Eeyore writes:
 
> The Big 10 schools are natural rivals.  It isn't just that we compete in all the
> other sports to build this up.  With Northwestern being sort of the odd case, the
> Big 10 schools are all of comparable size and mission.  They compete for students,
> faculty and press in subjects far beyond the athletic field.  Some of the rivalries
> between academic departments are as fierce as those between football teams.  ECAC
> fans should be able to understand this; though the type of institution is very
> different, they are very similar to each other and compete in many of the same
> ways.
 
The Big Ten schools interact, in areas outside intercollegiate
athletics, through the auspices of the blandly-named Committee on
Institutional Cooperation (CIC).  The CIC is an academic consortium of
the 'Big Ten' schools and the University of Chicago, established in
1958.  A CIC-sponsored project that I have worked on is the 'CIC Virtual
Electronic Library,' which attempts to make the resources of all the CIC
libraries readily available to users at each campus.  So, since there's
even a "Big Ten Conference" for libraries, a Big Ten hockey conference
seems natural.
 
-- Erik
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.