On the other, other, other hand, does the meticulous design of a 
perfectly logical conference schedule to produce a justifiably crowned 
regular season champion count for much these days?  It's certainly the 
logical way to progress to a justifiably crowned national champion, but 
the way we've designed the rest of the process after the final season 
game is played doesn't give much respect to regular season 
accomplishment.  So long as regular season pairings are designed well 
enough to provide a good practice and development period, designate a 
nominal winner from among teams that should have been in the running and 
construct reasonable seeds for post season play, don't they contribute 
what's needed to the process that produces the winners we actually 
honor?  The importance of regular season competition is quickly swept 
away by the somewhat random elimination process we've built to determine 
the winners we remember.

Bob Griebel


>>> I really think this is an opportunity for the WCHA to strengthen it's
>>> out-of-league schedule and would personally like to see games
>>> scheduled regularly with Hockey East again. Back when the two leagues
>>> had an interlocking schedule, it was a most exciting time and HE
>>> looked forward to matching wits with the WCHA. Very, very enjoyable
>>> for the fans and I'm fairly sure the players liked it also. I know we
>>> can't get back to that kind of schedule, but if games could be
>>> scheduled on a regular basis between the two leagues, I think it
>>> would be great for college hockey in general and give us so much more
>>> to talk about when playoff time starts to come around.
>>>       
>> Assuming a 22-game regular season schedule (2 games per league
>> opponent), compared to the current 28-game regular season schedule, that
>> requires 72 more non-conference games. I don't think that 72 more games
>> are out there to be scheduled.
>>
>> For most (all?) WCHA schools, scheduling most HE teams is not attractive
>> to the fans ("who the hell is lowell?"), and thus reduced ticket
>> sales/revenue. That is the last thing schools want. They are already
>> unhappy about the potential lost revenue of adding two schools that no
>> one has heard of, and having to split league revenue 12 ways instead of
>>     
> 10.
>   
>>> On Jun 29, 2009, at 12:28 AM, Sara M. Fagan wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Why are 2 games per team too few?  The ECAC plays each other team 2
>>>> times (home and away).  They then have openings to play teams in
>>>> other leagues.  I really like the ECAC setup.  It is a balanced
>>>> schedule.  I find it very fair.
>>>>         
>> The ECAC schools are not quite as close to each other as HE (where most
>> of the rinks are within a slapshot of each other), but travel in the
>> WCHA make the 2-game series the only practical choice.
>>
>>    --david
>>     
>
>