I think money does play a big role.  But also as much as we might like to
think that a Minnesota or Boston College has a "responsibility" to play
ECAC or CHA teams, they really only have a responsibility to help
themselves (and perhaps their conference).

If you are Minnesota, would you rather travel out east to play an ECAC
school or one of the "big 4" in Hockey East?

With Hockey East's new schedule, it will be interesting to see what the
Big 4 do with their NC games.  BU and BC are already committed to the
Beanpot, Maine to the Florida Everblades Tournament.  With 3 less NC
games, it is reasonable to suggest that they will be less apt to play
ECAC, AH and CHL schools.

-Deron


On Wed, March 30, 2005 6:16 pm, J. Michael Neal said:
> [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>>After a little research, I have found that in the past 30 years, exactly
>> one
>>WCHA team has come to Lynah, DU in 1980 for two games.  Cornell won both
>>nights.  For whatever reason, there are no other games played at Lynah.
>> Since then
>>Cornell has played 8 times (including last Sunday) at CC (2), Wis(3),
>>UMTC(2), and UND(1) going 2-6.  What does it mean?  Not much except that
>> the teams
>>can be competative, and they definitly do not play enough.
>>
>
> It isn't for "whatever" reason; it's for money.  And, as much as a lot
> of people like to denigrate money as a reason, this isn't all that
> surprising or out of bounds.  The fact that the NCAA does some wretched
> things motivated by the $$, there are legitimate reasons.
>
> I don't know how it is at Cornell, but the University of Minnesota
> athletic department is supposed to be self-supporting.  (I have my
> doubts about whether it really is, but that's the theory.)  Because of
> that, they need to maximize revenue.  The Gophers can sell out Mariucci
> Arena, selling about 10,000 tickets at $25 per.  Because of this (and
> they are not unique among western schools) they can pay Cornell's travel
> expenses, give them a guarantee of more money than Cornell would get
> from selling out Lynah, and still pocket a goodly chunk of change.
>
> Some of the Hockey East schools have recently built arenas large enough
> that it makes sense to schedule home-and-homes, and a number of WCHA
> schools have been doing so, as the Gophers did with BU the last couple
> of seasons.  So long as the ECACHL schools have such tiny rinks, it
> would be irresponsible of the Minnesota athletic department to schedule
> games there.  Until such time, Cornell plays at Mariucci, they meet at a
> neutral site tournament, or they don't play at all.
>
> J. Michael Neal
>