2004 - 2005 CU Schedule

[nyc94]

Does anyone know the arrangement with the Everblades tournament?  Is Cornell committed to that tournament for the foreseeable future?

[Greg Berge]

Cornell is one of 3 "co-hosts," and the building is owned by a Cornell alumnus.

For several seasons in the early 80's, Fish & Fowl was played on the Friday that classes ended for the Fall semester.  This led to some very interesting parties ("parties" being a loose term for "riots"), and they stopped doing it.

The game should never be the home opener -- that takes two special dates and wastes one.  It might be interesting for it to be the RS finale, though.

[jy3]

my ooc games unspoken for did account for the unclaimed colgate series weekend. so i think we have 3 ooc games unclaimed. michigan would be nice so we can teach them some new cheers if any fans come.

[jy3]

2 new tidbits to chew on for the schedule for next year

1. from the tosu-cornell recap 2nite:
"With Ohio State not returning next year, there will be two new teams in the fifth Everblades College Classic. Boston College and St. Cloud State will join Cornell and Maine "

-so maine, bc, scsu will be in florida

2.  the vermont application for HE will make scheduling interesting if it goes thru... ::twitch::

[Keith K \'93]

If Vermont were to jump by next year (I know the application is real, but who knows how soon it could be acted upon) it probably wouldn't mess things up that much if the ECAC could find another team to join up by next season.  I suppose it would muck up Dartmouth and Harvard or whoever is affected by changed travel partnerships.  But they could probably keep the general structure.  The real wackiness would be if the league couldn't or didn't choose a replacement immediately.  If that happened then if nothing else the entire playoff structure would have to be revisited...

Pure post-holiday speculation.

[nyc94]

In an 11 team league, the top five would get byes.  The bottom six would play the first round.  The three winning teams go on to join the top five leaving eight teams for the quarterfinal round.  I suspect this would be easier than trying to add a team to the league in the next six months.  Beyond the travel partner considerations, the schedules would have to take things like exams.

I suspect that Vermont will not be in Hockey East next season.  I doubt the application could be approved by the end of the season - unless serious private discussions have already been going on.  HE currently plays each other team in the league 3 times for a 24 game schedule.  They have to decide to either play a 27 game schedule or cut back to two games apiece or 18 games.  Going to 27 games will be tricky - but not impossible - if they have solid commitments for out of conference games.  Cutting to 18 means adding many out of conference games which would also be tricky to do in the next six months.

Does anyone know/remember how much notice there was that Army was leaving the ECAC?

[Greg Berge]

Army was always three steps towards the door-- they rejoined the ECAC starting in 1984-85, and their first two seasons they only played 11 league games.  So, they only played 5 22-game ECAC seasons.  Surprisingly, they only finished last during one of them -- Brown and Dartmouth has some trly horrible teams back then.

[Keith K \'93]

I hadn't considered your 11 team playoff scenario. It sounds good though and they'd probably do something like that. Because doing something logical like having the bottom team(s) miss the playoffs would be too much to ask. :-P

I also think you're right that Vermont won't make it to HE by next year (if they eventually do).  Anyway, does 3 teams against each opponent really lend itself to a travel partner scheme?  I suppose you could use partners for the 1 game at one opponent and then use a weekend set (or home and home) for the other two.  It would be interesting to see what Bertagna and Co. would do.

[Greg Berge]

If HE expands they could go to an unbalanced schedule with a north and south region, with UNH and Maine controlling one and BU and BC rolling through the other.  Or, if UNH and Maine didn't want to diminish their Boston footprint, they could rotate teams between two non-geographical groups.  3 vs teams in your group and 2 vs teams in the other group would work -- for a 10 team league that works out to a 12+10=22 game RS.  BU and BC can always schedule each other NC to make up any lost date.

[Will]

Given the large number of problems concerning scheduling in going from a nine-team conference to a ten-team conference, I'd imagine Vermont won't be admitted until two other acceptable teams also submit applications to join Hockey East.  That being said, it wouldn't surprise me if two or more other D-I programs, likely Atlantic Hockey teams, submitted applications before Frozen Four '04.  I believe Hockey East is only interested in expanding directly from nine to twelve teams, in order to maintain a balanced schedule (they'd probably go to a travel partner system like the ECAC does now).  At the same time, the ECAC will pick up at least one more program to maintain its twelve-team structure, which will likely be an Atlantic Hockey program as well.  I guess what I'm predicting right now is the ultimate demise of the Atlantic Hockey Association, and it's all thanks to the University of Vermont. :-P

[ugarte]

One of the guys who got revenge on Volonnino wrote:

Given the large number of problems concerning scheduling in going from a nine-team conference to a ten-team conference, I'd imagine Vermont won't be admitted until two other acceptable teams also submit applications to join Hockey East.  

Hmm.  I had always assumed that places like Vermont don't lead with their chins.  Vermont almost certainly had plenty of informal talks with HE prior to submitting an official application letter. Especially since it knew that letter would be released to the public.  I wouldn't be surprised if either Vermont has been talking to HE for years.

[Greg Berge]

Atlantic Hockey:

Holy Cross (Worcester)
Quinnipiac (Hamden, CT)
Sacred Heart (Fairfield, CT)
Mercyhurst (Erie)
UConn (Storrs)
Canisius (Buffalo)
Army (West Point)
American Intl (Springfield)
Bentley (Waltham, MA)

[Give My Regards]

Bill '94 wrote:
Does anyone know/remember how much notice there was that Army was leaving the ECAC?

In November of 1990, Army announced that they were going independent starting the following season (1991-92).  Although not totally unexpected, I got the feeling at the time that the announcement was a bit of a surprise.  On the other hand, Union was on board as Army's replacement by the end of January '91.

[ugarte]

[Q]If you lead a good life, go to Sunday school and church, and say your prayers every night, when you die, you'll go to LYNAH![/Q]So throwing fish is enough to get you cast from heaven?

[adamw]

Vermont has a new AD, new president and new coach ... all since just this past summer.