Well, you can tell the long dreary off-season has begun. We now are
engaging in blue-sky what-ifs waiting for college pucks to drop.
 
Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> posted this on 3/1:
 
> ...         It starts out as an opinion piece on whether or not
> Elmira College, one of the top teams in Division III, should make the
> jump to Division I, and then moves on to discuss whether or not all the
> college hockey divisions should be merged.
 
Interesting article - I think the newspaper writer is crazy about
merging all college hockey into one big blob, but his other idea about
Elmira upgrading to Div.I is much more appealing. I thought about
Elmira in the context of another recent post - the one dealing with
rumors of Div.I schools playing Div.III forming a new Div.I conference.
 
These schools were Fairfield, Villanova, Iona, Canisius, UConn,
Holy Cross, and possible Army. That's seven schools, and adding one
more (or two if Army doesn't go along with this) would make a nice
8-team conference. Now Bill's article included quotes from the
Elmira hockey coach that made it appear they are not interested in
upgrading, but ignoring reality for the moment, I took a look at
Elmira's record (buried in the file, 9394D2-3 SCHEDULE, on the Maine
listserv - are there any other Div.2-3 files elsewhere?) They played
9 games against Div. I and II schools and went 6-2-1. Their Div. I
opponents were Canisius (beat them twice) and UAF (tied then lost.)
They are located reasonably close to the list given, and as Bill's
post noted, they've already got a Div.I rink. They sure seem like a
reasonable addition to that list.
 
What about another possible name? Two criteria - highly ranked Div.
2 or 3 school and located in the Northeast (leading to a conference
with distances comparable to the ECAC) How about RIT? They're in
Rochester, NY and always rank well. They were 4-4-1 against Div.I and
II (Div.I: Holy Cross, Canisius, and Mass-Amherst; Div.II: Alabama-
Huntsville and Mercyhurst.) I remember well the games that Union
played against RIT, and if Union is gaining respectability in Div.I
after taking a lot of lumps, then I'm sure RIT could also make it.
 
Of course with the bad news about Kent State's hockey getting axed,
you're probably asking what recreational stimulants am I abusing?
What's with Ohio and hockey? Maybe Kent State is better off getting
killed outright. Beats getting put on life-support like OSU.
     Dave Carroll, BU '73
     [log in to unmask]     (or if path problems ...
     [log in to unmask]