(A good topic for hockey3, thus the cc and full inclusion of prior
comments.)
 
Chris Lerch writes:
>Mike writes:
>>Next season, it appears, the NC$$ DivII tourney will once again go
>>away because there are only 13 schools that are DivII and playing
>>hockey, and something like 40 are needed.  I would guess that like in
>>1984, the DivII schools will be given the option of either remaining
>>under the DivII classification and not having a national title to
>>compete for, or declaring as a DivI Independent.
>
>Also, in 1984 there were a lot of D-III schools with D-II hockey
>programs (Plattsburgh, RIT, Elmira, Union) who simply began calling themselves
>D-III programs and kept the same schedule, leagues, etc. If I remember
>correctly, the SUNYAC, ECAC East, ECAC West and NCHA all continued virtually
>unchanged when the D-II tournament was
>eliminated.
 
That's what I remember, too.  However, I would amend your comments to
read that the NC$$ began calling them DivIII programs - not the
schools.  The NC$$ began getting more strict on programs playing within
their division as far as the national tourneys went.
 
It didn't make a huge difference in hockey, IMO.  At that time, there
were DivI and DivII NC$$ hockey tourneys.  Most of the teams competing
in the DivII tourney were from DivIII schools.  Those teams had their
status changed to DivIII, and began playing in what was called a
DivIII tourney, but I agree, other than that very little changed.
 
>The programs that were hurt by this were the TRUE
>D-III schools (mostly in the ECAC North and South) who now
>had almost no shot at a national title.
 
I agree, although these programs also didn't have a national tourney to
play for anyway, even before this reorganization.  But now there was
really no way they'd get to compete for one; the NC$$ had finally
established a DivIII tourney, but these schools were really "DivIII-AA"
in caliber.
 
I should add that the programs which were forced up to DivI status but
were really not of DivI caliber, were probably hurt just as badly.
They also had little to no shot at a national title.
 
>The only  D-II teams that were truly effected, were to my
>recollection Lowell, Merrimack and Huntsville, who went D-I around
>that time or shortly after, and possibly the Alaska schools.
 
Lowell had moved up in 1983-84 as a DivI Independent and then moved to
HE the next season.  So they were lucky not to be a part of this mess. :-)
 
When the shift was made so that all of the teams playing in the DivII
tourney were reclassified, most as either DivI or DivIII, it left a
handful of schools who were officially DivII - not enough teams for
the NC$$ to justify holding a DivII hockey tourney.  So these schools
were, I believe, given the option of playing in DivIII or in DivI - or
remaining as DivII and having no tourney.
 
Some schools, like AIC, remained DivII and were unable to qualify for
any NC$$ tourney.
 
Some schools, like Bemidji State, decided to declare for the DivIII
tourney.
 
Others decided to declare up as DivI Independents.  These included
Merrimack, UAF, UAA, and UAH.
 
Either way, most schools did not change their schedule much at all,
although Merrimack/UAF/UAA/UAH began playing more and more DivI teams.
 
>I also think Mankato began saying around this time that they intended
>to go D-I in the near future.
>
>>(Moving down to DivIII isn't an option since you cannot play below your
>>division.)
>
>This is puzzling because in the years when there wasn't a D-II
>tournament,  I remember D-II schools like Bemidji and Mercyhurst
>being invited to, and in the case of Bemidji, winning the D-III
>tournament in 1986.
 
I believe this was allowed at first (see above), and I did not mention
this up top.  Then the NC$$ got even stricter and several years ago,
they stopped letting these teams play in the DivIII tourney.  The
re-establishment of the DivII tourney also gave these schools a tourney
to play in that met their division, although it hasn't been much of a
tourney.
 
And now we hear that the DivII tourney will probably be eliminated
again - but I don't believe the option to play down to DivIII will be
extended this time to those 13 teams.  The NC$$ almost entirely prevents
teams from playing below their division now.  I think someone pointed
out a while ago that one of the handful of exceptions is the Dayton
football team which for some reason is able to compete in the DivIII
tourney despite Dayton being DivI.  I do not know of any exceptions
that are currently allowed in hockey.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93