> You mean perhaps that in these parts, schools 90 miles apart are (very)
close
> to each other?
 
 
Well, how far apart do you think ECAC teams are?  90 miles apart is very
close, believe me.  Only SLU-Clarkson, Union-RPI-Vermont, and Harvard-Brown
are even remotely as close as that in the ECAC.  A couple hour's drive just
should not be a big deal, especially in a west culture where one drives to
get to the mailbox (I say that as a proud adoptee Oregonian who observes
people at my work driving to get between building *across the street* from
each other! ;-)
 
 
 
 
> ignorant.  If you check regular season attendance figures, the top
drawing
> teams are overwhelmingly western.  This happens for precisely the same
reason
> that playoff attendance drops.  The fact that the teams are so spread out
> means that each is drawing from a larger base (for the most part, the
Gophers
> don't have to share Mpls/St. Paul with anyone for instance) which has to
go
> much farther when they are on the road
 
True, but.  It is also a fact that the western schools tend to be Large
Midwestern Universities -- state schools which have enormous state-wide
support.  The in-state percentages and base enrollments of the CCHA and
WCHA schools are huge, and a lot of these folks also stay in-state after
graduation.  Most ECAC schools have an out of state diaspora rivaling or
even larger than than their in-state alumni pools.  It is probably not a
coincidence that the school with the largest traveling fan base in the ECAC
is also a school with a relatively large and very geographically-diverse
alumni.
 
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