Notre Dame (11-11-5, 6-7-4-3) tied Penn State (17-8-2, 9-6-2-0), 3-3, on Friday night. That’s all that should be said about it. But instead, the Big Ten has decided that conference ties need to end in shootouts that don’t decide anything except one more point. No real win; only one in a shootout, which the Irish got after seven rounds.
I’m not even going to bother getting into this one. OK, Michael Graham scored when the Irish had an extra attacker late in the third period, which was pretty cool, but otherwise, nope. I got nothing. A game that can’t decide whether it wants to award a win or a tie doesn’t deserve the benefit of an analysis.
If you’re going to a give a team an extra point in the conference standings, give them the win, too. Don’t just put the result into some sort of limbo that will make itself forever confused with its own identity. Give it a win or a tie, but not both.