From reports I have heard from a number of sources, including the
SportsChannel tape of the Brown-Harvard Women's match, it appears the
ECAC will have two women's leagues next season.
 
ECAC Women's League
The current league will probably cut back to 12 teams.  They will use the
travel partner format and play home and away league games.  That means 22
league games will count in the standings, just like the men.  Athletic
scholarships will also be allowed in the League.
 
ECAC Women's Alliance
A regional based league with an East and West division for teams with
varsity squads or becoming varsity over a couple of years.  The teams
will have travel partners and play within their division, but have some
crossover games that count.  The Alliance will have its own play-off
championship.  It appears the Alliance may eventually evolve to a Div.
III league, but for now gives schools a less robust option.
 
There will probably be time in the schedules for League teams to play
Alliance sides.  A certain amount of flux between the two leagues will
occur the first couple of years, as teams move up or down depending on
how programs develop.
 
To me, this idea sounds very attractive for women's ice hockey.  It gives
a real alternative for programs to grow within and if all goes well,
keeps the courts out of it.  I have heard a number of proposals ranging
from 8-18 teams in the league, but the Alliance concept sounds like the
best way to develop the game, provided AD's have some vision.  I also
hope that the ECAC shows more leadership and organization in running the
two leagues.
 
OK, so that's next season, but it got me to thinking about what may
happen 5 years from now, the year 2000:
 
ECAC                  Hockey East             WCWHA
Harvard    Brown      Northeastern  BC        Minnesota    St. Cloud
Cornell    Colgate    UNH           Bowdoin   Wisconsin    WRiverFalls
Princeton  Yale       Providence    Wesleyan  Ohio State   Bowling Green
Dartmouth  RPI        Maine         Colby     Minn Duluth  Michigan Tech
RIT        StLawrence
 
Each team within its league plays each other twice for the league
standings.  That leaves plenty of open dates for inter-conference play,
which doesn't count in league standings.
 
The NC$$ tournament takes the winner of each league, plus the winner of
each league's play-off championship, plus the team with the next best
record from each league.  The Friday of the NC$$ quarterfinals weekend
(campus sites-I love this part!) the two teams with the lowest winning
percentage (includes games played against only the other 7 teams in the
tournament) meet at the campus of the #1 seed to have a one game
elimination round.  On Saturday and Sunday teams #2 plays #7 ... in a two
game total goal series (this gets better and better!!!).  The seeds are
determined just like the #8 & #9 teams (winning % against the other 7
teams in the tournament).  The following weekend, the final four takes
place with the semifinals (one game) on Saturday and the final on
Sunday.
 
I just realized the weakness of some of my plans and that soon we would
need an RPICH for women's hockey!  Right!  The whole things off, unless
we can get Fenwick out of retirement to make sense of it all!!!
 
 _____________
/
 good shooting
 rhun-hungerf
_____________/