>>>>> "Bill" == Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> writes:
Bill> Forwarded from [log in to unmask]
Bill> [...], but because Midd is in the process of
Bill> constructing a new, first-class arena (very similar to
Bill> Dartmouth's) and I think is entertaining thoughts/hopes of
Bill> *moving up* to Div I, which, for a school of Midd's academic
Bill> standing and physical location, should mean a berth in the ECAC.
 
Middlebury would have a hard time in division I if they remained in
NESCAC (New England Small School Athletic Conference) and I doubt they
would drop out.  NESCAC puts severe restrictions on sports teams in
the name of academics.  (Whether or not this is valid is a topic for
debate)  I think they would run into problems with number of games,
practice start/stop dates, not to mention that they can only
participate in one post-season tournament.  They are also not be
allowed to offer athletic scholarships.  Overall, NESCAC restrictions
are even more stringent than the normal division III restrictions.
 
For these reasons I highly doubt that we will see Middlebury become a
division I program, much less enter the ECAC-I.  They have an
excellent program that does very well in ECAC-III East.  The new arena
should provide more revenue and possibly bigger donations, but I
believe that the team will stay in their current division and
conference.
 
BTW, for anyone trying to access hockey3 recently (the division III
list).  The disk it was on crashed big time without adequate backups.
It seems that since I left the company that the machine the list is on
didn't make it into the normal backup procedure.  (I used to do my own
backups).  Anyway, they have sent the disk off to a third party to try
to recover the data and the list should be back up by the end of the
week.  I'll send a note out to hockey3 when things are back to normal.
 
Pete Kester
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