We've already had quite a bit of talk about Division I vs. Division III in
the wake of Colgate's blowout win over Plattsburgh State, but while perusing
the Division I composite, I came across this game:
 
01/22/93 Scranton              at Army
 
Now, I appreciate Army's desire to field a winning hockey team, especially
after spending five seasons in the ECAC Division I conference and never even
coming close to making the playoffs.  And since the very nature of the West
Point Military Academy makes it hard to improve the team through recruiting
(for the most part, the cadets come there through appointment, and they
can't even think of trying to bring in folks from Canada), it makes sense
for Army to go the independent route and choose opponents that they won't
have a lot of difficulty with.
 
OK, fine -- but this is the kind of game that should not happen.  Scranton
is a *bad* Division III team -- really not much above club status.  They're
already getting the crap knocked out of them by other Division III teams in
the ECAC East/West/SUNY, regularly losing by eight or ten goals.  Now they
get to face a relatively big and physical Army team... it's not going to be
pretty.  College hockey could do without matchups like this.  It's much like
the all-too-frequently-occurring situations in football and basketball,
where Division I squads will pick up fluff wins by scheduling games against
I-Didn't-Even-Know-They-Had-A-Team College.
 
At least Army has had the sense to schedule a game against somewhat better
Division III competition, as they'll host Plattsburgh on January 15th.  Then
again, the Cadets have a pair of games against St. Bonaventure on February
26th and 27th, and the Bonnies aren't much better than Scranton.  Perhaps
Army ought to follow Canisius' lead and join the ECAC West.  That way they
would at least have to face some of the better Division III squads on a
regular basis (not to mention they would be in the same conference as
Scranton and St. Bonaventure, so they would have a legitimate reason to
beat up on them from time to time).  As it stands now, I don't see either
Scranton or Army getting anything out of this game.  Scranton will have
another demoralizing loss to deal with, and Army's regulars will wind up
riding the pine while the fourth line plays most of the game (OK, so the
Army freshmen and fringe players will get something out of it).
--
Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94        |  [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
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