> I love the sport and would hate to see it further ghetto-ized into I-A and I
> -AA divisions.  Hopefully that's not the wave of the future, since the
> commercial influences which created that drift in the other sports are not
> nearly as strong in hockey.  Still, it is a dilemma which is real: stay with
> traditional rivalries and fight a losing battle, or find a more natural (and
> competitive) arena?  I suspect the other programs which have been discussed
> in the foregoing thread also face similar choices.
 
The catch-22 is somewhat clear ...
 
Most of us want the game to become more popular -- when it becomes more
popular, corporations want to advertise and promote it more.  They will
throw their money at the biggest schools, making the rich, richer.
 
This is EXACTLY what happened to basketball and football.
 
Personally, I wish everyone would realize how great the sport was
without it getting too commercial ... but that's having your cake and
eating it too - which is rather impossible.
 
 
> The Trick (tm), to me, is structuring the game to avoid programs being
> forced into such decisions, yet also not loading Div. I down with so many
> borderline programs that it becomes untenable.
 
It would be nice.  I wish Cornell, Clarkson, Lake Superior, etc... could
continue to thrive amid growing popularity ... but even long successful
programs like that would be hurt when the Big 10 conference, and others
of its ilk, finally become a reality (it's inevitable, brace yourself -
just a matter of when).
 
It's not just teams like Ferris and Merrimack we have to worry about.
 
AW
 
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