If you could choose...

[ugarte]

The reason that it is limited to two options is because if the choices are (A) Frozen Four, (B) ECAC Tourney,  and (C) both, everyone will choose C.

Now stop being a sissy and make the tough choice. ;-)

[Brunke]

so big red apple are you saying that you CAN NOT have your cake and eat it too? All things being equal (unlike the olympic judges for skating) i'd go B. one misstep, like losing a close ECAC championship game (wait ) we have done that recently, this is not fair. Call me spoiled but i still want both Placid and a good run in NCAA. The team has worked very hard (and for the most part consistently) all season, and deserves the ECAC RS and Playoff title. True losign in placid and making a run in NCAA is like the ravens last year winnning the super bowl as a wild card team, yes you accomplished the goal.......i just think that repeatedly through the season the team has stressed that they have many goals, the cleary cup, the ivy title, placid and a run in NCAA. i would like to think that showing consistency and dedication would be better "attractions" to recruits then just making NCAA. Either way toxicology has clogged my brain, and i need to get back to studying. IMHO its out of our hands anyway, lets not live in the past or the future, but rather the present! GO RED

[ugarte]

You can have your cake and eat it in your dreams. It just doesn't make any sense in a thought experiment.  Since I waffle a little in my answer also I won't give you a further hard time, but I still don't know what you would choose.

[Craine]

Of course all of here wants Cornell to win both the ECAC Championship and the NCAA Championship... There's no reason to even pose that as a question, as nobody on this board (except maybe Rich S) wouldn't want that.

The point of this was purely hypothetical... IF we had to choose, which would you choose?

[Jim Hyla]

I'll take b. That will be especially true if they go to 16 teams with 4 regionals, that way we win a regional to go to the Frozen Four. However, even this year I'd take NCAA. After all, we can always say "been there, done that" if someone says we didn't win ECAC.

In regards to

Would you rather drive a Yugo or a Porsche.

, I'll take my Toyota Supra anyday.

[jtwcornell91]

Wow, I'm surprised at the near-unanimity here, so I'd better speak up with my dissent: I choose (a) without hesitation.  This team deserves a championship!  (And do we really want to emulate the 1996 UVM team?)

[rhovorka]

Blast.  JTW beat me to the UVM card.

The choices here are almost exactly the difference between the '96 Cornell team and the '96 UVM line...err...team.  Do you pick the team that wins the hardware, or the team that got to participate in the Slushy Four in Cincinnati (losing the semi in 2OT)?  For the following season, it was so easy to drive Cat fans nuts by mentioning our banner and throwing the word "Champion" around.  On the other hand, I was somewhat jealous of hearing of the UVM fans making news at the Big One.  Funny thing about that season is that the 2 teams tied twice, so neither team had "scoreboard" over the other.  Had CU been able to get by LSSU in the regionals, they would've faced off against UVM, and there were many of us that were pretty sure that CU had UVM's number.  

OK...my choice.  Although I'd go to the Frozen Four(tm), and buy out the souvenier stand with anything that suggested the color Red...gosh it pains me to say, but I'd feel a little empty inside if we lose the Semi and still not have won the Whitelaw.  It would mean 2 straight painful tournament endings.  For me to select (b), you'd have to change it to winning a semi and losing the National Championship game.  The 48 hours I'd have after winning a semifinal game, along with being able to watch my team play *2* games at the Frozen Four(tm) would probably offset the loss of the Whitelaw.  Not to mention the attention and respect that comes with the Final, even with a loss.

Otherwise, I go with (a), have the memory of the party in Placid, and be able to look at this team with the word "champion" next to it for the rest of time.

[jtwcornell91]

By the same token, UVM would have faced Cornell in the ECAC final the previous weekend if they'd gotten past Harvard.  That was the year of unfinished business for Cornell and UVM.

BTW, a better analogy for choice (a) would probably be Clarkson in 1999, since that team won both the RS and the ECACs and was the ECAC's top representative in the NCAAs.

[Greg Berge]

My instinct is to choose "A."  I hate it that NCAA-obsessiveness has lessened the importance of the conference titles, and I think the old system, in which the conference titles were festivals and the winners got to the NCAA's as another prize, was much more fun and healthy.  But then again, I think that having meaningful, conference-linked college bowl games and a mythical national championship is far, far better than a playoff -- it's more about aesthetics (read: having them).

But perhaps the real question is: which would help the team more in the long run, and the answer to that is probably "B."  Cornell will always win its share of recruiting battles against other ECAC teams because of its history -- going one up on them yet again would be nice, but would not add that much.  On the other hand, getting to the Frozen Four would help Cornell in their national recruiting battles against WCHA, CCHA, and HE teams.

So, the older romantic in me picks "A," while the younger pragmatist picks "B."  Today is my mid-point birthday (39), so I choose both the ECAC title and the Frozen Four.  "It's my party..."

[Beeeej]

Happy birthday, Greg.  What's the standard deviation on your age?

Beeeej

[zg88]

Shootin' for 78, eh?  Let's not over-reach, now!  :-))

(BTW, I am also in the "heart chooses ECAC, head chooses NCAA" camp).

[jtwcornell91]

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

But don't worry about that; just have a happy birthday.

[Give My Regards]

I went back and forth on this one for a bit, before realizing:

1.  I haven't seen Cornell win the ECAC championship in five years.

2.  I have never seen Cornell advance to the NCAA Frozen Four.

B it is.