Andrew Brecher <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>In article <[log in to unmask]>,
>[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>>A little more...if you look at the standings in the archives, you'll
>>find Army listed as 11-6-1 against DivI teams.  That means ALL DivI
>>teams, and includes games vs any of the six minor Independents
>>(Canisius, UConn, Fairfield, Holy Cross, Iona, and Villanova).  Army
>>is 6-0-0 against those teams.
>
>So why is Army listed with all the standings I've seen, but the six "minor"
>Independents aren't?
 
I don't know specifically what standings you mean, but the ones in the
HOCKEY-L archive include all eight DivI Independents.  Send to
[log in to unmask] the command:
 
  get 9596mcnf stand
 
You can also get team schedules with results for any of these teams.
 
Some newspapers or other sources may not include all eight teams, but
that is up to them.  Now, if you mean the various ratings like RPICH
that are posted to the lists here, then these other teams are not
listed because the authors have chosen to only include games between
teams eligible for the DivI tournament, meaning teams that play 20 or
more DivI games.
 
>If the six "minor" independents aren't eligible for
>the Div I tourney (playing less than 20 games against other Div I's?  Will
>Army play 20 games against Div I's?), why are they Div I in the first
>place?
 
Army will play 20 DivI games - including the ones against minor
Independents.  However, only the games against other teams also
eligible for the tourney count in Army's RPI rating (and in other
ratings people have done).
 
The six minor Indeps will play less than 20 games against DivI teams.
 
Those six programs are all DivI because of NCAA regulations.  Their
schools' athletic programs are classified as DivI by the NCAA, so
their hockey programs are too - even if they actually play most of
their games against non-DivI teams.  If you look at the NCAA DivI
statistics on the USA Today college hockey web site, you'll find
players from these teams listed.
 
NCAA regulations prevent schools from playing down, so they are only
able to compete for a DivI NCAA championship.  They cannot choose to
compete for a DivIII title, whereas a school like Clarkson which is
DivIII could choose to meet the rules of DivI, II, or III and compete
for an NCAA title in whatever division they want - again, as long as
they follow the rules of that division, along with a special rule
limiting the number of programs that "play up" at a DivII or III
school.  (You can't claim to be, say, DivIII but have a bunch of
sports play up a division or two.  The NCAA likes schools to stay
within their declared divisions, but they do allow one or two
exceptions.)
 
Note that since the minor DivI Indeps do not play enough DivI games to
be eligible for the DivI tournament, and they cannot be eligible for a
lower division's tournament, they effectively never get to compete for
an NCAA title.  Their only choice, unlike a DivII or III school, is to
somehow meet the 20 game DivI minimum.  There has been talk of these and
other programs playing more games amongst themselves, and in fact
there have been more of these games in recent years.  There could be
more in the future if the DivII tourney is abolished as expected and
some of the DivII programs declare up for DivI.
 
Either way, we will definitely have two new DivI Independents next
season: Mankato (Minn.) State, a DivII school which decided a little
while ago to take a shot at bigtime DivI hockey and hopes to enter the
WCHA soon, and Niagara (N.Y.) University, a DivI school that will
begin playing hockey next year.  Niagara has already hired a big name
to head its program: Blaise MacDonald, an RIT grad who served for 5-6
years as assistant coach at BU under Jack Parker and recruited the
Terriers' 1995 NCAA Championship team.  He left BU at the beginning of
January and began working for Niagara in preparation for next season.
Niagara will be in the same boat as the minor Indeps at the start:
like Canisius, they will be a member of the ECAC West and play mostly
non-DivI games.  But rumors abound about Niagara soon joining one of
the DivI conferences.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                 [log in to unmask]           [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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