To All:

This (post below from Joe M.) reminds me that there have been several
posts recently saying basically that these schools could make do a the
D-I level without scholarships. I hope this idea doesnt last very long
as I doubt it is true. As I recall the history (and Bob Stagat or Ralph
Baer might remember more, being closer to it), the RPI program sagged
from about 1964 to 1974 (actually sagged is a modest term, it almost
dropped off the radar), until it was rescued (was there a student vote
someone once mentioned?) by offering hockey athletic scholarships. And
as Joe noted below, the 1985 championship was a direct result of this IMHO.

Before the mid 1960s (approx) there were no divisions, at least in
college hockey, that I can recall. RPI's schedule in the 50s and 60s
consisted of a mixture of what are now D-III eastern schools and current
D-I eastern and western schools. Thus the schedule included teams like
AIC, Middlebury, Colby, but also BC, Harvard, Clarkson, North Dakota,
Minnesota and Michigan to name a few.

When the NCAA created divisions, RPI made the decision to go to D-I,
schools like Middlebury stayed at D-III. At that point, most of the
D-III schools dropped off the RPI schedule (about the early 70s I would
guess). Also at that time, schools like RPI became less and less able to
compete with the "big boys", as programs like Wisconsin, Maine, etc.
were created, offering athletic scholarships and draining the hockey
pool. At this point, RPI and Clarkson, amongst others, decided to take
advantage of the D-I loophole, stay there and offer hockey scholarships
to be able to compete in this new, more competitive, arena. The rest is
history, as they say.  To say that these small schools could remain
competitive at the D-I level without athletic scholarships really flies
in the face of history and reality.

In the best of all worlds, this stupid proposal would be shot down.
Second best would be to grandfather these schools in permanently. If it
passes, I think you can say goodbye to the nice mix of schools and
unique college hockey community we have now, as most, if not all, of
these smaller private schools will disappear from D-I. I doubt any of
them would consider for a femtosecond moving all their sports to even
D-II, let alone D-I.

Tony Buffa
RPI '64, let's keep D-I hockey the way it is.

=============
Joe Makowiec wrote:

> At 01:34 PM 8-11-2003 -0400, Steve Rockey wrote:
>
>> Clarkson andRPI have a long history of offering scholarships this change
>> would be much more difficult for them.
>
> Long is relative - in RPI's case, they switched from need-based to
> athletic
> scholarships in 1980 or 81.  It's interesting to note that they won the
> NCAAs in 1985.
>