Many people know that the unbalanced schedule in the WCHA has teams
playing 7 opponents 4x each and 2 opponents 2x each, for a total of 32
WCHA games.
 
Something I found interesting in perusing the Wisconsin schedule is
that for the second straight year, UW will have Alaska-Anchorage as
one of the two teams it plays only 2x.  And, also for the second
straight year, those two games will take place in Alaska, allowing UW
to exempt them from the 34 game limit.
 
It's probably no coincidence that the Badgers are involved in two
in-season tournaments (College Hockey Showcase and Badger Showdown)
for a total of four NC games.  After all, if the two UW-UAA games were
to take place in Madison, then UW would not be able to play in both of
those tournaments.
 
My question to observers is, is it right that Wisconsin (and possibly
also Minnesota, which plays in the Showcase and the Mariucci Classic)
gets to always play UAA in Alaska even when facing them only twice
just because they wish to appear in these other tourneys?  And is it
right that the desires of one or two member teams to play more NC
games than other league members should always be upheld?
 
After all, LSSU was forced to relinquish a spot in at least one and
possibly two in-season tourneys when the CCHA scheduled LSSU to host
UAF three times this year, rather than the other way around (which
would have enabled LSSU to play 3 extra NC games).
 
It just seems unusual to me that Wisconsin and Minnesota would be
allowed to dictate the terms of the league scheduling - and if this is
true, it seems unfair to the other members of the league unless they
are willingly going along with this.
 
Is it possible that the WCHA has decided that all teams playing UAA
only twice will play those games in Alaska, so that everyone gets the
extra two games?  (since then all of the other 9 teams would play two
games in Alaska each year)
 
This also raises the question of whether it is time to remove the
exemption for Lower 48 teams playing in Alaska.  It seems unfair that
now that UAA and UAF are full-fledged conference members, the only
teams that get to take advantage of the exemption and play extra games
are the non-Alaska teams in the WCHA and CCHA (those 5 CCHA teams playing
at UAF each year).  It's an exemption that isn't available to the
Eastern teams or the 5 CCHA teams that have to host UAF in a given
year, and it's also an exemption that has never been and will never be
available to UAA and UAF.
 
Of course, it's also possible that if the exemption was removed, the
CCHA and WCHA might prefer to disassociate themselves from UAA/UAF,
but I would hope not.  Perhaps it is considered a "reward" for the
WCHA and CCHA after having agreed to allow the Alaska schools into
their leagues?
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93