Mike Zak writes:
>This obviously due to the strength of schedule for the league going up
>because Clarkson has beaten Wisconsin and LSSU.  This shows what a tough
>non-league schedule can do for a league.  I think that Clarkson's
>schedule rank has risen from the low thirties to the current nineteen.
 
    It's also another argument for the ECAC eliminating its 26 and 30-game
    limits so that its members can schedule more nonleague games and prove
    how good they are.
 
>Come the end of the regular season, TCHCR is very reliable since many
>non-league games have been played.  However, when the number of games
>become limitted, it is the non-league games that are going to be cut
>out.  This will make it harder to compare one league with another.
 
    This may be true for a year or so, but both the CCHA and WCHA have
    indicated that they want to cut back their league schedules so that
    they can schedule more nonleague games.  The CCHA will be required to
    do so by 92-93 when Kent enters the league.  The WCHA might be able to
    get by with a 32-game schedule in 91-92, but that only leaves two
    nonleague games, unless the WCHA makes a mass trip up to Alaska (those
    games won't be counted towards the limit).
 
    Teams that scheduled nonleague games before last November supposedly do
    not have to count those games towards the 34-game limit either.  If I
    remember correctly, the WCHA was trying to work out something with the
    NCAA because the WCHA claimed many of its schools had verbal agreements
    for games, but the NCAA had yet to recognize those verbal agreements.  Is
    there any word on the resolution of this yet?
 
    Erik earlier quoted an article which said that Minnesota would play
    four nonconference games (Michigan twice, and a tourney in St Paul).  This
    leads me to believe something has been worked out since that would give
    the Gophers 36 games overall in 91-92, and none are outside the continental
    US - unless they decided to play Wisconsin in Hawaii or someplace. :-)
 
    HE, with a 21-game league schedule, will be left with 13 nonleague games
    to schedule.  But this year, only Maine and BC played more than 34 games
    (37 each).  I don't think the new limit will affect HE that much, and
    HE had many of its teams ranked pretty high this year.  The only way it
    will affect the league is if the Western conferences opt not to alter
    their league schedules this year and their teams turn down nonleague games
    with HE teams because they just can't fit them in.
 
    This should be the only way the ECAC is affected too.  But again, the ECAC
    can allow its teams to schedule more games, particularly if the CCHA & WCHA
    cut back on their conference schedules.  If the CCHA & WCHA do this in the
    next few years and the ECAC refuses to change its limits, the ECAC will
    just continue to look bad.
 
 
    - mike