>Posted on 23 Dec 1994 at 05:31:22 by Ralph N. Baer
>Div-II schools
>
>What interested me is that there are also 37 Div-II teams (and 42
>Div-III).  The Div-II list includes Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks,
>Merrimack, St. Cloud, and Union that are now Div-I  The remaining
>schools are AIC, Babson, Bemidji State, Bowdoin, Brockport State,
>Buffalo State, Canisius, Colby, Connecticut, Cortland State, Elmira,
>Framingham State, Geneseo State, Gustavus Adolphus, Hamilton, Hobart,
>Holy Cross, Lake Forest, Mankato State, Massachusetts-Boston,
>Middlebury, New England College, North Adams State, Norwich, Oswego
>State, Plattsburgh State, Potsdam State, RIT, St. Alselm, Salem State,
>Westfield State, and Williams.
>
>This is a rather strange list.  Canisius, Connecticut, and Holy Cross
>are now Div-I playing mostly Div-III schedules.  (Actually, wasn't
>Connecticut actually a Div-I school all along?  Weren't they in the
>Big-East in b-ball then? I don't know about the other two.)  Most of
>the reminder are now Div-III although a few are still in Div-II and
>some have probably given up playing hockey :-(.  I know that at one
>point the Div-II championship was abolished and teams were given the
>option of changing their Division status for Hockey.  However, I wonder
>if all of these schools were really Div-II at the time.  For example, I
>thought that Union was a Div-III school.  Any comments?
 
Small colleges like Bowdoin, Middlebury, Williams, etc. have always
been Division III schools according to the NCAA, but until the mid-80s
they played in a hockey league that was known as ECAC Division II.
Some time in the mid-80s the old ECAC Division II (made up mainly of
NCAA Division III colleges) was renamed ECAC East-West.
 
The University of Connecticut and Holy Cross are NCAA Division I schools
that played hockey in the old ECAC Division II, and now play in ECAC
East-West. Merrimack College is an NCAA Division II school that used
to play hockey in ECAC Division II, and then briefly played in ECAC
East-West before moving to Division I (in hockey). And, as you know,
RPI, ST. Lawrence, Union (and I think Clarkson) are NCAA Division III
schools that play Division I hockey.
 
Luiz F. Valente