Regarding recommendations for next season:

As I have discussed in previous e-mail, I think that the BTHL has grown to the point that participation in the BTHL Season Tournament be something a team earns based on it's performance during the season, rather than an all participation tournament. I would propose:

• In Divisions with 8 or fewer teams, only the top 6 teams advance to the Tournament.
• In Divisions with 9-12 teams, only the top 8 teams advance to the Tournament.
• In Divisions with 13-16 teams, only the top 10 teams advance to the Tournament.
• In Divisions with 17 or more teams, only the top 12 teams advance to the Tournament.
• To make advancing to the Tournament even more special, I would increase the League Registration fee slightly and set a lower entrance fee into the Tournament.

I believe a system like this rewards the best teams. It also relieves the worst teams from the obligation of going to the Tournament, and spending additional money on Tournament entry fees and travel and hotel expenses, only to face the best team in the league and "get their butt kicked" once again. If you look at this years results, in no case did any team lower than the 4th seed advance to the championship game. I really think it would become a better tournament if only the best teams were there. This would also allow us to fix our Tournament format and brackets early in the season so that everyone would know the Tournament details much earlier in the season. Finally, shrinking the pool of teams may allow us to host this thing all on one weekend making it a real "hockey festival".

Please give this some thought, I look forward to the discussion.