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From: ryan@fremen.DEC
Newsgroups: net.sport.hockey
Subject: Re: Re: College Hockey
Message-ID: <828@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Mar-85 11:38:05 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.828
Posted: Fri Mar  1 11:38:05 1985
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>This is in reference to the previous article stating that the WCHA
>was "cocky".  I think perhaps that was a bit harsh.  

Perhaps I was a bit harsh. But I don't like the idea. Granted, the WCHA
has been strong in recent years, but an at-large system will tend to
favor teams from leagues with a recent history of strength and give the
short end of the stick to leagues which have improved during the current
year. This year, I suspect that this would result in only the league 
champs from the ECAC and Hockey East going to the NCAA's, and take away
their chance to prove themselves against the WCHA and CCHA.  Even if (for
example) RPI were to win the national championship, it wouldn't prove that
Clarkson and Harvard were competitive with the western teams.  I think they
deserve that chance. 

>I'm still not sure that I like the idea of merging the WCHA with
>an eastern league (I miss the Minnesota at Wisconsin series and the
>Wisconsin at North Dakota series),

Yes, I miss RPI vs. BC, BU, UNH. I also miss the longer, more intense
schedule - playing a lighter schedule has hurt RPI's poll standings all
year. Unfortunately, they're in the ECAC and the Ivy League schools
insist on shorter schedules and higher academic requirements (which may
be the thing that really hurts schools that take their hockey seriously,
like RPI and Clarkson in the long run). What do you think of this proposal for
scheduling in all the leagues:?

Each team plays each other team in its league 3 times as all but the
ECAC do now.
Each team plays each team in the other regional league once (pairing off
ECAC-Hockey East, WCHA-CCHA).
Each team plays half of the teams in each of the other two leagues once
(so every team will play every other team at least once every two years).

Assuming RPI and Clarkson moved to Hockey East (which I would really
like to see), each team would play about 40 games (which, I admit, doesn't
leave too much room for games against independents).  The Ivy League
schools would be allowed to skip the Western games and some of the
Hockey East games.  This would even out the schedules among all the
Division I league teams and make comparison of teams in different
leagues realistic.  As a matter of fact, with more even schedules the
at-large proposal would be much more reasonable, giving more weight to
actual performance than perception of league strength in making selections.

>Side light: I haven't been to a game this year, but Wisconsin usually
>packs around 8000 in for a game.  When I went to school there, the games
>were almost always sold out.

RPI and Clarkson almost always sell out, too (but they've got smaller arenas).

>Jon Hanrath

******************

>Michigan State now has 5 losses (so they've lost 3 in the past 2 weeks).

Oops! Don't know what I was thinking - Michigan State had 3 losses before,
so they've only lost two in the past two weeks.

I saw Northeastern play UNH on TV last night in the battle for the last
home-ice spot in Hockey East. UNH scored 3 goals in the last 7 minutes to
pull it out of the fire, 5-4.  Northeastern is 0-3-1 since winning the
Beanpot (the traditional fate of Beanpot winners), and will fall to sixth
place if Lowell beats UNH Sunday. Looking ahead to the playoffs, I'd pick
UNH as a dark-horse to win Hockey East.

	Mike Ryan