Ryan has some good comments & good ideas.  In that spirit, I wanted to
throw out a grand plan for Eastern semi-reunification that I don't believe
for one second will happen.
 
1) Ivy League stops being a phantom conference as the six teams leave the
  ECAC, just what they wanted 8 years ago anyway, to become The Ivy League.
2) Six remaining non-Ivies join HE as its Western Division.  Goodbye to
  30-game limit and index.
3) Current 8 HE teams become Eastern Division of HE.
4) Soon, UMass-Amherst is ready to join DivI.  UMass is 7th team in
  Western Division.
5) Potential 8th Western team is UConn, or perhaps Army would be interested
  in joining league without index.
 
Travelling partners:
EAST              WEST
BC-BU             RPI-Union
Maine-UNH         Vermont-UMass Amherst
NU-PC             Clarkson-SLU
Merr-Lowell       Army/UConn-Colgate
 
Army/UConn-Colgate is the biggest problem, Colgate isn't near anyone.  But
HE teams have been making trips out to Colgate for one game, so it's not
that far out of the ordinary.
 
Teams in the new HE could play 2 games vs teams in their own division, one
vs each in the other for a total of 22 HE games.
 
Current HE & ECAC rivalries are maintained while renewing old rivalries for
one game a year that now means more.  Only problem is UMass-Amherst, which I
think is looking to join HE because of rivalries w/the Boston schools and
UMass-Lowell.  It would only get to play those schools once a year.
 
Ivies could play each other twice for 10 Ivy games, leaving 16 NLG to play
that could be used to maintain rivalries with certain ECAC/HE teams.  But the
trend seems to be in the Ivies to cut back even further; Chris Dietrich from
Princeton sent me interesting mail about an imminent cutback from 50 to 35
football recruits and elimination of the freshman football programs, so it
is likely only a matter of time before they go after hockey again.  A
reduction to only 10 league games gives them quite a bit of leeway as far as
games to chop, chop, chop.
 
 
- mike, being imaginative (but realistic) on Friday