The ACHA tournament decides the national champion from a group of 16 teams --unfortunately, it's not the nation's best 16.
But with the final rankings, which determined the tournament field released Wednesday, many teams that should have been locks for the tournament will find themselves cleaning out their lockers when other teams are lacing up the skates for nationals.
The tournament field is supposed to be made up of the top-16 ranked teams in the final coaches poll of the season, but with automatic bids handed out to each of the six conference champions and the tournament's host team, that plan has not worked out so well this season.
Of those seven automatic bids, five of the teams -- SUNY-Canton, Slippery Rock, Rutgers, Robert Morris (Ill.) and Stony Brook -- did not even finish the season ranked in the top-16, and Rutgers is not even ranked in the top-25.
Slippery Rock, however, declined its automatic bid because of an injury to its goalie, leaving 12 spots open instead of 11 -- allowing No. 12 Kent State to sneak into the playoffs as the last team in.
With that considered, the cutoff for teams to make the field was no longer to land in the top-16 in the season's final poll as originally believed but instead to fight into one of the top-12 spots in the country.
"The concept of the automatic bid is a good idea," head coach Scott Balboni said, "but there need to be some guidelines for teams to receive it, whether it's to be ranked above a certain number or the way they schedule nonconference games. It's something I plan to bring up at the meetings after the season."
While many Penn State players and both Balboni and assistant coach Bill Downey have said the first-round opponent doesn't matter because that team will be fired up for nationals no matter who it is, the numbers don't lie.
The five teams with automatic bids that would not be in the tournament otherwise have played a combined 33 games against teams that are currently in the top-10 or received an automatic bid.
In those games, the teams have a combined record of 4-28-1.
On the other hand, teams that finished the season ranked No. 13-No. 15 and missed the tournament have won 12 games against the nation's top-10 teams this season. And Kent State, who would have missed the tournament if not for Slippery Rock's withdrawal, would have been going home despite an 8-8 record against the top-10.
Penn State rivals Rhode Island and Delaware both missed the tournament, finishing the season ranked No. 14 and No. 15, respectively.
So instead of entering the tournament as a No. 15 playoff seed setting up a first-round matchup with the No. 2 Penn State Icers -- a team the Rams have already beaten this year -- Rhode Island conceded its spot to SUNY-Canton. The Kangaroos are a team that lost 7-4 to No. 9 Minot State in its only game this season against a top-10 team.
Teams from the weaker conferences and teams ranked in the top-5 both benefit from the automatic bid. Potential first-round matchups with conference rivals for those top-ranked teams are replaced with matchups against teams who have little to no experience playing against the other teams in the tournament.
While there will still be plenty of competition among many of the teams March 6-10 in Bensenville, Ill., teams that could provide the best competition will already be training for next season.
Not only do the automatic bids hurt those teams, but they deceive the fans who are expecting to see the ACHA's best 16 teams battling for a title -- silly fans.
