Jim writes:
>I'll have to dig out the information from last spring's papers to be sure, but
>I think the rule applies to Division III schools which have moved one program
>up to Division I. It was put into effect after schools like Clarkson and St.
>Lawrence entered the league, so the new rules do not apply to them.
>
>>From this week's Schenectady Gazette:
> "The only drawback to the hockey team's Division I status is that it
>can't have a Division I practice schedule. Because all of Union's other sports
>are classified as Division III, the Dutchmen are two weeks behind the other
>Division I hockey programs. That gives Union just a little over two weeks to
>prepare for its season opener against Merrimack Nov. 1 at Achilles Rink.
 
I cannot find anybody to corroborate this rule.  I just spoke with Merrimack's
SID, and he says that not only does this rule not exist to the best of
his knowledge, but that as far as he knew, Union HAS been on the ice
since the first week of October.  He never explicitly discussed this with
Union's SID, but he said that if Union waited until Oct 15th to go on the ice,
it was due to "institutional control".  Nobody outside of Union forced that
to happen.
 
So somebody is pulling one on the Union faithful.  Bill says it is not an
ECAC rule; my sources say it is not an NCAA rule.  I don't know whether it
is a simple mistake on the part of the Schenectady Gazette or whether the
Union administration is giving out false information, but there is no NCAA
or ECAC rule preventing Union from following the same practice schedule as
any other DivI team (except the Ivies).
 
I would guess that what happened was Union said, since our programs are
DivIII, we are going to make the hockey program follow DivIII rules.  Then,
somebody misunderstood that as meaning that because the school was a DivIII
school, the hockey program was forced by the NCAA to follow DivIII rules.
I wonder how this mistake could be made because it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE
to force Union to abide by a different set of practice rules than any other
DivI team!
 
Either they're trying to cover it up, or someone made a mistake and never
bothered to look into it.
 
The more I hear about this, the more angry it makes me.  I see no future
for Union in DivI as long as the administration is going to handicap the
team with rules such as this.  And it's too bad, because I think they have
potential from the few times I've seen them play.  If Union fails, it won't
be the team's fault.  Blame the paranoid, deluded, backwards administration
at Union College.
 
 
- mike, outspoken as usual