>For the first time people are going to witness 3 conferences within a
>NCAA Division I hockey league the WCHA.
 
A first for _any_ college sport, I believe.
 
>The good fans of the WCHA are
>going to be so happy to have a WCHA team outside its conference travel
>to your arena for just one game then clean and shower and jump in a bus
>or plane or perhaps a dogsled in Alaska. Then another team will fly or
>travel to your arena for the next game. This format is so ridiculous is
>like a big nightmare.
 
I agree.  If logistics are not handled carefully, a team like Denver will
wind up flying out to Boston on Friday, play a game, then fly to Alaska on
Saturday on something like 2 hours' sleep, if they're lucky.  Just imagine
how ready they'll be to play then!:-)
 
[start of paragraph deleted]
>it will have to endure regular season records that
>will not give you the REAL PICTURE of the WCHA. [more deleted]
>will be overloaded with responses that will say "My team
>should be on that poll because there in a tougher conference in the
>WCHA"
 
Not sure I see the point here.  If, as you forecast, all WCHA teams will
play each other (I gather this from your plaint that non-conference games
will be severely limited) then this point is moot.  The strength of a WCHA
team relative to the rest of the WCHA will be determined in the course of a
season by head-to-head games.  The drawback is the possibility that
non-conference games would not adequately define the WCHA's standings on
the national level.  On the other hand, if teams are only required to play
WCHA teams in their own division, then enough non-conference games remain
to determine a national rank.  WCHA standings as a whole would then be
irrelevant until playoff time; as if there were no WCHA, but three smaller
conferences.
 
> The league standings will also represent records mostly made up of
>the successes of one teams conference, unlike today where everybody
>plays everyone 4 times for true standings.
 
As I mentioned, the WCHA would definitely suffer.  It's hard to see under
either scenario how one team's standing in the WCHA can fully be determined
in mid-season.  I doubt that WCHA teams will play every other team, as it
makes our little travel nightmare all the more likely.  But even with the
other scenario, the WCHA will cease to be an effective league.
*---------------------------------*
|Jeffrey S. Billman               |
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|Bowling Green State University   |
|Bowling Green, OH                |
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