Are you ready for this?

The ECAC has been a confusing division all season long. With so much parity in the league, teams jumped up and down in the standings every week, and almost no one has been eliminated from a top finish.

Now as the season heads into its penultimate weekend, a little, very little, headway can finally be made in determining the cloudy playoff picture.

There are three distinct races to track in the league. The most basic is of course, qualifying for the playoffs. In the newly revamped ECAC system, 10 out of 12 teams enter the ECAC postseason tournament.

Those 10 teams also compete for home ice in the first round, which is awarded to the top five finishers. A low seed makes the road to the NCAA Tournament exceedingly difficult.

"Anytime you play at home its important," said Harvard Head Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "In a year like this with everything so close, it may not be as great an advantage."

Lastly, two teams--Yale and Clarkson--are competing for the divisional crown. In addition to the bragging rights and top seed, a first place finish carries an automatic NCAA bid.

This picture is clearest at the top.

Shockingly ranked No. 5 in the nation, Yale has surprised everyone with its outstanding play. Picked to finish tenth in the league in the coaches preseason poll, it has led the ECAC most of the way, garnering widespread support for Coach Tim Taylor as National Coach of the Year. The Bulldogs have already clinched home ice through the playoffs and need just five points to secure the ECAC crown.

"Yale has been a surprise," Tomassoni said. "Everybody was waiting for them to go south, but they deserve a lot of credit."

Second-place Clarkson poses the only legitimate challenge to Yale. The Golden Knights trail the Bulldogs by only four points and kept their championship hopes alive with a 6-3 win over Yale this past weekend. They need a point to clinch home ice and will have a chance to secure it against our own Crimson this Saturday.

After the top two teams, only Rensselaer has locked anything up--they are guaranteed a postseason berth, nothing more.

This leaves seven playoff spots and virtually three home ice slots still available.

Four teams control their own playoff destiny. Colgate needs one more point to guarantee a postseason position. Brown and Cornell need two to make the field of ten. Harvard has to sweep this weekend's games with St. Lawrence and Clarkson to ensure a trip to the playoffs.

Dartmouth, Princeton, and Vermont round out the teams currently in playoff position. St. Lawrence trails Vermont by two points, but will be hard-pressed to make up ground at Harvard and redhot Brown this weekend.