The Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle reported yesterday that BU
 assistant coach Blaise MacDonald will be named head hockey coach at
 Niagara University, which plans to begin varsity play next fall.
 
MacDonald was a member of RIT's two national championship teams (a
 Division II title in 1983 and a D-III title in 1985), and a former
 D-III All-American at Defense.
 
Niagara, a Division I school, plans to initially play in the ECAC West,
 which is currently comprised of Canisius College (D-I), Elmira College
 (D-III), Hobart College (D-III), Mercyhurst College (D-II) and
 Rochester Institute of Technology (D-III). Their ultimate goal,
 however, is to play a bonafide D-I schedule as early as 1998/1999.
 Construction of a new rink is underway.
 
As a side note, this will most likely reopen the discussion of an
 additional ECAC West team moving up to D-I, as Union did a few years
 back when Army dropped out. The most likely scenario would be for
 Niagara to join the ECAC at some point, which means they'll need a
 travel partner. RIT, Elmira and Mercyhurst have all considered a move
 to D-I in the past. Another possibility is to reshuffle travel
 partners to allow UConn from the ECAC East to move up, which has been
 rumored for some time.
 
A further aside - with BU's title last season, Blaise becomes the
 answer to a pretty neat trivia question: he has a D-I, a D-II, and a
 D-III national championship ring.
 
Chris Lerch
EDS
RIT '84 & '91
 
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