2016-17 Schedule

[KeithK]

In conference play, 5 of last 7 and 9 of last 13 at home.

Yeah, tough schedule in the first half from that standpoint. First five RS games and three weekends on the road.  But the make it through that OK and the home stretch is a lot better.

[Give My Regards]

I could see that first exhibition game being a little rough on the fans if they aren't prepared for it:

"Screw BU!  University of Ontario Institute of Technology too!"

[Jim Hyla]

Actually that's not exactly the case. Cornell will also visit Merrimack on Friday Oct 28th for a single game alone with returning on Jan 7th  for another single game. Very strange.

Good catch.  I wasn't looking for the date in Oct so I only saw the one game in January.

Maybe the coaches wanted to spread the games out a bit so the two teams didn't face each other three times within 10 days or so.

I suspect, if possible, he didn't want to start with 2 games on the road, against a team that had already played 6 real games. How I wish the Ivies would change.

As an aside, I posted everything known on the first post of this thread. Let me know if there are any typos.

[Swampy]

What's the difference between this thread and the "2016-2017 Schedule" thread? Can we merge them somehow?

[Swampy]

Unusual (unfortunate for diversity of schedule) that Cornell both plays Merrimack twice and has the potential of playing them in the Florida tournament. Gives Cornell a game there before the games the next weekend at Dartmouth and Harvard.

Even more disconcerting, we will only have one non-exhibition game before entering Ivy/ECAC play. I'd much prefer to have us playing a game on Oct. 28 or 30, no matter what the issues are with Merrimack. Also, given the economics, it seems awfully extravagant to pay for two separate trips to eastern Massachusetts for only one game.

I know the Ivy League limits the number of out-of-conference games, but especially for the earlier game it makes more sense to play UMass Lowell, PC, or one of the other nearby schools while we're in the neighborhood.

[wakester2468]

Cornell signed a contract that they would play Merrimack twice after Merrimack played twice in Ithaca last year. With a 29 game limit and having Miami in Ithaca in December there was no option
to pick up another game in New England in October. With the Florida trip and MSG annual game, there is just nothing that could be done. Breaking a contract with Merrimack would be wrong in many ways and future opponents coming to Ithaca would have second thought

[wakester2468]

The real source of the problem is the Ivy League.   It is understandable not to start football until the 3rd Saturday in Sept for freshman students welfare and the fact Ivy's don't participate in playoffs.  The hockey programs in the Ivy League are very much penalized even in their own league nevermind nationally by this ridiculous game limit. This really needs to be changed. A compromise of 32 games seems reasonable. All other schools nationally play either 35 or 36.

[wakester2468]

It seems later than usual for the official schedule to be published. From what I've seen to this
point, there seems to be a hole in the schedule for the last weekend in October.  Anyone know if the final schedule
is done?

[Beeeej]

Coach Schafer's last email update said he would be in Buffalo for the US Select 17 camp for a while and would probably be sending out schedules this week.

[wakester2468]

Ask and you shall receive. It seemed odd that CU had no game the weekend after the exhibition games.
Now even stranger is the solution. Cornell owes Merrimack two games in Andover which traditionally would be on a friday and saturday which was the original plan for early January. Merrimack just released their schedule and Cornell will actually be traveling to Merrimack on the last weekend of October for one game and then again on the first weekend in January for another single game. Very odd indeed.
Can't ever remember this ever happening before.

[Trotsky]

The real source of the problem is the Ivy League.   It is understandable not to start football until the 3rd Saturday in Sept for freshman students welfare and the fact Ivy's don't participate in playoffs.  The hockey programs in the Ivy League are very much penalized even in their own league nevermind nationally by this ridiculous game limit. This really needs to be changed. A compromise of 32 games seems reasonable. All other schools nationally play either 35 or 36.

We've been talking about this for, literally, decades.  29 is after all progress.  After the Great Divorce the limit was 25 for a long time.

I value the academic emphasis of the Ivies, but I do think the game limit is somewhat disingenuous since the team still does full practices and weight room.  I feel they could go to 32 on a three-year trial.

[KeithK]

I feel they could go to 32 on a three-year trial.

What would be the metric for deciding whether the trial was successful? Average GPA of players? Whether the teams/coaches/players like it? (Of course they will)  Seems to me that you either make the change on principle (or ratr realizing that 32 and an earlier start date don't go gainst our principles) or you don't.

[Trotsky]

I feel they could go to 32 on a three-year trial.

What would be the metric for deciding whether the trial was successful? Average GPA of players? Whether the teams/coaches/players like it? (Of course they will)  Seems to me that you either make the change on principle (or ratr realizing that 32 and an earlier start date don't go gainst our principles) or you don't.

Qualitative.  See if the players have felt overwhelmed, adjust accordingly.  The principle is we put academics first.  The schedule length plays into that, but any given number* of games is not a matter of principle, it's a pragmatic balancing act.

* After all, if it were principle, the optimal number of games would be zero.

[Swampy]

Cornell signed a contract that they would play Merrimack twice after Merrimack played twice in Ithaca last year. With a 29 game limit and having Miami in Ithaca in December there was no option
to pick up another game in New England in October. With the Florida trip and MSG annual game, there is just nothing that could be done. Breaking a contract with Merrimack would be wrong in many ways and future opponents coming to Ithaca would have second thought

First, this doesn't explain why Cornell could not play Merrimack on both October 28 & 29, 2016. The previous weekend Merrimack plays Colgate twice. Evidently, Merrimack's mid-week game against BC on Oct. 25 is the reason we are not playing Merrimack on October 28.

But regarding the Ivy League, aside from principle out of context, one might make reasonable assumptions about likely contexts. During the regular season each year Cornell, and I assume the other Ivies, wants to play 4 out-of-conference, on-campus games, MSG, and the Florida tournament. Let's assume the Ivies approve, consistent with principle, of teams playing 2 games in a holiday tournament plus one "special venue" game per year. This leaves the 4 out-of-conference games. Furthermore, assume the later all require home-and-home series over two years. Finally, assume that Ivy teams try to get uncommon, high-quality out-of-conference opponents, which implies a higher likelihood of more distant teams. In turn, because of travel costs this increases the likelihood of two-game series rather than individual games. So we can assume Ivy teams are highly likely to schedule two sets of double games per season with reciprocal travel over two years. But because the opponents belong to other leagues, there's the possibility that league schedules might preempt back-to-back games. In short, while not the most likely scenario, outcomes like what's happening this year with Merrimack are a distinct possibility.

So now the Ivy League has to ask the question: Which is more in keeping with league principles, allowing more scheduling flexibility or making student-athletes take one extra, unnecessary, distant trip to play two separate games just in order to fulfill scheduling obligations? (The latter also has the additional implication that Ivy teams, already disadvantaged by playing opponents with more games under their belts, may have another disadvantage due to unnecessary travel requirements as an artifact of league rules.) The answer seems obvious, and there are several ways the Ivy League could add the additional flexibility. One is to allow more games, which would open more dates. Another would be to allow an earlier start. A third would be to allow either of the first two options, but only once every so many (two, three, four?) years. A fourth would be to make exceptions, along the lines of options 1 and 2, when teams can demonstrate they are caught in such a scheduling bind through no fault of their own, as seems to be the case with Cornell-Merrimack this year.

[Jim Hyla]

Just in case anyone is depending on my schedule listing, I just noticed that I had the first @ Merrimack game listed incorrectly. It's Fri 10/28 not Sat 10/29. The second one is correct Sat 1/7.