It has been brought to my attention that poll question #17 about seeing
more games between East-West teams may be ambiguous at best and possibly even
biased.  I would like to assure you this was not intended.  To those who
haven't yet replied, I would like to say that my intent in asking this
question was to see if people would like to see more games between
conferences, i.e. HE-CCHA, WCHA-CCHA, etc. and I should not have narrowed
it down to East vs West.  (West being the CCHA & WCHA, as the NCAA considers
them.)  If this changes anyone's response, please let me know.  I still
have all the mail.
 
Also, I tried VERY hard :-) to make the questions as unbiased as possible,
but I admit that some bias/ambiguity may have found its way into the poll.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve the
poll for v.2.0.  A subject line like "Improving poll" would be good so
I can easily separate your mail from the pile of poll responses that have
landed in my mailbox.  Good thing I just had my quota increased. :-)
 
Mark Grassl asked me what caused the demise of the interlocking
schedule agreement between the WCHA & HE.  To recap, this agreement
provided for teams to play two games against each team from the other
conference in the first two seasons (1984-86); it was altered to one game
for the next three seasons (1986-89).  These games counted in both leagues'
standings.  The reason the agreement ended after the 1988-89 season was
that St Cloud was about to enter the WCHA, and with the four games that
the WCHA played against each league opponent, teams would be playing
a total of 39 league games (4x8 + 1x7), and this exceeded the NCAA limit
of 38 overall games.  It is true that WCHA-HE games did not draw as well,
overall, as games between league teams in both leagues, and I do believe
this played a part in the WCHA's decision not to reduce its league
schedule - which would have been necessary if the agreement was to continue.
 
This was why HE begged Merrimack to enter the conference a year ahead of
schedule in 1989-90.  Else, HE teams would have played only 18 league games
(3x6).  Merrimack had already scheduled two 89-90 games against each HE team
in preparation for entrance in 1990-91 (this was done before the MC trustees
had even voted on the question of entering HE), and it was not difficult to
add the third game.  HE wanted to continue to play various nonleague games
and didn't want to revert to 4 games against each opponent.  4x6=24 might
not seem bad for one season, but when Merrimack came in it would be 28,
and they decided that was too many.
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Mike Machnik             [log in to unmask]    samsung!hubdub!nin15b34
NORTHEASTERN HUSKIES: 1988 Beanpot & Hockey East Champions
MERRIMACK WARRIORS: 1993 Hockey East Champions
NCAA Hockey -> Fire on Ice!  See you at the 1992 Final Four in Albany, NY!
Go Huntsville Stars (Southern League AA baseball, Oakland A's affiliate)
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