Splitting the ECAC into an Ivy and non-Ivy conference has been discussed
before.  I think that the Ivy league considers itself an elite organization
and is closed to the rest of us mortals.  The Ivy league also puts
restrictions on its member schools such as prohibition of athletic
scholarships and a limit (lower than NCAA) on the number of games allowed.
Not sure if other schools would be willing to submit themselves to those
restrictions.

There was the old saying back in the 70's and 80's that the Ivy League
wouldn't condescend to paying athletic scholarships but gave money based
only on "need". But, if Bill Cleary (then Harvard coach)  "needed" a
goalie.....

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 6:57 PM, Todd Nielson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Some of our Ivy League friends may correct me, but I don't believe a
> college
> or university can simply "go Ivy."  If I understand my history correctly,
> the Ivy League was established early in the 20th century as an arrangement
> for several northeastern colleges to play football.  I don't know if
> academic standards were part of the equation but I suspect they were.
> Interestingly, Army (USMA) was originally part of the old football league,
> and Boston College would have been if they had played football back then.
>
> In my last note, I meant an outright split of the ECAC into two
> conferences,
> not divisions.
>
> -Todd
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joe Makowiec" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:13 PM
> Subject: Re: Geography
>
>
> > At 4-1-2009 01:49 PM, Todd Nielson wrote:
> > >Why not simply split the ECAC along Ivy/non-Ivy lines? That would
> > >open up all kinds of realignment possibilites in this pie-in-the-sky
> scenario.
> >
> > That's easy now, with 6 Ivies in a 12-team league.  However, unless
> > one of the missing Ivies (Columbia, Penn) can be convinced to take up
> > hockey, or somebody else can be convinced to go Ivy
> > (Colgate?  Qpac?), the number of Ivies is fixed.
> >
> > Joe
> > --
> > Joe Makowiec can be reached at:
> > http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
> > http://makowiec.org/
>