I found the article in Friday's Schenectady Gazette regarding
RPI's remaining in the ECAC. Since most of the facts have
been reported on Hockey-L, I won't post all of it, just
excerpts.
 
"The Engineers began looking at the possibility of changing
conferences in February... They were intrigued with Hockey
East because the league offered something that the ECAC
could not provide: national exposure."
 
"RPI officials also considered changing conferece because of
the ECAC's stringent academic index, which ranks incoming
freshman hockey players according to class ranking, high school
average and SAT scores.
 
The fans were all set to move into Hockey East as early as the ECAC
playoffs. During their quarterfinal series with Union, a homemade
Hockey East banner was displayed.
 
But a series of events may have cost Hockey East. [RPI
President R. Byron] Pipes and the committe [appointed
to study a move] continued to weigh their options well into
the summer. Then, coach Buddy Powers, who was in favor of making
the switch, left the program last week to become
head coach at Bowling Green. On Wednesday, the Engineers
named assistant Dan Fridgen as Powers' replacement.
 
Also, the ECAC has been in negotiations with the Empire
Sports Network to televise several regular season games.
ESN has televised the ECAC Tournament semifinals and championship
game from Lake Placid."
 
--
Bri Farenell                    [log in to unmask]
Glens Falls, NY                 AHL, NCAA and ECAC contact for rec.sport.hockey
"There are 999 patrons of virtue to 1 virtuous man."  ---H.D. Thoreau
Forza Azzurri!                  Italia: 1994 World Cup Co-Champions