Apparently the net ate my post.
 
Although Mike has already responded with his typically intelligent late night
response, I too will respond to Arthur Berman's post.
 
>Perhaps it is time for the Ivies to go off into the corner and be by themselves
with their holier than thou attitude....if the Ivies want their own rules, let
them play in their own league.
 
Arthur's got it backwards.   It's the rest of the ECAC that wants to keep
the Ivies in the league.  The old ECAC members, Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Colgate
and RPI like playing the Ivies and want them to stay put.  For various reasons
playing with the suits the needs of each.  Let's examine each separately.
 
Colgate historically is viewed as a step below the Ivies academically.  Yet
their sports programs share the Ivies' viewpoint of the student athlete.
Colgate was a founder of the Patriot League, an academics first sports league.
Colgate sticks to its philosophy even when it lands one of the top ten
basketball talents in the country, Adonis Foyle, beating out the likes of
Syracuse and Duke.  The Colgate sports program likes playing against the Ivy
League and always will.
 
Clarkson and St. Lawrence tend to stay put because that's their only choice,
be it location-wise or whatever.  Neither school has ever been actively
recruited by HE, probably due to travel times.  Other than Colgate, RPI and
Vermont, the Ivies are probably the only available opponents.
 
Which brings us to RPI. RPI loves playing against the Ivies.  Competition-wise
Harvard is probably considered their biggest rival, at least in the Engineer's
eyes.  RPI is wedded to the academic index, in fact applying a more rigorous
standard than other ECAC schools.  RPI likes the opportunity to be a bigger
fish in a smaller pond.  Those two de facto NCAA bids always seem to be in
reach of the Engineers--just put together a run at the end of the season.  And
there is no real battle between RPI and the Ivies.  During RPI's mating dance
with HE the ECAC did make a couple of gestures to satisfy the Engineers, most
notably raising the number of games to 34.  And it wouldn't surprise me if the
limit was raised to the NCAA maximum of 36 (unless you play Alaska up north)
in the near future.  It would take another complete change-over by the
administration to get RPI away from the Ivies, so don't hold your breath.
 
I suspect there remains a degree of enmity between HE schools and the Ivies,
but I don't see it as much of a factor with the old ECAC teams.  The status quo
of the four leagues seems to be working very satisfactorily for all involved,
and I doubt that there will be an migration of ECAC teams in the future.
 
Which brings me to my last point: it will be difficult for Niagara to obtain
admission to the ECAC, and will occur only if, as Chris Lerch suggest, it is
paired with another upgrading team, perhaps a Buffalo State or RIT.  Union was
only admitted as a replacement for Army, in order to retain the travel partner
scheme.  Assuming no one leaves the ECAC (the only other candidate I could think
of is Vermont, and they don't seem to have any inclination to bolt) Niagara
would have to be paired with some team out in the western fringes of the ECAC.
Cornell is currently the western-most, but their proximity to Colgate makes
the current arrangement preferable to both schools.  So I would guess that
Niagara will have an uphill climb to true D-I status, unless, as John H. points
out, they elect to go with the CCHA. :-)
*********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                        RPI Engineers--1995 ECAC Champions
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