Mike Machnik, Deron Treadwell, etc. have commented on ECAC and Hockey East
expansion (and teams willingness to join Division I hockey in the East).  A
modest proposal follows:
 
The ECAC already has 12 teams and the Ivies are limited to 29 games.  No
problem.  I believe the ECAC used to have upwards of 16 teams (the Ivies,
Clarkson, St. Lawrence, RPI/Rensselaer, Providence, UNH, Colgate, Vermont,
BU, and BC).  This was before the ECAC/Hockey East split.  My apologies for
missing anyone on this list.  They managed 16 teams then.  The league could
be split two divisions.  The Ivies could have their own division, play each
other twice, and have their Ivy League Champion.  They could limit their
games to 29.  The other division could have Clarkson, St. Lawrence,
RPI/Rensselaer, Colgate, Vermont, Union, and up to two additional teams.
Each division would play each other team in the division twice (14 games
for the non-Ivies, less for the Ivies) and play each team in the other
division once (8 games max.).  This would leave the each team at least 7
games to schedule non-conference games as they wish, more if their
school/division allowed it.
 
The Ivies care more about who among them land on top of the Ivy pile than
anything else, in my opinion (they crown their own champion amongst
themselves), there is little real rivalry between RPI and the Ivies (except
for Harvard, because of the strength of the team; Brown, because their
seems to be some blood lust between the teams since the noisemaker rule;
Cornell, because they are from New York State).  The Ivies have a lot of
rivalry between themselves, so let them play twice.  I could care less if
RPI plays Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, etc. twice or once.  Once is enough
in my opinion.
 
The biggest rivalries for RPI are amongst Clarkson and St. Lawrence, and to
a lesser extent UVM, Colgate, Harvard and Cornell.  I am sure that Union
will be a big rival sometime in the next five years, but they are not right
now.  (No offense to Union fans, but until you field a competitive team
that has a chance at beating RPI on a consistent basis, RPI will not
consider you a rival no matter what the local newspapers say - one playoff
upset 2 or 3 years ago does not qualify).  Is it any coincidence that these
are mostly NY teams (and Vermont is right across Lake Champlain)?  Why not
build on this regional situation to create more rivalries?
 
RPI used to have strong rivalries with UNH, Providence, BC and BU.  Most
people in the Capital district would like to see games against these teams
each year.  It's good for Eastern Hockey and it's good for RPI (and if RPI
is competitive, it's good for Hockey East also).  If Hockey East doesn't
want to play us, then RPI could schedule games against CCHA or WCHA teams.
At the very least, they could schedule games with Ivy Division opponents
until opportunities opened up.
 
I don't begrudge the Ivies for what they want.  They seem to expect
something different out of the ECAC than the rest of the ECAC does.  Aside
from Cornell, most fans from the Ivy schools are not that concerned with
hockey.  Maybe it's changed in the last 5 years, but when I announced games
it was common to see a half empty 2500 seat Ivy rink when they played RPI.
Maybe it was because they were playing a non-Ivy opponent, I don't know,
but if that's the case, it just illustrates the point I am making.  Their
own division within a common league would allow them them semi-autonomy.
They could have as restrictive recruiting rules as they wanted, restrict
the numbers of games, etc.  If Harvard wanted to play RPI twice a year,
they still could.  If Dartmouth wanted to play Vermont twice a year, they
could also.  They could nurture the rivalries they wanted without forcing
the rest of the league to be forced into it across the board (sorry, but I
just don't get up for the twice annual Dartmouth/RPI clash).  If the ECAC
got large enough that it split into two leagues, so what?  It happened once
already, and it wasn't the end of the world.
 
Fact is, college hockey is growing in popularity and more teams will be
seeking to move up to Division I.  The existing leagues can accept this and
deal with it in an intelligent manner, or they can ignore it and let
something far less sensible happen (like having Canisius or Niagara play
Maine, BC or BU twice a year).  Eastern Hockey is becoming balkanized.
Splitting the ECAC up into its natural divisions (the Ivies and everyone
else) would regionalize the league.  Let the non-Ivy ECAC division
concentrate on New York State, Vermont and Western Massachusetts as a
region.  UConn would be a natural for Hockey East (less than 2 hours from
Boston and certain to give them some NY City coverage).  The Ivies
concentrate on themselves, which is what they do in football and maybe
other sports as well (I plead ignorance on this).
 
There is plenty of hockey to go around, but why have a lot of teams
traveling 8-9 hours to get to schools in their league.  You'll always have
the exception, but why make it the rule.  Can you imagine doing this 6-7
weekends a year as a student athlete?  It's not like they can fly to some
of these places easily.
 
Any comments or ideas?  Does anyone from the leagues subscribe to Hockey-L?
 
-Ken Johnson
RPI/Rensselaer '87
 
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