What do people thing would happen to the 17 Div II/III schools
currently playing hockey in Div I if there was a sudden large influx of
major schools at Div I level?  Would they be able to stay competitive
or would they eventually leave Div I?
 
What I am thinking about is that before women's basketball became as
large as it currently is, one heard of a number of smaller schools that
were major forces (I remember Philadelphia Textile, for example), but
now the schools that are at the top in women's basketball are by and
large the same ones that are similarly placed in men's basketball.
 
Although it seems very unlikely that the Alabamas and Texases will
adopt hockey on Div-I level in the near future, there has certainly
been been much traffic on Hockey-L about whether this school or that
school should or can go to Div I.  Some of this, of course, has
focussed on additional Div II/III schools going to Div I, e.g, the
current dozen or so schools that are Div II and will soon be without a
tournament.
 
I wonder if schools like RPI, Clarkson, LSSU, etc would be able to
compete with schools like UCLA, Nebraska, etc if they were all at the
same level.
 
Ralph Baer   RPI '68, '70, '74