richfield	3.655
82	A	Detroit Lakes	3.302
83	A	St. Paul United	2.881
84	AA	Minneapolis Novas	2.865
85	A	St. Louis Park	2.830
86	AA	Roch. John Marshall/Century	2.661
87	A	Mound-Westonka	2.590
88	A	Fergus Falls	2.561
89	AA	Duluth Central/Denfeld	2.316
90	A	Northfield	2.280
91	A	Hutchinson	1.907
92	AA	Osseo	1.777
93	AA	Rosemount	1.659
94	AA	Rob. Cooper	1.618
95	A	International Falls	1.468
96	AA	Champlin Park	1.467
97	AA	Bloom. Kennedy	1.408
98	AA	Rogers	1.365
99	A	Thief River Falls	1.197
100	A	Orono	1.138
101	A	East Grand Forks	1.017
102	A	Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Wadena-Deer Cr	0.909
103	A	Morris/Benson/Hancock	0.889
105	A	Waseca	0.767
104	AA	Dodge County	0.767
106	A	St. Agnes/St. Bernards/Concordia Academy	0.646
107	A	Lake of the Woods	0.567
108	A	St. Peter/Lesueur-Henderson	0.541
109	A	Park Rapids	0.428
110	AA	Tartan	0.394
111	A	Minnehaha Academy	0.344
112	A	Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato	0.343
113	A	Red Wing	0.286
114	A	Mankato East	0.213
115	AA	Tri-City	0.201
116	A	Eveleth	0.140
117	A	Babbitt-Embarrass	0.129
118	A	Moose Lake	0.126
119	A	Willmar	0.119
120	AA	Fairmont	0.088
121	A	Princeton	0.062
122	A	Little Falls	0.054
123	A	Windom Area Eagles	0.050
124	A	Luverne	0.006
125	A	Worthington	0.001
125	A	Redwood Valley	0.001