Mike, great article on the UML-Merrimack rivalry.  (Not to mention the
WMU Dangerfield one.)  I would only have dispute the line:
 
> Lowell has come closer than Merrimack, but both
> schools may have a hard time ever competing for a DivI championship.
 
I would argue that in 1994 UML was a very serious competitor for the
championship.  Had they not had to play back-to-back games against a rested
opponent, I think they would have won the double OT loss to Minnesota and
gotten to the Final Four.  (I'm not trying to provoke an argument on that
point, so let's just say they were within a whisker of the Final Four.)
Now would anyone have beaten Lake State that year?  I was going to say probably
not but the folks at Northeastern might disagree with that one.  :-)
In any case, I would say a Final Four berth is meets the criteria of
"competing for a Div I championship" unless you're one of the frustrated
Minnesota fans / Woog bashers for whom that isn't enough.  :-)
 
However, it does raise a good point.  From a recruiting standpoint UML is
at a big disadvantage compared to most of the other schools in HE and around
the country.  That will be helped with a new arena, I think, but it still will
be a small school compared to the BC's and BU's out there.  I see the Marty
Reasoner's and Tom Poti's of the world going to the big schools and not
seriously considering the UML's and Merrimack's.  That said, can smaller
schools attract sufficient talent to compete for a championship?  I think they
can.  Aside from UML in 1994, what about LSSU?  Isn't that a small school in
the backwaters?  I may have an incorrect assumption about Lake State, but I'm
not sure that their school minus the hockey team offers much more (or less)
than UML minus the hockey.  If you can build a hockey tradition of excellence
(obviously a big if) it can be done.
 
How?  Clearly recruiting is tougher until you do build the tradition of
excellence.  BC in the old days and BU today can almost be like "order-takers"
while schools like UML and Merrimack have to be "salesmen".  Which means that
BU and BC can stay primarily with local kids while smaller less glamourous
schools have to beat the Juniors paths, both in the US and Canada until the
success of the program becomes its own drawing point.  Like Maine did.
 
*****************************************************        ,-******-,
* Dave Hendrickson    "Robo"     [log in to unmask] *     *'     ##     '*
*        A Hockey Polygamist and Get-A-Lifer        *   *##   ___##___   ##*
* GO BROONS!!!      Go Red Wings!!      Go Canucks! *  *   ##|   ___  \##   *
* GO UMASS-LOWELL!!!      Go BU!!         Go Maine! * *      |  |___)  |     *
* --------------------------------------------------* *######|   ___  <######*
* Although I can't remember ever having an original * *      |  |___)  |     *
* thought, and am certainly parroting someone who   *  *   ##|________/##   *
* actually has a brain, these opinions are mine,    *   *##      ##      ##*
* not Hewlett-Packard's.                            *     *,     ##     ,*
*****************************************************        '-*******-'
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.