-- [ From: Kepler * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
 
Great rivalries make sports deeper and richer.  Move too many teams around,
birfurcate too many times, and you get the collegiate equivalent of Anaheim
vs.
Carolina.
 
The Great Divorce of '85 cost college hockey some of its best
intraconference rivalries.  13 years down the road, none of the matchups
involving post-split
programs compare to the very best of the pre-split rivalries that were
ruined.
I know I am comparing a "best" to an "average" there and that is not fair.
But my
point is that the split was ultimately a trade-off of expansion at the cost
of tradition, and whereas you can always add a program, you cannot just
create a rivalry ex nihil.
--
 
   Greg R. Berge
   [log in to unmask]
   http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler
 
   "Ne te quaesiveris extra."
 
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