Perhaps the "CHA & MAAC are the best things to happen to D1 hockey in
years", but you would never know it based on the number of people who attend
their games.  How many showed up for the MAAC final?  750 as I recall.  It
continues to baffle me as to why the NC$$ would include teams from the MAAC.
who draw flies, at the expense of teams from the established conferences
where the people at least know that the schools play hockey.  Tell me, if
Alabama-Huntsville made the NCAA out of the CHA, how many of their fans
would show up at a regional?

The point of all this is exposure for the sport.  There has been much
gnashing of teeth this spring about the lack of television for the NCAA
regionals.  Well, if teams like UAH, Mercyhurst or, let's say, Bentley or
Wayne State were in the tournament, how would they boost the ratings?  These
teams don't even have 500 fans attending a home game.  How is such a
"following" going to translate into attendance at a far flung regional or
boost ratings on ESPN-2?

The only reason that the MAAC got an automatic bid this year is because Jack
MacDonald, Quinnipiac's AD (formerly at Denver) was on the selection
committee, taking a spot that "asleep at the switch" HE commissioner Joe
Bertagna should have had.  From what I can see, Mac Donald is quite the
politician (he is from Boston after all) and, so far, he has been able to
bamboozle the clueless NCAA into thinking that the MAAC is big time.

If the tournament goes to 16 teams (and don't hold your breath waiting),
yeah, the MAAC and the CHA should be thrown a bone and be included.  But for
now, to include teams from the MAAC (never mind the CHA), who have no
positive track record against the Big Four is a disservice to the sport.

Greg Ambrose

P.S.  BTW, in my reading of the NY Times this winter (every day on-line,
newspaper on Sundays), I did not see one mention of Iona hockey. The Gaels
were certainly causing a stir in the metro New York area, weren't they
Larry?


>From: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: tournament ramblings and MAAC bashing
>Date: Thu, Mar 29, 2001, 7:14 PM
>

> I think everyone is looking past the big picture. CHA and MAAC are the best
> things to happen to D1 hockey in years. They have spread the game from
> Alabama & intensified hockey in New England and Iona is the closest D1 team
> to the Big Apple.If skipping two marginal "big teams" to make sure the MAAC &
> CHA are in so much the better. The goal should be to spread the game & hope
> we can find the hockey equivalent of Gonzaga (like Niagara last year or
> Mercyhurst - the only D1 team in Pa). I still maintain the gap between the
> MAAC and the ECAC is narrowing each year.