2005 Florida College Classic

[Avash]

Apparently (?) next December's participants will be Cornell, Maine, Minnesota-Duluth, and Northeastern.

http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?t=48227

[Tom14850]

That seems to be a step down in terms of competitive quality from the more recent seasons. Boston College and Ohio State are hard to replace. Any thoughts on how good tUMD will be next year? I don't know anything about them.

It's a shame if it is a step down, because Cornell has been relying rather heavily on that tournament for some quality non-conference opponents.

[Rita]

in order to get an early start on next season PWR gripes :-), in the long run if we play umd it should help us (win, loss or draw) since we will then have connection to the mighty whca in the "opponents-opponents" rpi component.

However, we would likely get maine or northeastern as a first round game since they probably won't (and shouldn't) match up 2 HE opponents for a NC game.

[Will]

I guess that means Ohio State is in fact out of the tournament permanently.  I was hoping this past year was just an aberration in preparation for the FF, but I guess I was wrong.  Oh well.

"tUMD"?  Somebody's been spending too much time on the USCHO message board, I see. :-D

[billhoward]

In addition to wanting regional representation, the tournament also wanted schools with big alumni populations who also had big now-living-in-Florida populations. That made the December 2003 tournament great with Ohio State and Notre Dame along with Cornell and Maine.

For the players themselves, the tournament is not a week on the beach. If the players got home for the holidays, they had to depart 12/26 and sometimes 12/25 to get back in order to get to Florida. I think there's one day of free time after the tournament, not a whole week.

Also for OSU with a big in-state population, maybe a holiday tournament is a good PR thing.

[Josh 03]

I like Adam Wodon's idea of having a Lake Placid holiday tournament...

"It's unlikely the ECAC tournament is going back to Lake Placid any time soon. But figure out a way to do something up there every year â€" maybe an ECAC Holiday Festival."

Though not only with ECAC teams.  If they did only, it certainly wouldn't be beneficial for Cornell or other top ECAC teams to play there.  And a tournament with the lesser teams of the ECAC wouldn't be a big draw.  But if there was one or 2 ECAC teams, and they could draw some Hockey East or Mid West and Western schools...

http://www.uscho.com/news/2005/03/20_010446.php

[billhoward]

A holiday tournament in Lake Placid is one of those ideas that's brilliant on paper. There is the wee small problem of the town and environs being booked solid during the holiday week and if you can get a room, the hotel may demand a one-week stay. All  those rooms for competitors at the 1980 Olympics - they're gone now or turned into prisons.

If the Everblades Classic ever goes bust - and let's hope it doesn't - the ECAC should also look to revive the Madison Square Garden holiday tournament. (If the ECAC wanted to think big, it should try to get the just-concluded tournament out of Albany for a year and into MSG. That way there'd be at least some competent hockey played there.)

And somebody needs to light a fire under MSG and get them to host the NCAAs circa 2012. There was talk 1-2 years back and it seems to have petered out. Maybe Cornell could host it?

[Will]

[Q]Josh 03 Wrote:

Though not only with ECAC teams.  If they did only, it certainly wouldn't be beneficial for Cornell or other top ECAC teams to play there.  And a tournament with the lesser teams of the ECAC wouldn't be a big draw.  But if there was one or 2 ECAC teams, and they could draw some Hockey East or Mid West and Western schools...

[/q]

This is exactly what I was thinking.  There could be a rotating participation of two ECAC schools in a four-team tournament, with the two ECAC teams playing the visitors in the first-round games.  And just because late December is already so clogged with holiday tournaments, the Placid tournament could take place on Thanksgiving weekend.  This probably means RPI won't ever be in the Placid tournament, but there are plenty of other ECAC teams available that weekend I believe.

[jtwcornell91]

1. A Lake Placid Invitational would be great, and in one way even better than having the ECACs there: fans could make their hotel arrangements far in advance with no danger of needing to cancel them if their team doesn't make it.

2. Too bad tOSU is no longer playing with us in Fla.  Especially since we have three Eastern teams in the tournament for the second year in a row.

3. This field may be a step down in hockey competition, but it's a step up in drinking competition.  I look forward to partying with the Duluth fans in Fort Myers.

4. Did anyone else think this thread was about the West Regional?

[judy]

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:


4. Did anyone else think this thread was about the West Regional?[/q]

are you still drunk?

And for the topic relevant message...I do miss Lake Placid even though it is tough to get to.

[TCHL8842]

Why are ppl so down on tUMD.  This team made it to the frozen four only a year ago.  I know they had a bad season this year, but they were preranked number 1 going into this season.  tUMD has just as much talent as OSU does so I really do not see them as a set down.  Also it might give us a chance to play a WCHA opponent which seems to come once in a blue moon outside of the NCAAs.  I will agree that Northeastern is a set down from the other teams that have been going to the tournament lately.

[Trotsky]

It's definitely a step down from the great fields we have seen lately.  OTOH, it will give Cornell a chance at a win vs a WCHA opponent, and the ensuing bump in the Common Opponents metric of PWR against all WCHA teams.

What the hell -- just win.

[Avash]

I'd speculate the matchups will be Cornell vs. Northeastern and Maine vs. UMD - because 1) I doubt they'd match up two HE opponents in the first round and 2) Only once in the 5 years of the tournament have Maine and Cornell faced each other in the first round.

[billhoward]

Too bad the seedings aren't set, say, 10 days beforehand based on the teams' rankings. BC-Cornell deserved to be the title game.

[billhoward]

[Q]TCHL8842 Wrote: Why are ppl so down on tUMD.[/q]Maybe it's an unfair and snippy bias against a school that's the University of Something-Hyphen-at-Something. Eg Texas > Texas Tech > West Texas State A&M in some people's minds.