At 8:28 AM 9/1/95, Jeffrey Partnow wrote:
>In the case of UAF, UAA, and Notre Dame, much of the impetus for conference
>affiliation came from the Good Ol' Boys at the NCAA. In their usual great
>wisdom, they decided that they would eliminate the traditional slot in the
>NCAA playoffs which had been reserved for Division I independent programs.
>Since you now needed to be in a conference to have a shot at post-season
>play, all three teams elected to pursue league affiliations.
 
Well, the elimination of the Independent bid after 1992 did not technically
mean that only conference teams could receive bids.  All it meant was that
the Indeps were no longer guaranteed to receive at least one bid.  It would
still have been possible for an Indep to qualify for a bid based on its own
merits, as is the case today.
 
I think it is important to remember that the climate had changed
drastically with regards to Independents by the time that the bid was
eliminated.  There were not nearly as many Independents playing then as
there were back in 1988 when the bid was first awarded.  Most had either
already joined conferences (Merrimack, St Cloud, Kent, Notre Dame) or
dropped out of DivI (Alabama-Huntsville, US International).
 
The only Indeps left after the bid was eliminated were UAF, UAA, Army, and
Air Force (discounting the minor Indeps like Canisius and UConn that were
never going to play nearly enough games to be eligible).  Army was not
playing enough games to be eligible either, and Air Force's record against
DivI teams (4-17-1 in 92-93) left them out of contention too.  Thus only
UAA and UAF would have been serious contenders for a bid - two teams, in
contrast to upwards of ten in 1988.
 
The elimination of the bid was a good decision - leaving aside the question
of whether or not it was a good idea in the first place, its time had
clearly passed and it had served its purpose in helping the Indeps build
their programs to the point where they could enter conferences.  Even UAA
and UAF would benefit within a few years by being extended invitations to
join conferences.
 
The biggest reason why the bid should have been eliminated was that it was
unfair to a majority of the teams in DivI.  Each year from 1988 to 1992, a
team that was more deserving according to the criteria set down by the NCAA
was forced out due to the fact that an Indep had to receive a bid.  In two
of those years (1988 - Merrimack, 1991 - UAA), Indeps did prove themselves
in the tourney, but it is still true that those teams would not have
qualified for the tourney on their own merits had there been no automatic
bid.
 
As to how the two Alaskas wound up in separate conferences, a question I
believe someone raised...there were a number of dynamics that played a part
here.  Paramount was the unwillingness of both Western conferences to take
both teams.  Besides the desire not to make so many trips to Alaska, both
conferences were pushing the upper limits of how many conference games they
could play while maintaining several nonconference slots for in-season
tourneys and other traditional NC rivalries.  I think it was unfortunate
that the great UAA-UAF rivalry had to be scaled down as a result of the
teams entering different conferences, but this was more than offset by the
fact that these teams are finally now both full-fledged DivI conference
members and able to enjoy the same chance at a tourney bid that the other
teams have.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
>> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System  <<
***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page under construction at:  *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.