>Last year someone suggessted a WCHA-CCHA pre-season tournament (like
>two conferences -- I can't remember who --- do in basketball).  Can't be
>done, for the same reason (unless there is some NC$$ loophole for this
>kind of thing....)
>
>         --david
 
I disagree that some kind of conference tournament can't be done due to
the low number of non-conference games.  The basketball pre-season tournament
is between the Big East and the ACC, two of the top conferences in the nation.
 
What they do is take the top 8 teams in each conference, from the previous
season's final standings, and have #1 play #1, #2 play #2, etc.  The tournament
isn't really a tournament where you have one champion, the idea is to see which
CONFERENCE comes out on top.
 
What I suggested last year was for the WCHA-CCHA or ECAC-HE to adopt a similar
pre-season tournament.  It would give a little more meaning to those early
season non-conference games that most teams already schedule.  Plus it would
allow one conference to 'claim' bragging rights over the other for one full
season.
 
-kap