I believe some of the correspondence on this list is mistaken.  There has been
no substantive change in admission standards for hockey players in any of the
ECAC schools for a decade.  When the ECAC and Hockey East parted company the
ECAC's aim was to not change the way they were doing things.  The procedures
and guidelines were merely to provide the league with some method of
verification if a member were to stray.  The non-Ivy schools also wanted to
growth of athletic scholarships for hockey and even to reduce their
expenditures--some of the non-Ivy ECAC teams have no athletic scholarships but
I do not know if this is absolutely true of all the teams.
 
The allegation that the ECAC is in decline is incorrect. In the decade since the
 schism of the ECAC and
the schism of the ECAC and HE the ECAC had done very well in terms of
National Champions, runner ups and making the final 2 + 2.  There are many ways
 to
to cross compare the leagues but in the final analysis the best rating is how
the best from each league plays against each other--the NCAA tournament
especially the final 2 + 2 where your presence is determined by play not by
seeding.
 
It would be interesting to have one of you who has access to all the statistics
to give us league representation in the final 2 + 2, the final 2 and the
champions for the last decade.  I did this once but I can not find it now.