(This is in response to Hank Olson who wrote me a letter with some good
thoughts on how things got to be the way they are; I wanted to send this
to all to perhaps stir up some discussion.)
 
Hank,
 
You raise many good points, among them the fact that money and exposure
clearly play a part in the way hockey has been treated.  I doubt that these
things would be happening if hockey was bringing in the kind of money that,
say, basketball was.
 
My big complaint is with schools that do not play a particular sport having a
say in what happens with schools that do.  The way it stands, on legislation
affecting hockey, Florida State and Syracuse not only have as much of a say
as Dartmouth and Minnesota, they have more of a say than Clarkson and
Minnesota-Duluth because those two are not Division I schools.  And, unlike
hoop and football where most schools are involved, the number of schools that
don't play hockey but have votes vastly outnumbers the small number of schools
that do play and have votes.  This *clearly* is not right.
 
I feel this is wrong for other sports, too, it's just hockey that I'm most
familiar with.  Maybe some action taken by the people in hockey will be an
impetus for the other sports to take charge of their own destinies.
 
Did you know that the DivIII schools playing ice hockey get no money at all
from the national tournament, while DivI schools that don't play hockey *do*
get a share of the profits?!  Clarkson went to the semifinals but got nothing.
Florida State doesn't even know what a puck is, but they got a bigger take
than BC.  This is because the profits from all DivI tourneys go into a fund
for DivI schools *only*, and hockey has many schools that are DivII or III
but play DivI hockey.
 
>  I'm not sure that seceding from the NCAA is the answer although, I agree
>  with you that ice hockey seems to always get the NCAA shaft.
 
I know it is a drastic measure, but it looks like there will be no other
choice very soon.  I think that the people involved in a sport should run
that sport.  We don't expect the NBA to tell the NHL what to do (although
perhaps they should).  The people at the top of college hockey are people of
integrity, who know what's best for the game.  They get up every January
before the national convention and argue their case, and they are ignored
by the hundreds of bigshots who think hockey is beneath them.  This has to
stop before the game is destroyed.
 
My personal opinion?  Have all the schools announce that they are dropping
their teams to club level.  Then the NC** will have no power over them.
The schools can still conduct business as usual, maybe appoint a commissioner
and an Executive Board made up of ADs from each league, and create some sort
of by-laws that are similar to what we have now - but eliminate the foolish
restrictions placed upon them in recent years.
 
By the way, I was not the one to originate the idea of secession.  That
was BU coach Jack Parker.  I believe there is actually quite a bit of
"grassroots" support for the idea.  The problem is uniting the schools into
a single voice.
 
 
- mike