On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Anthony Frolik wrote:
 
> Responding to the message of         Thu, 2 Apr 1998 11:27:16 -0600
> from Craig Roberts <[log in to unmask]>:
> >
> > North Dakota is trying to block admitting either of those teams into the
> > league.
> > Apparently, they don't want any more of a Division 2 presence in the
> > league than is already there.
> Huh?  UND is only D-I in hockey.  Why would they be so conserned about
> having more teams that are only D-I in hockey?  If they want less D-II
> presence, then maybe they should leave the league.  This doesn't make any
> sense to me.  Does anyone know if this is truly the case and if so, why?
 
I have no idea if this is actually UND's viewpoint. But I can see where the
alleged viewpoint of North Dakota comes from. I'll warn you right now
that this is long.
 
I think the view is that a Division II or III school gains a certain
level of prestige when it plays up in hockey, i.e. plays with the big
boys. North Dakota and Minnesota only meet each other on a regular basis
in one high-profile sport - hockey.
 
This point was raised somewhat this week during the ECAC discussions. The
view put forward there was that the non-Ivy ECAC schools see themselves
as having their prestige raised by being associated with the Ivies. I think
the same theory holds here. A D-II or D-III school is raised, merely by
playing (and being competitive with) the true Division I schools.
 
Certainly, to use the ECAC example, few people would know of Clarkson,
St. Lawrence or Union if they didn't play Division I hockey.
 
Let's take this theory into account, and look at what North Dakota sees
when it looks at the WCHA:
Division I - Minnesota and Wisconsin
Division II (North Central) - North Dakota and St. Cloud
Division II (Other confs.) - Alaska Anchorage, Denver, Michigan Tech,
Minnesota-Duluth
Division III - Colorado College
 
The WCHA has the fewest number of actual Division I schools in it to
begin with. Adding UNO or Mankato tips the balance further in favour of
the Division II-III schools, and possibly dilutes the influence of
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
 
Speaking purely on scheduling terms, adding more teams to the league
means that Minnesota and Wisconsin will be playing UND fewer times.
 
Right now, each WCHA team does not visit one rink during the course of a
season. If the schedule works on a rotation basis, that means that
Minnesota won't go up to UND one year out of every sixteen. If another
team is added, and the schedule remains at 28 games [1], then each team will
not visit two rinks (playing 5 teams home-and-away (20) and 4 teams home
_or_ away (8)). That means that Minnesota would now not visit North
Dakota once every eight years, instead of sixteen.
 
Adding both Nebraska-Omaha and Mankato would mean that teams would not
visit three rinks (they would play four teams home-and-away (16) and 6
teams only once (12)). That again increases the frequency of years when
Minnesota wouldn't go to UND. This is a prospect that probably makes
UND's AD see red (ink). Minnesota is a much bigger draw than Mankato.
 
There may also be a concern that an increase in the number of Division II
teams may push the two Division I schools to look elsewhere, specifically
to Big-10 reunification.
 
It is possible that conference rivalries may come into play here, as
well. Both Mankato State and Nebraska-Omaha are in the North Central
Conference, along with SCSU and UND. It may be that UND sees playing D-I
hockey, in the WCHA, as giving them an advantage of sorts over UNO and
MSU (and the other NCC schools). I would be interested to find out how
North Dakota reacted to St. Cloud's ascension to Division I. It has been
stated previously here that SCSU was made to wait before they were
granted entry into the WCHA. I wonder what role (if any) UND played in that.
 
I don't want to leave the impression that I am deliberately dumping on
North Dakota. The arguments I've presented could just as easily be made
by many of the other schools in the conference.
 
See you later,
John
 
[1]- Bear in mind, when considering this, that the WCHA made the decision
to drop from 32 to 28 games last year *before* Northern Michigan made its
decision to leave.)
 
--
John Edwards - Carleton (ON) '96, Manitoba '00 - [log in to unmask]
          Have I offended The Globe and Mail yet enough? - Brian Tobin
The opinions expressed are mine alone, because everybody else says I'm weird.
   NOTE: I reserve the right to forward any obnoxious and/or stupid mail.
 
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