"Shorthanded"

This week's column - "Shorthanded" - is up. Also in there is a preview of this weekend's First Round Playoff games and the usual stuff.

[www.elynah.com]

In the Ivy League with no athletic scholarships available, it is impossible for teams to carry the amount of players that the scholarships schools carry

Um. Why?

Trotsky

In the Ivy League with no athletic scholarships available, it is impossible for teams to carry the amount of players that the scholarships schools carry

Um. Why?

If you're talking warm bodies then obviously an Ivy can carry equally as many as any other school. But if we're talking quality players, it's probably harder to attract a deep bench of guys when you 1) have academic standards and 2) can't offer them a financial incentive to come. I suspect it's a lot easier to convince a kid to come to your school and be a likely 7th defenseman or 13th forward if you can offer a 1/2 or 1/4 scholarship.

Then again, maybe these marginal guys don't get any money from big state schools. I don't know - just speculating.

I don't think many of the even biggest hockey schools have a lot of scholarship money to pass around to keep extras on hand. Doesn't the NCAA limit teams to 18 full scholarships for hockey? (Which could be split as 12 full rides and 12 half-rides ... I believe.)

KeithK

Trotsky

In the Ivy League with no athletic scholarships available, it is impossible for teams to carry the amount of players that the scholarships schools carry

Um. Why?

If you're talking warm bodies then obviously an Ivy can carry equally as many as any other school. But if we're talking quality players, it's probably harder to attract a deep bench of guys when you 1) have academic standards and 2) can't offer them a financial incentive to come. I suspect it's a lot easier to convince a kid to come to your school and be a likely 7th defenseman or 13th forward if you can offer a 1/2 or 1/4 scholarship.

Then again, maybe these marginal guys don't get any money from big state schools. I don't know - just speculating.

At the same time you could argue that the appeal of the Ivy League might convince a player to come and ride the bench, especially if he might have a hard time getting in without hockey. Money probably speak louder though.

billhoward
I don't think many of the even biggest hockey schools have a lot of scholarship money to pass around to keep extras on hand. Doesn't the NCAA limit teams to 18 full scholarships for hockey? (Which could be split as 12 full rides and 12 half-rides ... I believe.)

I believe you can split the scholarships anyway you want. So you could have 6 kids on full rides, a dozen on halfs and 24 on quarter scholarships. Not suggesting anyone would have a roster of 42, but I think the rules allow it. At a state school with relatively low tuition a 1/2 scholarship might be enough of an inducement, esp. since the kids may be eligible for regular financial aid in addition (are they?)

For reference, in state total cost at UMTC is estimated at $16k according to [www.lunch-money.com]
That's less than the cost at Cornell when I started back in '89.

Trotsky

In the Ivy League with no athletic scholarships available, it is impossible for teams to carry the amount of players that the scholarships schools carry

Um. Why?

I think some of the posters above have touched upon some of the reasons, but you can also just look at the numbers. It'll take forever to count how many players play on every team, but here on some notables that were on Cornell's schedule this year.

Michigan State has 29 players listed on their roster
Northeastern has 34
Maine has 27 (not on Cornell's schedule but could have been)
St. Lawrence has 29
Harvard has 28
Dartmouth has 26
Niagara has 29
RIT has 24
Duluth has 25
Clarkson has 28
Brown has 30
Colgate has 25
Princeton has 24
Quinnipiac has 29
RPI has 27
Union has 27
Yale has 29

Others:
BU has 27
UNH has 27
UND has 28
OSU has 27

I guess not much can be made of these numbers except that Cornell has fewer players than most teams. If a guy like Matt McKeown didn't leave and McLeod wasn't cut or you counted Fontas, Cornell is up with most of the other teams. Bottom line is, they dont have much depth at all and in a season where they are getting ravaged by injuries, it is showing.

The limited data you cite tends to refute your statement that it's "impossible" for Ivies to maintain a roster as large as that of scolarship schools. Or at least indicate that it's not that big of a deal. Looking at a larger set of DI rosters would be useful (I don't have time right now to do so).

KeithK

billhoward
I don't think many of the even biggest hockey schools have a lot of scholarship money to pass around to keep extras on hand. Doesn't the NCAA limit teams to 18 full scholarships for hockey? (Which could be split as 12 full rides and 12 half-rides ... I believe.)

I believe you can split the scholarships anyway you want. So you could have 6 kids on full rides, a dozen on halfs and 24 on quarter scholarships. Not suggesting anyone would have a roster of 42, but I think the rules allow it. At a state school with relatively low tuition a 1/2 scholarship might be enough of an inducement, esp. since the kids may be eligible for regular financial aid in addition (are they?)

For reference, in state total cost at UMTC is estimated at $16k according to [www.lunch-money.com]
That's less than the cost at Cornell when I started back in '89.

Actually, the 18 scholarships can be split up into at most 30 pieces. See 15.5.6 in [www.ncaa.org]. (It's a big and boring PDF file, but any lawyers here will probably love it. )

ursaminor
Actually, the 18 scholarships can be split up into at most 30 pieces. See 15.5.6 in [www.ncaa.org]. (It's a big and boring PDF file, but any lawyers here will probably love it. )

Thanks for the citation. OK, only 30 but that still leaves a lot of flexibility to give money to a large number of players.