With all due respect, I hate that idea (not the person, just the idea, no
flame-war here...).
 
Let's be honest here - the ECAC is perceived as a weaker league.  Its top
few teams are competitive on the national level, but its bottom ones
(generally) aren't even close.  No doubt, we will soon be deluged with
posts listing other contributing factors, but one of them has to be that
the ECAC includes the six Ivies who can only play 29 games and can't offer
scholarships.  The only "perk" that these schools can offer to prospective
hockey players is (ooooh!) an Ivy League education.
 
The recruiting problems for the Ivy League schools are legion - first of
all, you have to find a good hockey player who can be accepted to the
school.  However, he can't be TOO good, because he also has to think that
he might have to "fall back on his degree" to eat.  Additionally, the
player pretty much has to be willing to stay for four years for the
education to be an incentive - a Yale degree means a lot more than "went to
Yale for two years."  If I were a player with legit pro prospects, I'd
think long and hard about paying/borrowing $80Gs of tuition, when I could
just get a scholarship elsewhere, develop for a couple of seasons for free,
and then make the jump to the pros.
 
The two Ivies with the most (don't flame me!) historical success at this
game have been Cornell and Harvard.  Harvard offers, well, a Harvard
degree.  Cornell is a large enough school with a diverse enough student
body that (again, let's face it) its admissions standards are not quite as
high as the rest of the League.  Cornell and Harvard have used these
advantages to recruit championship teams; the rest of the Ivies have
(traditionally) had a bit more trouble.
 
Getting back to Scott's idea, if you isolate the Ivies (don't even talk to
me about Penn or Columbia!), there is no way that they will be competitive.
 It would practically be patronizing to refer to that league as Div-1;
limited schedules, no scholarships - call it Div 1-A, maybe?
 
The only way that this idea makes any sense is if Scott's a Clarkson fan
who's tired of running into Cornell at Lake Placid... if you can't beat
'em, kick 'em out of the league.  :)
 
Robb
Cornell '94
 
On Monday, December 01, 1997 4:21 PM, Scott Ayen [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
wrote:
> Why not form a new league called the ECHA (Empire College Hockey League)
>
> St. Lawrence
> Clarkson
> RPI
> Union
> Vermont (I know not in NYS .. but close)
> Colgate
> Niagara
> Army (if they want to be in league again)
>
> This gives 8 teams .. shorter road trips and no ECAC garbage to contend
> with .. A league for college hockey just like WCHA, CCHA, and Hockey
East.
>
> The Ivy League then could go out on its own.. with its 6 teams and try to
> get Penn and Columbia to get D1 - hockey to make 8.
>
> Cornell
> Dartmouth
> Yale
> Princeton
> Harvard
> Brown
>
> Just my thoughts on the matter!
> Scott Ayen
>
> HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
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