2006-7 Schedule

[Trotsky]

It may not be fair, but I've got the data: http://www.tbrw.info/cornellHistory/nonECAC.html

[ithacat]

[quote heykb]

We could use a BU or UND or UMich weekend every year, alternating locations. I'm sure it's not a slam dunk to arrange but somehow there's gotta be a way.

Karl B. '77[/quote]

Agreed. Granted, Cornell's not dealing from a position of strength but it should be an attractive rivalry candidate, nonetheless.

I'd love to see an annual weekend with Michigan. Give those NTDP kids every chance possible to see Cornell play, plus it's driveable. Otherwise, either Wisconsin or BU (the red rivalry) would be great. Though I'd be thrilled with any of the following: Denver, CC, Minny, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, BU, BC, or New Hamphsire.

Ah, to dream...

[KeithK]

[quote mikee293]"I'll give a real answer on the assumption that your comment is sincere (and not snarky)"


it was sincere.....but i guess poorly worded haha[/quote]Not necessarily...I'm just used to me being snarky that I see it everywhere. :-D

[redGrinch]

[quote Chris '03][quote bothman]Well, Harvard managed to get a home and home with UND, UNH, and Maine in recent years....they haven't been scheduling the likes of RIT and Canisius ::rolleyes::[/quote]

To be fair, you have to look at geography. Harvard has the advantage of playing in the middle of HEA country. Cornell's closest non-conference opponents are RIT, Canisius, Niagara, Mercyhurst, RMU, and Army probably. It's a far cry from BU, BC, UNH, Maine, etc.

The economics do play a role. It's easier financially to take a hit and play in a small barn on the road when it's near by than when it's cross country.

The UND series is a good pick up. They've shown a surprising willingness to play in ECAC rinks (see, Princeton & Yale a few years back. That was the series that included the ND radio guy having a fight with the fan on the air and Chris Higgins getting the gate for fighting).[/quote]

And also with the geography - Boston is a more attractive road trip for teams then Ithaca.  I have no idea how Clarkson/SLU gets some of those programs to go into the North Country though.

I don't think we should go on the road though to play top teams if they're not willing to return the trip.  It's not like we're a mid-major team in hoops.  We're nationally ranked year-in, year-out, help out another team's strength of schedule, etc.  I would love to see us play Wisconsin or Michigan or such - but we shouldn't have to always go out there.  tOSU may be one of the better options out there for us.

I would settle for a home and home series with a rotating Hockey East team each season.  I don't see why that's not doable - even if it's UMass or UML to start with.  Actually maybe some scheduling lessons could be learned from our lacrosse team which I think does a reasonable job in getting some top tier teams and some 'easier' games.

[TCHL8842]

I think the problem of scheduling HE teams lies within most HE teams usually already have ECAC teams that they play year in-year out.
  Harvard plays in the Beanpot which takes up 2 games of BC, BU, and NE.  This leaves each team with up to 8 NC games left of which 2 are usually taken up by holiday tournament leaving 6 games.  Of those 6 games BC and BU usually have a series against a WCHA team being top conference in east versus top in west.  This leaves only 4 games left for us to schedule a game against them.  Of those 4 games, BC and BU are best of getting teams from CHA, CCHA, and AHA to gain the most in the COP category.  As you can see this leaves us lying on the outside in.  Can we work ourselves into one of those NC games probably but it will be hard and you cant expect it every year.
  Out of the other HE teams that will help our RPI and PWR rankings are probably just Maine and UNH.  Maine is in our holiday tournament so we can through them out since playing the same team 3 times will not help you gain COPs.  So this leaves UNH.  UNH, I believe is going to play Dartmouth every year so there is one ECAC team for them.  This is our best shot I think of getting an good HE to play us during the regular season.  The only problem with UNH is I can see them more inclined to play against SLU since the travel is easier.

Out of the top 4 teams in the HE, you can see already have ECAC foes to play against every year so I think it is unlikely that we get one of these teams to play us outside the Florida tourney.  I think we should play more HE opponents but I think it will be likely UMass or UML.  I would like to have us play Vermont as our HE opponent but I think UMass and UML would be easier to schedule.

The other conferences I dont nearly as much as who usually plays against whom in the ECAC.  I think we can easily rule out the two Alaskan teams.  I think this year, we should of tried to take one of SCSU against Colgate games to play us and remove one of the weaker games.  This would of helped considerably.  Also I wonder why we never team up with Colgate to play a larger variety of OOC opponents since we could play 2 different ones a weekend here.

[Robb]

[quote bothman]Wow is all I have to say.  Someone should send that stat to Schafer.  Almost unbelievable.  Maybe that starts to give the EZAC chants a little more credence and provides a solid backdrop for an ECAC team not winning it all since Harvard did in 1989.[/quote]
So how does Harvard's record look in this analysis?  You must know, because surely you wouldn't come in here ripping on Cornell's record unless you already knew Harvard's was significantly better, right?  ::whistle::

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote Robb]
So how does Harvard's record look in this analysis?  You must know, because surely you wouldn't come in here ripping on Cornell's record unless you already knew Harvard's was significantly better, right?  ::whistle::[/quote]
I'm sure bothman will point with pride to Harvard's superb NCAA tournament record over the past four years as evidence of how well their difficult out-of-conference schedule has served them. ::worry::

[Liz '05]

[quote TCHL8842]Also I wonder why we never team up with Colgate to play a larger variety of OOC opponents since we could play 2 different ones a weekend here.[/quote]

We did that in 2003-2004 (and presumably the year before) with Ohio State and Bowling Green.  Not sure if it helps or hinders us to play a team twice - on one hand, we're better in the second half of the season when we see all the ECAC teams for the second time, but on the other, recent evidence in weekend series with, oh, Michigan State has us doing worse in the second game.

[bothman]

Harvard has not performed as well in the NCAAs as Cornell, but that is because Cornell has been better than Harvard.  I think Cornell had the talent and the coaching to weld that talent to win the NCAAs in prior years, but I honestly believe that Cornell's non-conference schedule hindered them...if nothing else, but to see the quality out West as a motivating factor at an early point in the season.

Harvard has continually been able to schedule non-conference teams.  Yes, being in Boston helps with the scheduling of BU and BC, but getting games with Maine, North Dakota, and Michigan in recent years is something Cornell should be able to achieve as well.  Hearing Big Mike and Cornell fans say that they want to help promote hockey by scheduling RIT and Canisius is such a joke and laughable.

Why do guys like Al Deflorio get so defensive (1989 maybe?) I have nothing but respect for Cornell's program.  I just think their non-conference schedule reflects a team from Atlantic Hockey as opposed to one of the best programs in the East.  The sad thing is that now that Cornell is experiencing a little more parity, an early exit from the ECAC tourney or some stumbles down the home stretch in the regular season, may cause the Big Red to miss the dance.  That would be a shame.....

[Rita]

I also think that Harvard's ability to get teams like north dakato to come east is influenced by the amount of high school-prep school hockey talent. The coaches get to do some recruiting and the high school kids get an opportunity to see a team that is interested in them play live. Granted there is good hockey talent in central new york, it is just much more concentrated in boston. Teams can schedule 2 games, versus two different teams (and leagues) without changing hotels and driving more than 30 miles.

I would like to see cornell and colgate (maybe even niagara?) work together and try and bring teams from the in for a 2 game set, one at each barn. Colgate usually has a good record, and niagara is at the top of the cha (thus would be a game with a potential TUC team). However, i do agree with coach in that if our team travels out west, they should return the visit.

[David Harding]

[quote Robb][quote heykb]
There was a time where we scheduled BU every other year or so. We should be playing top tier non-conference opponents. BU/BC/UNH in the east, Mich/Minn/CC/UND in the west.[/quote]

Um, no there wasn't.  We've only played BU 8 times since the Great Divorce, 4 @ Lynah, 1 neutral site at the Syracuse Invitational, and 3 @ BU.  2 of those games were in 1989, 2 in 2002, and 2 in 2003.  So there have only been 5 seasons since 1984 that we've played BU - more like every 4 years.  We've played BU far more frequently in the last 4 years than in the 20 years before that.[/quote]
Some of us have memories that go back more than 20 years to before "the Great Divorce."  The WAS a time when we scheduled them every year and met them in the post season once, or even twice, in many of those years, but they weren't non-conference games then.

[Robb]

[quote bothman]Harvard has continually been able to schedule non-conference teams.  Yes, being in Boston helps with the scheduling of BU and BC, but getting games with Maine, North Dakota, and Michigan in recent years is something Cornell should be able to achieve as well.[/quote]
Well, as written, that sentence is correct.  But if you meant to say "good" non-conference teams, I have to disagree.  Since '99 (the earliest year I have available from USCHO), Harvard has gone 4-14-2 vs non-conference teams that made the NCAA tournament.  However, precisely *4* of those games were vs teams not named BU or BC: 2 at CC in '01, 1 at Michigan in '02, and 1 vs Maine in '05.  I can't count the NoDak games just yet, because we don't know if they'll make the tourney this year or not.  But even counting them, that means that Harvard's been able to schedule good non-conference teams not in their back yard 4 times in the last 7 seasons (and you're about the closest decent non-conference team to Maine, so that one's a little iffy).  Whoop-de-do.  Way to go Harvard - really pulling your weight there.

Gosh, let's all bow down to the scheduling capabilities of the Harvard athletics office.  Let's all strive to be as wonderful as they are.  Thank goodness they've been around to improve the image of the ECAC, or we really would be the EZAC.

[Robb]

[quote David Harding]Some of us have memories that go back more than 20 years to before "the Great Divorce."  The WAS a time when we scheduled them every year and met them in the post season once, or even twice, in many of those years, but they weren't non-conference games then.[/quote]
Yes, but that's irrelevant to the discussion about the non-conference teams that we're able to schedule in today's environment.  Today's environment has only existed since 1985, so that's the logical cutoff.

[David Harding]

[quote Robb][quote David Harding]Some of us have memories that go back more than 20 years to before "the Great Divorce."  The WAS a time when we scheduled them every year and met them in the post season once, or even twice, in many of those years, but they weren't non-conference games then.[/quote]
Yes, but that's irrelevant to the discussion about the non-conference teams that we're able to schedule in today's environment.  Today's environment has only existed since 1985, so that's the logical cutoff.[/quote]I agree, and I tried to point that that out in my comment that weren't non-conference games.  But Karl B. '77 and I ('72) do remember a time when the games with BU were regular, however irrelevant that fact may be.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote David Harding]But Karl B. '77 and I ('72) do remember a time when the games with BU were regular, however irrelevant that fact may be.[/quote]
And some of us pre-date the 3/11/66 ECAC semi-final when Cornell and BU resumed (more accurate to say really "started") their rivalry after a 40-year hiatus.

[Greg, the first two games with BU were in the 1924-25 and 1925-26 seasons, both apparently in Ithaca, according to the media guide.]