Vermont to Hockey East?

[Will]

Marty'74 wrote:

Can you give us some background on the Middlebury president being behind this.  I was blaming the holier than thou folks at Williams.  It is the kind of foolishness they love!

Middlebury College president John McCardell is also the chair of the Division III Presidents Council.  He's been in the thick of the D-III scholarship "reform" legislation for a while now, probably since the beginning.  A cursory Google search brought up a McCardell quote from this article ( http://uscollegehockey.com/news/2003/11/02_007195.php ):

[Q]"What defines Division III is that we do not give scholarships...There was not a compelling case to keep this exception."[/Q]

It would appear silly if one of the key figures in D-III sports would suddenly have his school move up to D-I (or at least have his school's hockey program move up).  That being said, if it would happen and get past the moratorium, we're almost assured to have Middlebury be a scholarship-free program and a perfect fit for the ECAC.

EDIT: Fixed my link.



Post Edited (12-21-03 19:28)

[ugarte]

 Did anyone else know that (from the article OOTGWGROV posted)

[Division III schools playing up] cannot ... share in the revenue of the respective NCAA tournaments.[/Q]So CC, SLU and Clarkson don't get a share of their conference's take? Even if they qualify themselves? Harsh.

[jy3]

this is crazy and after being away for two weeks i have to read up on all this. i am glad that we are planning to make the dc/vermont road trip this year since it may not exist next year!

[ursusminor]

Jeff Hopkins '82  wrote:

You're assuming that each team would play each other twice like now. Back before Hockey East was formed, the Ivies would play each other twice, but would only play the non-Ivies once. I'm not sure how it worked for the non-Ivies, but I'm guessing the Beanpot was part of the regular season.

In the years immediately before HE was formed, the non-Ivies were divided into two groups, the East -- BU, BC, Maine, UNH, Northeastern, and Providence, and the West -- Colgate, Clarkson, SLU, RPI, and UVM. Each of the three groups played two games against each team within their group and one game with each team in the other two groups. Thus, the Ivies and the Eastern teams played 21-game league seasons and the western teams played 20. I am pretty sure that the Beanpot did not count.

Before about 1979, you could schedule whomever you wanted and a smoke-filled room decided who would make the ECAC Tourney.

[Jeff Hopkins \'82]

[q]Before about 1979, you could schedule whomever you wanted and a smoke-filled room decided who would make the ECAC Tourney.[/q]

Well not quite.  There were standings and there were known bases for making the tournament.

It was how teams got into the NCAAs from the east that was done in the smoke filled room (in Boston, if I may add).

JH

[marty]

And I think all ECAC vs. ECAC games counted even if they occurred due to an "extra" game such as during a Christmas tournament.

[Al DeFlorio]

Marty'74 wrote:

And I think all ECAC vs. ECAC games counted even if they occurred due to an "extra" game such as during a Christmas tournament.

Right, Marty.

Prior to the 64-65 season, the ECAC was a somewhat strange collection of teams--with Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, etc., included along with BU, BC, Clarkson, SLU, Harvard, etc.  A lot of judgment went into seedings in 1962, 1963, and 1964 to take into account strength of schedule.  After that standings (based on percentage) were a strong factor but still not the only factor, as there were real imbalances in the schedules, with some teams playing 15 or fewer league games while others may have played 23 or more.

[Chris 02]

Yet another hockey program seems about to fold according to the front page of USCHO.  Findlay is going to leave the CHA.  The CHA won't be eligible for an NCAA autobid anymore.  After this Vermont thing and also the Division 1/3 scholarship proposition we could very likely be seeing a major shakeup in the makeup of the leagues in D1

[jy3]

i think that the rest of the leagues will adopt the cha leftovers. we shall see though...

[Give My Regards]

jy3 wrote:

i think that the rest of the leagues will adopt the cha leftovers. we shall see though...

Another possibility is that some team in AH might be irritated by the scholarship limits in that league and might jump to the CHA.  Perhaps Mercyhurst or Quinnipiac...

[Will]

Bill Fenwick wrote:

Another possibility is that some team in AH might be irritated by the scholarship limits in that league and might jump to the CHA.  Perhaps Mercyhurst or Quinnipiac...

That's precisely what I think.  I predicted it would be whatever MAAC team it was last year that was rumored to be courting CHA membership, but instead went off with the new Atlantic Hockey.  Sources seem to conflict on whether that team was Mercyhurst or Quinnipiac, though.  (Unless it was both?)

[Greg Berge]

According to a USCHO post, it was Mercyhurst.