Next Year's OOC Games & Other Stuff

There's an article in today's Ithaca Journal that talks about 2006-2007 season. It isn't currently online so no link's available.

Wayne State for 2 at home.
Sacred Heart for 1 at home.
Niagara for 2 -- one at home & the other TBD (I'm hoping for BCA in Rochester, again).
New Hampshire to open in Florida (likely) and then either Maine or WMU.

It also mentions that the concourse work is ahead of schedule, and if it can be done before the first home game is scheduled all home games will be played at Lynah. Coach Schafer also said early talks with players indicate everyone else will be back year -- though, after being Shaned (obviously he didn't say that exactly) last year, nothing's certain.

Schafer also said he couldn't speak about any of the incoming recruits, accept as a group, until their deposits are received -- guess that's the Ivy's equivalent of a signed LOI -- though he said that as a group they'll bring a little size and a little speed (nothing new there).

This wasn't mentioned in the article, but I haven't seen it posted here yet, the Devin twins will be playing for Nanaimo next year.

ithacat
Coach Schafer also said early talks with players indicate everyone else will be back not year

I guess that's a typo, but it could also be a clever way to escape any blame: "I said 'not' instead of 'next!'"

the Devin twins will be playing for Nanaimo next year.

Shocking. Absolutely shocking.

Well, let's get the bitching out immediately:

* Oh geez, we have a weak schedule.
* Oh geez, the Niagara Classic again.
* Wayne St? Hunh? Are we Clarkson? (Dee-troit represent!)

Yep, we'd have to win out, practically, to get a #1 seed. But there's the Holy Cross effect: as Schafer mentioned, teams that do well in their conferences help us in the RPI no matter how "weak" they actually may be. (Remember 25-50-25.)

I think we just have to accept this type of schedule as the reality of how things go these days and hope for something better next year. Frankly, maybe Coach knows a bit more than we do: would you want to start the McKee-less era on a slate of national contenders? I'd like to see us build some momentum and win the Harkness Cup and the comparison flips that would go with it.

Didn't see this thread when I posted my comment in the other thread, so I'll just copy it over here:

Ugh.

You know, I can take the pair vs. Wayne State and another game against Sacred Heart (the second in three years). But we're playing another pair against Niagara, when we've theoretically already satisfied travel reciprocity?! Geez. 2007-08 with perhaps BU on the schedule can't get here soon enough.

Scersk '97
would you want to start the McKee-less era on a slate of national contenders? I'd like to see us build some momentum and win the Harkness Cup and the comparison flips that would go with it.

Bingo. If there is one year where a weak OOC schedule may not be all that bad it's this upcoming season. We are going to have a number of freshman in prominent roles (Davenport, Scrivens, Milo, Greening etc.) and it may not be a bad idea to ease them into the college game.

redhair34

Scersk '97
would you want to start the McKee-less era on a slate of national contenders? I'd like to see us build some momentum and win the Harkness Cup and the comparison flips that would go with it.

Bingo. If there is one year where a weak OOC schedule may not be all that bad it's this upcoming season. We are going to have a number of freshman in prominent roles (Davenport, Scrivens, Milo, Greening etc.) and it may not be a bad idea to ease them into the college game.

Isn't Harvard/Dartmouth the second weekend of the season?

And don't expect to see Wisconsin any time soon. A poster on USCHO says they are playing at UNH and BC in 2008-09 and 2010-2011. UNH will go to Madison for a pair in 2009-2010. Wisconsin did a similar deal with BC and Northeastern earlier in the decade (away '00-'02, '02-'03) while BC went to Wisconsin for a pair in '01-'02.

nyc94

redhair34

Scersk '97
would you want to start the McKee-less era on a slate of national contenders? I'd like to see us build some momentum and win the Harkness Cup and the comparison flips that would go with it.

Bingo. If there is one year where a weak OOC schedule may not be all that bad it's this upcoming season. We are going to have a number of freshman in prominent roles (Davenport, Scrivens, Milo, Greening etc.) and it may not be a bad idea to ease them into the college game.

Isn't Harvard/Dartmouth the second weekend of the season?

First home weekend at least. Welcome to the ECAC, boys.

Scersk
as Schafer mentioned, teams that do well in their conferences help us in the RPI no matter how "weak" they actually may be. (Remember 25-50-25.)

Very true and a darn good point. If Niagra and/or Sacred Heart can win their conference tourneys (and SH has been close, #3 in the conf, although upset by UConn in the first round this year), thats only added bonus.

I'm still not thrilled to see it, and neither is Schafer it seems.

RichH

ithacat
Coach Schafer also said early talks with players indicate everyone else will be back not year

I guess that's a typo, but it could also be a clever way to escape any blame: "I said 'not' instead of 'next!'"

Glad I didn't "quote" the poor guy...

nyc94
And don't expect to see Wisconsin any time soon. A poster on USCHO says they are playing at UNH and BC in 2008-09 and 2010-2011. UNH will go to Madison for a pair in 2009-2010. Wisconsin did a similar deal with BC and Northeastern earlier in the decade (away '00-'02, '02-'03) while BC went to Wisconsin for a pair in '01-'02.

On the other hand, while they seem to be tied up for the foreseeable future, their schedule indicates a willingness to travel, which is awesome. Coordinating with Colgate down the road for a trip to Madison and, um, something relatively close to Madison, and vice versa would be very nice.

Maybe Niagara popped up again when something bigger fell by the wayside. Schafer's safety school for scheduling.

Scersk '97


* Wayne St? Hunh? Are we Clarkson? (Dee-troit represent!).

Actually, I believe Tech's OOC schedule looks like this: (not written in stone)

- Bucky's Holiday Tournament (Wisc, Providence, Lake State)
- A pair at St.Cloud state
_ Lake Superior for 2 games at Cheel
- BGSU and Miami at Cheel
- RIT
-Niagara

Not great, but getting better with each year.

i hope that the niagara game is either in rochacha or up by the gorge. that would be sweet for those of us who live near the falls. could coach be giving fans directions to where he hopes cornell will be playing in a regional

jy3
i hope that the niagara game is either in rochacha or up by the gorge. that would be sweet for those of us who live near the falls. could coach be giving fans directions to where he hopes cornell will be playing in a regional

Actually, could that really be the reason Schafer might want to play Niagara, to give the boys more practice in Blue Cross Arena, thus giving them an added advantage should they be fortunate enough to make it to the NCAAs and be placed in the East regional? (Even though Niagara is likely to be worse than any team Cornell might face in the NCAAs.) If so...well, I'll gladly have the team put the Niagara Cup on the line if it improves our chances of making it to the 2007 Frozen Four.

I'm still not thrilled to see it, and neither is Schafer it seems.

More and more I'm starting to think that the scheduling constraints have been forced on the program by the AD.

KeithK

I'm still not thrilled to see it, and neither is Schafer it seems.

More and more I'm starting to think that the scheduling constraints have been forced on the program by the AD.

Who ever is at fault is holding the program back in my opinion

The Niagara games never bother me because they're local.... but given our games limitation, maybe we only need one of those? Excluding Florida, having no HE/WCHA/CCHA OOC games is ridiculous though.... and I can't remember the last time this happened. At least in recent years, we had MSU, BU, WMU, OSU, among others. I can understand from a budget standpoint not wanting to trek to Minneapolis, Grand Forks, and others in the WCHA. And I can believe the elite hockey schools not wanting to put in the return trip to Lynah, which has been reported as a prerequisite. But, is it that hard to schedule UMass (Amherst or Lowell) or Providence? How about Vermont now? Or even bring back OSU, or the other Ohio schools (Miami, BGSU).

redGrinch
The Niagara games never bother me because they're local.... but given our games limitation, maybe we only need one of those? Excluding Florida, having no HE/WCHA/CCHA OOC games is ridiculous though.... and I can't remember the last time this happened. At least in recent years, we had MSU, BU, WMU, OSU, among others. I can understand from a budget standpoint not wanting to trek to Minneapolis, Grand Forks, and others in the WCHA. And I can believe the elite hockey schools not wanting to put in the return trip to Lynah, which has been reported as a prerequisite. But, is it that hard to schedule UMass (Amherst or Lowell) or Providence? How about Vermont now? Or even bring back OSU, or the other Ohio schools (Miami, BGSU).

Imagine you're the other school and you're thinking about scheduling an ECACHL team. You'd like to promote your program ... get fans into the arena ... and you'd like to have a chance at winning. Niagara doesn't think it has a snowball's chance of beating most of the top ECACHL teams, so why not just bang heads with Cornell? But a UMass-Amherst might have a good chance against an RPI or Brown and a lesser chance against Cornell. So maybe they look to pick on somebody their own size.

Overall Records Last Year:

Wayne State 6-23-6 (3-11-1 OOC)
Niagara 20-15-1 (7-9-0 OOC)
Sacred Heart 21-12-2 (3-4-0 OOC)

ebilmes
Overall Records Last Year:

Wayne State 6-23-6 (3-11-1 OOC)
Niagara 20-15-1 (7-9-0 OOC)
Sacred Heart 21-12-2 (3-4-0 OOC)

Wayne State isn't so much a classic ivy-clad university as it is a bunch of buildings stuck between an expressway offramp and a downtown Detroit casino. That said, its motto is exactly what the school does: Real Education for the Real World. The coach must have to really hustle to get kids interested in the school. Urban campus is one thing if you're Harvard or Brown, another when home base is Detroit.

billhoward
Urban campus is one thing if you're Harvard or Brown, another when home base is Detroit.

At least they've got RoboCop.

Will

billhoward
Urban campus is one thing if you're Harvard or Brown, another when home base is Detroit.

At least they've got RoboCop.

Only until Jack Bauer catches up with him.

jtwcornell91

Will

billhoward
Urban campus is one thing if you're Harvard or Brown, another when home base is Detroit.

At least they've got RoboCop.

Only until Jack Bauer catches up with him.

Hey, he theoretically has seven more hours to elude Bauer. And in that same measure of time, Jack still has to prevent the release of nerve gas on the Georgetown campus, thwart an assassination attempt on the Secretary of State, uncover a plot to contaminate the water supply at the Pentagon, and resuscitate the Washington Capitals' power play.

Schafer's clearly trying to give himself a shot at Ron Mason's win record.

KeithK

I'm still not thrilled to see it, and neither is Schafer it seems.

More and more I'm starting to think that the scheduling constraints have been forced on the program by the AD.

Highly, highly doutbful, and based upon what? The AD has no incentive to hold back the marquee athletic program. If Schafer can raise the money (alums, boosters, etc), he can pretty much do what he wants, gender equity be damned. More likely, the constraints lie with the opposing teams not the AD.

To be fair, you can credit the AD(s) and the University for keeping Schafer and doing a good job of stewarding the program. We don't necessarily know how many competing offers for him and his assistants were fended off, or what those efforts cost. Given Mike's (and his assistants') success during his tenure, I'd wager he's at least in the top 10 in compensation among his peers. That money, and the decision to step up, comes from somewhere. This isn't to say the administration is perfect, but at least give credit where it's due. The program is in great shape and poised to move forward.

The one scheduling constraint which the AD almost certainly imposes is number of home games. The coach's job is to build the program. The AD's job is to make money (or lose less money, anyway). A road game against a great program puts those goals into conflict. And in the case of a conflict... well, the AD does still hire and fire the coach. This isn't Duke basketball. Yet.

Townie
Highly, highly doutbful, and based upon what? The AD has no incentive to hold back the marquee athletic program.

Trotsky
The one scheduling constraint which the AD almost certainly imposes is number of home games. The coach's job is to build the program. The AD's job is to make money (or lose less money, anyway). A road game against a great program puts those goals into conflict. And in the case of a conflict... well, the AD does still hire and fire the coach. This isn't Duke basketball. Yet.

I'm basing my thining on the home games requirement. I just get the sense from the interviews I've read that Schafer isn't happy scheduling nothing but home games against AH/CHA teams. This makes me think that the constraint is imposed by the AD. Regardless of fairness considerations, it would probably be better for the program to schedule some un-reciprocated big NC games than to have SH, WSU and Niagara come to Lynah. Sticking with the AH/CHA schedule strikes me as a financial decision and as such I place much of the blame on the AD.

You obviously see this differently. If you're right that it's all a matter of other teams willingness to play against Cornell (and schedule constraints) then my accusation is unfair. But since they're not likely to let me sit in Schafer's office to get the true story I'll have to stick with my estimation of the situation and we'll have to disagree.

I'll happily credit the AD for retaining Schafer. But that's something of no-brainer - hard to give too much credit for a decision/action that had to be made. Finding financing for and approving the Lynah renovation is more worthy, even if I don't like some aspects of it . In the end though, the AD has doen a number of things that have pissed me off over the years and as a result I am more willing to be critical than supportive.

From an earlier thread on the 2006-2007 schedule.

Sat 10/21 Red-White (assumption since practice can't start before 10/15)
Fri 10/27 ? (exhibition?)
Sat 10/28 ?
Fri 11/3  @Brown
Sat 11/4  @Yale
Fri 11/10 Harvard
Sat 11/11 Dartmouth
Fri 11/17 @Princeton
Sat 11/18 @Quinnipiac
Fri 11/24 ?
Sat 11/25 ?
Fri 12/1  RPI
Sat 12/2  Union
Tue-Sat 12/26-12/30 UNH         
Tue-Sat 12/26-12/30 Maine/WMU
Fri 1/5  ?
Sat 1/6  ?
Fri 1/12  @St. Lawrence
Sat 1/13  @Clarkson
Fri 1/19  Yale
Sat 1/20  Brown
Fri 1/26  @Colgate?
Sat 1/27  Colgate?
Fri 2/2   Clarkson
Sat 2/3   St. Lawrence
Fri 2/9   @Union
Sat 2/10  @RPI
Fri 2/16  Quinnipiac
Sat 2/17  Princeton
Fri 2/23  @Dartmouth
Sat 2/24  @Harvard
3/2-3 ECAC 1st round
3/9-10 ECAC Quarters
3/16-17 ECAC Finals
3/23-25 NCAA regionals
4/5-7 NCAA finals

Wayne State for 2 at home.
Sacred Heart for 1 at home.
Niagara for 2 -- one at home & the other TBD (I'm hoping for BCA in Rochester, again).
New Hampshire to open in Florida (likely) and then either Maine or WMU.

With a game against RIT having been announced for Oct 28th. I'm wondering if it's replacing the SH game or the TBD'd game against Niagara?

Fri 10/27 Robert Morris
Sat 10/28 RIT
Fri 11/03 @Brown
Sat 11/04 @Yale
Fri 11/10 Harvard
Sat 11/11 Dartmouth
Fri 11/17 @Princeton
Sat 11/18 @Quinnipiac
Fri 11/24 Wayne State
Sat 11/25 Wayne State
Fri 12/01 RPI
Sat 12/02 Union
Fri 12/29 vs UNH         
Sat 12/30 vs Maine/WMU
Sat 01/06 Sacred Heart
Fri 01/12 @St. Lawrence
Sat 01/13 @Clarkson
Fri 01/19 Yale
Sat 01/20 Brown
Fri 01/26 @Colgate
Sat 01/27 Colgate
Fri 02/02 Clarkson
Sat 02/03 St. Lawrence
Fri 02/09 @Union
Sat 02/10 @RPI
Fri 02/16 Quinnipiac
Sat 02/17 Princeton
Fri 02/23 @Dartmouth
Sat 02/24 @Harvard

Should there be a Sat 12/2 game against Union?

Liz '05
Should there be a Sat 12/2 game against Union?

No there shouldn't! Union should be drummed out of the ECAC and replaced with a school that actually cares about winning more than 40% of it's games!

Philosophical questions aside, Liz is right (see for instance two posts above in flat view).

This is worse than originally reported in the Journal. RM & RIT for Niagara? Makes a weak OOC schedule even weaker. This is probably a better year to have a weak schedule, however, given that the team will be breaking in a new goalie, trying to find some blueline depth, and needs to get a couple of the new forwards contributing quickly.

Looking forward to the 4/7 game!

It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

ebilmes
It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

not if we go 28-0-0 in the RS

btw, i'm not precticting we are going to go 28-0-0, just that if we did, we could make it in even if we didnt win the tourney

ebilmes
It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

Everybody always says this early in the season, and it usually turns out to be untrue.

jtwcornell91

ebilmes
It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

Everybody always says this early in the season, and it usually turns out to be untrue.

The key, as usual, will be Estero. Two wins against Hockey Least would go a long way considering the rest of the schedule weakness.

Jeff Hopkins '82
The key, as usual, will be Estero. Two wins against Hockey Least would go a long way considering the rest of the schedule weakness.

And more generally, how our conference does in out of conference games.

Jeff Hopkins '82

jtwcornell91

ebilmes
It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

Everybody always says this early in the season, and it usually turns out to be untrue.

The key, as usual, will be Estero. Two wins against Hockey Least would go a long way considering the rest of the schedule weakness.

And wins over UHN and WMU would distribute our COP even better.

ugarte

Jeff Hopkins '82

jtwcornell91

ebilmes
It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

Everybody always says this early in the season, and it usually turns out to be untrue.

The key, as usual, will be Estero. Two wins against Hockey Least would go a long way considering the rest of the schedule weakness.

And wins over UHN and WMU would distribute our COP even better.

True, but my prediction is the only way we'd play WMU is to lose to UHN.

Jeff Hopkins '82

ugarte

Jeff Hopkins '82

jtwcornell91

ebilmes
It's looking like an ECAC tourny win would be the only way into the NCAAs this year.

Everybody always says this early in the season, and it usually turns out to be untrue.

The key, as usual, will be Estero. Two wins against Hockey Least would go a long way considering the rest of the schedule weakness.

And wins over UHN and WMU would distribute our COP even better.

True, but my prediction is the only way we'd play WMU is to lose to UHN.

Of course. I wasn't disputing your prediction just posing a better outcome (which may or may not even be a better outcome; check back at the end of the regular season and run some YATC scripts).