More on Air Force.

Chris Dilks from western college hockey wrote on the Air Force rankings and their strength of schedule. Or should we say lack of a strength of schedule. I have also heard you can't fault Air Force because they are playing the schedule they were given, however, Air Force was in a better conference before they decided to moved to move to the AHA.

Dilks on Air Force: Who is going to be taking them lightly? The biggest game on the rest of Air Force's schedule is a potential match-up with KRACH #31 Merrimack, the second worst team in Hockey East. Over half of their remaining games are against the 7 worst teams in the country. I'm pretty sure Connecticut isn't overlooking anyone.

And herein lies the problem. Air Force's strength of schedule is rated 46th best in the country, and presumably, that's as high as it is going to get, once the CC/DU games get more diluted by the rest of the Atlantic Hockey league schedule.
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As a result, Air Force may end up doing the impossible: getting people to care about the Atlantic Hockey tournament. Air Force may be dominant over their league, but winning two single elimination games against anybody is a risky proposition. That means we'll likely be a couple weird bounces away from two Atlantic Hockey teams playing in the NCAA tournament. Air Force is a great story, but personally, I'd rather see a more battle-tested mid-pack WCHA or CCHA team make the tournament than a team that played two decent teams all year.