Visiting Yale/Brown

[RichH]

From the Yale Daily News.

The excitement toward "The Game" has captured the attention of many at Yale. But in and around Ingalls Rink, the Crimson pale in comparison to the Big Red.

Short article but interesting.

I don't understand this quote:  

After an opening-game 5–2 win over Princeton on Oct. 31, the Elis lost their ECAC opener to RPI by the same score last Friday, only to muster a late-game tie with Union on the following night.

The Yale-Princeton game was technically non-conference, I believe.

Yeah, and that's actually a beef I have.  WHAT GIVES with all these ECACHLMNOP teams scheduling "non-conference" games with other conference members??  OK, for Clarkson-SLU in Ottawa several years ago, I get it...but COME ON.  You can't find anybody else to play your extremely limited non-conference games with?  REALLY??!  I'm sorry, but that sucks.

[Dpperk29]

From the Yale Daily News.

The excitement toward "The Game" has captured the attention of many at Yale. But in and around Ingalls Rink, the Crimson pale in comparison to the Big Red.

Short article but interesting.

I don't understand this quote:  

After an opening-game 5–2 win over Princeton on Oct. 31, the Elis lost their ECAC opener to RPI by the same score last Friday, only to muster a late-game tie with Union on the following night.

The Yale-Princeton game was technically non-conference, I believe.

Yeah, and that's actually a beef I have.  WHAT GIVES with all these ECACHLMNOP teams scheduling "non-conference" games with other conference members??  OK, for Clarkson-SLU in Ottawa several years ago, I get it...but COME ON.  You can't find anybody else to play your extremely limited non-conference games with?  REALLY??!  I'm sorry, but that sucks.

Clarkson and SLU have been doing it the last couple years. I am not a huge fan of it because I think it dilutes the rivalry over time.

My guess would be that it has to do with money and quality of opponents. Clarkson knows that the building will be packed for a SLU game simply because it is SLU. If Clarkson brings in a lower tier team (say Bentley or Robert Morris) there might be 1,000 fewer people in the building and the game on the ice is probably going to be less.

I can't imagine how hard it is to get a top flight team to come to Potsdam for a game...

[Trotsky]

The North Country pairing is an exception -- every time those guys meet it's basically a Frozen Bean Pot.  If the Ivies ever went to 32, we might see a third Cornell-Harvard game every year for the same reason.  But nobody else ought to be doing it -- it helps nobody.  It probably speak more to the lack of draw that ECAC teams have at WCHA and CCHA sites more than anything else.  With one of the two mid-majors disappearing next year, it may become even more prevalent.

[Dpperk29]

The North Country pairing is an exception -- every time those guys meet it's basically a Frozen Bean Pot.

Hey, it doesn;t freeze until mid-November up here...

I wore shorts and short sleeves to the CCT-SLU game this year...

[KeithK]

Agreed.  But there just aren't that many non-conference games to go around; I think ECAC teams still play more non-conference games than anyone else.  When you have to schedule 7 or 10 games every year it can be hard to find matches if your team isn't a big draw.

A perfect example is Michigan Tech.  Jamie Russell took the head coaching job there and at first I thought for sure that we'd end up playing MTU in the near future because of the relationship. But look at their schedule.  They have six non-conference games: two in the GLI, two against long UP rival Northern Michigan and then two other games that are typically in October. So much for that idea.  (MTU has been bad enough that I'm not really upset by this but still.)

[redhair34]

Only SRO tickets are left at Ingalls.

[TimV]

Yeah, and that's actually a beef I have.  WHAT GIVES with all these ECACHLMNOP teams scheduling "non-conference" games with other conference members??  OK, for Clarkson-SLU in Ottawa several years ago, I get it...but COME ON.  You can't find anybody else to play your extremely limited non-conference games with?  REALLY??!  I'm sorry, but that sucks.

Possibly playing other Ivies is an attempt at playing an opponent that DOESN'T have the advantage of a few weeks of extra practice and several games.  While the games don't count in the league, they still contribute to RPI/Krach, right?

[Jim Hyla]

Yeah, and that's actually a beef I have.  WHAT GIVES with all these ECACHLMNOP teams scheduling "non-conference" games with other conference members??  OK, for Clarkson-SLU in Ottawa several years ago, I get it...but COME ON.  You can't find anybody else to play your extremely limited non-conference games with?  REALLY??!  I'm sorry, but that sucks.

Possibly playing other Ivies is an attempt at playing an opponent that DOESN'T have the advantage of a few weeks of extra practice and several games.  While the games don't count in the league, they still contribute to RPI/Krach, right?

For early in the season games this is the best reason I've heard.B-]Didn't we used to have an emoticon with a light bulb?

[Al DeFlorio]

Yeah, and that's actually a beef I have.  WHAT GIVES with all these ECACHLMNOP teams scheduling "non-conference" games with other conference members??  OK, for Clarkson-SLU in Ottawa several years ago, I get it...but COME ON.  You can't find anybody else to play your extremely limited non-conference games with?  REALLY??!  I'm sorry, but that sucks.

Possibly playing other Ivies is an attempt at playing an opponent that DOESN'T have the advantage of a few weeks of extra practice and several games.  While the games don't count in the league, they still contribute to RPI/Krach, right?

For early in the season games this is the best reason I've heard.B-]Didn't we used to have an emoticon with a light bulb?

This is why for many seasons Ivy football teams opened their season against another Ivy.  From 1976 through 1996 Cornell opened, with one or two exceptions, with Princeton or Penn.

[Trotsky]

Possibly playing other Ivies is an attempt at playing an opponent that DOESN'T have the advantage of a few weeks of extra practice and several games.  While the games don't count in the league, they still contribute to RPI/Krach, right?

I honestly don't think any program in the ECAC other than Cornell and possibly Harvard (which is always set with its Boston area games) would think to factor PWR into their scheduling.

[Robin]

Anyone going to the pre-game reception in Providence?