Steve Weisfeldt writes:
>I know this has been discussed before, but does anyone have an idea,
>realistically, of how many schools will drop hockey and how many will go
>one as D-1 indies?
 
I doubt any will drop hockey.  Another option is to remain classified
as DivII but not have any national championship to compete for.  This
is not such a big deal for those schools from the Northeast-10
athletic conference who play in the ECAC North-Central-South, or even
the ones who play in the ECAC East.  That's what they did last time
(except for Merrimack, which moved up to DivI).  I can also see NH
College and Sacred Heart following the same path and remaining DivII.
Then, the ECAC small school titles will be their big goal.  The
commitment it would take to ever be able to come close to competing in
a DivI tourney is one that I don't think any of these schools wants to
make.
 
Realistically, I can see 4 schools possibly moving up to become DivI
Independents: Alabama-Huntsville, Bemidji, Mankato, & Mercyhurst.  But UAH
was a DivI Independent from the mid-1980s until 1992, and they opted to
drop down when most of their competition was accepted into DivI conferences
and they were left behind.  Bemidji and Mankato had designs on moving up
until the DivII tourney was temporarily reinstated that year, and I
haven't heard anything on their plans for next year.  Mercyhurst is as
good as the other 3 schools, but I am not familiar enough to know if they
have an interest in moving up.
 
Another factor may be that Bemidji and Mercyhurst currently play in
conferences (with mostly DivIII teams).  UAH and Mankato do not, and so
they would have no title at all to compete for.  I don't know if the
NCHA (home conference of Bemidji) might accept Mankato, but if so,
then only UAH would be without any home at all unless it also
established an affiliation with one of the non-DivI conferences - the
ECAC West is one that could use an additional member, for example, and
in fact Elmira will be playing UAH 4 times this season (2 home, 2
away).  Could this be a precursor to UAH joining the ECAC West?  Would
all of the current ECAC West members be willing to make a commitment
to travel to Alabama every season?
 
It seems to me that if all these things fall into place, it is distinctly
possible that *none* of the current DivII schools may move up to DivI.
 
BTW, the reason for this discussion is that the NC$$ has mandated that
you must have X number of schools in a division playing a sport to be
able to hold an NC$$ championship in that sport, in that division.
DivII hockey falls way short of that number (which I don't recall off
the top of my head; it may be 30 or 40).  There was an exception
allowed the last couple of years for DivII hockey specifically, but
this exception is due to expire after the 1994-95 season, and DivII
hockey will need to meet the same requirements for an NC$$ championship
as all other sports.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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