Thank you tony for saving me from looking up how many conference games
the whca league plays. thus with the ivies only having 7 nc games, and
the wcha only having 6, it makes it hard to schedule. In addition if
any eastern team travels west, it behooves them to get two games and
vice versa for western teams coming east. now that you have to try and
work in another team's schedule to make it work for all 3 teams.
  the wcha having to fit in 28 league games (14 weekends), were already
into their conference play on 11/5-11/6 this year. One week after the
ivies had begun play.
In addition, most schedules are set a few years in advance, so it not
like any ECAC team that thinks they will have a strong team next year
can just call the wcha and get some games scheduled to help their pwr.
I'm sure coaches also schedule somewhat according to their team. if in
2 years you will have lost a lot of seniors and will have a young team,
you don't want to have a tough NC schedule and demoralize your kids
(see purdue men's basketball 2004-2005). you want them to play winnable
games and build confidence before heading into league play.

So I don't think it isn't a case of the ECAC teams not wanting to play
wcha teams, but at least for the ivies, it is a logistically
challenging... play wcha teams your first week or 2 (knowing that the
wcha teams already have begun play ~oct 7th, and your "official
practices" have yet to start), catch a break and get one in a holiday
tourney, or get them right after the new year. Not a lot of options due
to choices made by the administrators (ivy league only 29 games, 28
game wcha schedule) and not by the coaches.

Rita

Let's Go Red

Rita-Ann Monde

Trinity College 1991
Cornell University 2000

On Mar 29, 2005, at 5:24 PM, Anthony Buffa wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Not to mention the 28 league games the WCHA plays, thus limiting them
> to
> 6 non -league games. I believe the CCHA does something similar, which
> has always been the problem with western team schedules. If you want to
> play nonconference eastern teams, you should somehow work to free up
> some games. I bet this will never happen.
>
> I believe the ECACHL plays 22 league games and thus the non-ivies in
> the
> league, schools like RPI, have 12 games to play against non conference
> foes... but each year RPI really only plays about 2-3 against western
> teams. Thus they opt for HEA games (good from the RPI view) and CHA and
> AHA teams also. Good for those leagues too.
>
> I, for one, would like to see the ECAC play more western teams, but as
> Ed points out, the Ivies have a game limit problem, and I see western
> schedules dominated heavily by league games. Put the two together and
> you can see the problem.
>
> Tony Buffa
> RPI '64
>
> ================
>
>
> Moller Edward N wrote:
>
>> The answer is to Eric's query is none of the above.  Cornell's
>> membership in the Ivy League limits their number of games per year.
>> The
>> Ivies start play weeks after everyone else, including non-Ivy members
>> of
>> the ECAC.  This rule was the catalyst for the breaking away of the
>> Hockey East schools back in the 1980's.  I'm sure Cornell would have
>> no
>> trouble attracting big name programs to Lynah if they chose to add a
>> certain number of games to its schedule, nor would they be adverse to
>> traveling to the Mariuccis and Yosts of the world.  They certainly
>> have
>> the money to do so.  It's simply the university's decision to limit
>> their games so that their student-athletes can concentrate on
>> academics
>> (insert your own snide remark here).
>>
>> This is also why I largely dismiss silly comments regarding the ECAC
>> when people ask of the Ivies, "who have they played?"  The answer is
>> they've played each other.  It isn't that they choose not to play
>> anyone
>> else; it's that they choose not to play any more.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>