I don't think the comment is meant to either encourage or reflect Ivy/Big 10
plans to split off.  I think it translates to "all you people who are
complaining about getting bounced by autobids should stop complaining -- it
could be worse."

The Ivies and the non-Ivy ECAC members fully realize their mutual value to
one another.  Without the non-Ivies the Ivies are... well, they're Ivy
football, utterly marginalized.  Without the Ivies, the non-Ivy ECAC members
are aother MAAC waiting to happen.

Whether the Big 10 would ever think about going its own way is something I
don't know about.  It sure would cause a big realignment in the west.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Powers" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 10:22 AM
Subject: Jack McDonald bombshell (re: Ivy and Big Ten)


> From this USCHO story:
> http://www.uscho.com/news/2002/03/18_004304.php
>
> "I hope that the visionaries of college hockey realize that we have 60
> institutions playing Division I college hockey for only five automatic
> bids. The math is not in anybody's favor. We have the opportunity to
> create more automatics in a very, very easy way.
>
> Do you know what they are? Forget if we don't expand the bracket. There
> are two more automatics right under our nose and no one is talking
> about it. The Ivy League and Big Ten. Whether we're 12 or 16, those
> automatics are there and we're wasting them. The NCAA recommends that
> half of the field be automatic bids. Right now, we're at 12, we'll have
> six automatics, when we go to 16, we'll have six, we could have eight.
>
> My point is that by having more automatics, we allow everybody, we
> could now have 8 automatics for 60 schools, that gives every school a
> better shot."
>
> Are we looking at something like this driving an Ivy / ECAC split or
> a Big 10 split?
>
> Has this been thought through with regard to the effect of a Big 10
> on the CCHA and WCHA, which are not necessarily viable entities
> without the Big 10 schools?
>
> And then there's the fact that the main reason fans are enthusiastic
> about tournament expansion is the gain in at-large bids, given the
> logjam in the 11-16 area of the Pairwise.