rolandp@tekgds.UUCP (Roland E. Parenteau) (09/27/83)
------- Judging from the list Wayne gave, I don't see the new league as the end of competitive Ivy League hockey...there's not a single Ivy League school on it. In fact, I would expect to see some natural rivalries form between the Ivies and the new league. In fact, I'd bet that we'll soon see an annual championship game or series between the winners of the new league and the Ivy League champs. I also would not be surprised to see the new league's collegiate hockey on TV in New England...it would provide a welcome alternative to the pointless brawling that passes for hockey in the NHL, and help to meet the demand for more hockey on television in that region. Sounds like a good bunch of hockey schools...I think they've got a good idea. Roland Parenteau, decvax!tektronix!tekgds!rolandp
citrin@ucbvax.UUCP (09/28/83)
Apparently, people didn't understand what I meant by my remark that the new college league would lead to less competitive Ivy-league hockey. What I meant was that the new league seems to be made up of the better ECAC teams, who may be fed up with the policies of the Ivy league teams (the latest is that Ivy teams will have to play each other three times a year instead of the previous two). By removing themselves from competition with the Ivy league schools, it will make it that much harder for the Ivy schools to recruit superior talent, since the opposing talent will presumably be inferior. I don't buy the argument that travel expenses were the reason for the split as in the CCHA/WCHA, since the distances involved are much smaller, and the ECAC divisional realignment of the past few years made those distances smaller still. I don't know why RPI, Colgate, Vermont, and Army weren't involved in the move. As for possible post-season competition, I remain unconvinced. I have a feeling that the automatic East bid(s) for the NCAA's may go to teams in this new league, and the teams in the old ECAC may have to rely on at-large bids, unless they expend the NCAA playoff format yet again. Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)
hal@cornell.UUCP (Hal Perkins) (09/30/83)
Last year, there was a proposal within the Ivy League (I believe at
the President's level, although maybe at the Athletic Director's
level) that Ivy League teams should change their schedules to play
each other team in the Ivy league three times each year instead of
twice. This would reduce the number of non-league games from playing
every non-Ivy team in the ECAC once a year to only once every couple
of years. The only dessenting vote to this was Cornell, which is
still reasonably competative with the entire ECAC, unlike many Ivy
schools.
This isn't final yet, and it is not entirely certain what Cornell
would do if it passed. That decision would definitely turn the Ivy
league into a second-rate league. Ivy schools already have some
recruiting disadvantage because they don't offer athletic scholarships.
But it's not too bad as long as the competition is first rate. If
it is, there is some recruiting advantage to being a first-rate
school academically, as well as a place where a student-athlete can
play first-rate hockey. Not to mention that Cornell has had two
all-American goal tenders the last two years, which proves that a good
player can receive recognition even if he plays in the Ivy league.
But if Ivy schools were to play almost all of their games against
each other, it would almost certainly hurt recruiting, because good
athletes want to play against good competition. This apparently doesn't
bother the Ivy schools that haven't put together competative hockey
programs, but it would certainly hurt Cornell, and several other Ivy
schools that are competative a lot of the time.
The proposal of some of the non-Ivy schools to form their own league
was a reaction to the Ivy proposal, and doesn't have anything to do
with things like amount of time needed to travel to road games. Neither
proposal is final yet (as far as I know), and there will probably be some
very heavy-duty political goings-on before anything is decided. I certainly
hope that the ECAC doesn't split up along these lines, but I don't know what
will happen. If there is interest in such things, I'll post updates to the
net as the situation evolves.
Hal Perkins UUCP: {decvax|vax135|...}!cornell!hal
Cornell Computer Science ARPA: hal@cornell BITNET: hal@crnlcs