>Realistically, I can see 4 schools possibly moving up to become DivI
>Independents: Alabama-Huntsville, Bemidji, Mankato, & Mercyhurst.
It might be a stretch, but AIC and St. Anselm could also be
included. Both were ranked higher than Mercyhurst for most of
last year. That would leave Assumption, Bentley, NH College,
Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, St Michael's and Stonehill, which is a natural
division, since all of the latter teams play in the ECAC N/C/S, which
are a tier below the other D-II/III conferences in terms of talent.
>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?
Canisius from ECAC West is also playing them this year (at
Huntsville), and both Mercyhurst and RIT played them in Huntsville
last year. That's 4 of the 5 ECAC West teams. Maybe there is
something going on.
>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).
Granted 13 is a long way away from 40, but the NCAA screwed
D-II back in 1984, the first time they did away with the D-II
championship. If I remember right, back then there were at least
30 D-II teams - practically all of the NCHA, ECAC West and half
of the ECAC East. Most of these teams dropped to D-III. If this
had never happened, considering the addition of programs like
Mercyhurst and others since then, there may have been close to
40 D-II teams now.
Non D-I conference college hockey is a mess. Try explaining the
ECAC West to somebody: "Well, the conference has 5 teams,
a D-I independent, a D-II team, and 3 D-III teams, which used
to be D-II until 1984. The conference champion does not
get an automatic bid to the NCAA D-III tournament because the
chance exists that a D-II or D-I team could win it . Until 1990, there
were 17 teams in the conferernce, now there are 5. Oh, yeah, their
sister conference, the ECAC East has *18* teams (D-I, D-II and
D-III). Their territories overlap too." Nice balance.
Try explaining how RIT can win a D-II national championship in
1983 and a D-III national championship in 1985. Oh, yeah, they beat
the same team (Bemidji) both times. Bemidji is D-II.
Confused yet?
No wonder the D-I murmers have started again at RIT. If they do go
D-I and sometime in the distant future win the national
championship, it will make a great trivia question - "Name the
school with a D-III, D-II and D-I national hockey championship."
This is probably boring the D-I folks to tears, so I'll suggest that
we move this topic to hockey3 exclusively. But before we go, some
sympathy, please. for the D-II/III fan :-)
Chris Lerch
EDS
RIT '84 & '91
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