Editor’s Note: We received a great letter yesterday from a reader about the Regional seeding process MNH has laid out for this year. A reader from Bemidji has a passionate reply.

This “Pilot program” had everyone talking last summer (2012) and even had some excitement. Associations in District 16 had many questions on where, why, how, etc. It was assumed that the questions would all be answered in a timely fashion and teams “up North” would have a Regional and send a represenative from the North to the State Tourney. Now we have a team from D10 coming to the North because the creators/promoters of youth hockey AA wanted to have more of the “better” teams in the State AA tournament.

My question is this….Why didn’t you just call this the “Metro League” and leave the North out of it if you feel the “better” teams are down there? Calling a spade a spade, the promotors of AA format, predetermined that the 5th seed from one of the Metro area Districts was better than a #2 seed from D16 before they ever dropped the puck in October. After some pushback, D16 was “granted” a 2nd seed in our own Regional and a single spot was given to the 5th seed from D10.

This is no more than a quest from some to place another trophy for your trophy cases and/or a banner hanging in the arena. What was wrong with “A-B-C” we had? Teams are showing up at arenas all over the State of Minnesota not knowing if the team they are playing is “really” an A team or last years B1 team moved up, or a AA team that just stayed A, etc. A mess? You decide.

Minnesota Hockey needs to run Minnesota Hockey themselves and not let a few associations dictate the format. We know we are not alone in this thinking and many of the Associations in the North may have a North only tournament at year end and forgoe the All Metro League you have created.
North means North.