Isn't the point of having a tournament to keep this shit from happening?

In our Two-Minute Drill the other day, we gave a sincere shout out to Michigan State for winning the NCAA hockey title in thrilling fashion on Saturday night. MSU scored with 18.9 seconds left to beat Boston College and captured their first national title in 21 years.

But for somebody, winning the NCAA title apparently wasn't enough to warrant a #1 ranking.

In the final college hockey poll, the Spartans finished #1 -- yet it wasn't unanimous as MSU received only 33 out of a possible 34 first place votes.

Yep. Some joker gave their top vote to Notre Dame, which finished fourth in the poll. This is the same Notre Dame team MSU defeated in the quarter-finals.


Now, why bother with having playoffs and the NCAA tournament if a voter is just going to ignore the outcome? Sure, the Irish were the top-ranked team going into the playoffs but they didn't even make it to the Frozen Four. And the playoffs determine who's the champion...don't they? Then again, maybe this voter was going out of town and was so certain the Irish would win, he just sent his ballot in early. Like the Oscars.

Apparently pollsters, even with a playoff, have a mind of their own. No matter what the sport. But if you're not going to vote the NCAA tournament champ as your champ, you might as well just go to a bowl system in hockey, like they do in college football.

And we all know how well that works.

In a related story, NCAA hockey officials say there is no truth to the rumor that UT coach Phil Fulmer cast the lone first place for the ballot for Notre Dame after mistakenly thinking he was keeping Michigan from claiming a National Title, not Michigan State.