Bill Fenwick writes:
>Hmm... I wonder, if Lowell does win next year's tournament, if the NCAA
>might extend the automatic bid to the runner-up, rather than eliminating it
>entirely.
 
No, this will not happen unless the NCAA makes an unexpected decision to
reverse the way the bids and probation teams are treated.  HE began
discussion of this subject with the full knowledge that if Lowell were
to win the 1992 tourney, they would lose the bid, and it would not be
extended to either the runner-up (not fair to the runners-up in the other
conferences) or the regular season champion.  They chose to allow Lowell
to compete anyway, out of deference to Lowell's long-time standing in
the league, the way Lowell handled the affair, and, undoubtedly, because
chances of Lowell winning it are slim.  Although, of course, you never
know...
 
On a related subject, Lowell handed out its last diplomas a few weeks ago
that were imprinted "University of Lowell"; next year's will read
"University of Massachusetts at Lowell" as the state consolidates several
of its colleges and universities.  However, it does look as though we can
still refer to them as "Lowell" for at least another year, as far as
athletics are concerned.
 
>          A somewhat similar situation occurred in Division III this year,
>when Middlebury defeated Babson to win the ECAC East tournament but could
>not accept the automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs; they are in the New
>England Small College Athletic Conference, which forbids its members from
>playing in postseason games.  The NCAA simply gave the bid to Babson, rather
>using it as an at-large bid to select another team (Salem State or Geneseo
>might have gotten the bid in that case).
 
As Rob mentioned, there is no automatic NCAA bid to the winner of the ECAC
East tourney.  Babson was selected as an at-large team, and they did get
the bid that Middlebury would have likely received had they been able to
accept it.  But Middlebury's bid would have been an at-large one as well.
They do crazy things in DivIII, don't they. :-)  Although I
don't get to follow DivIII as closely as some people, I have come to
understand that the conferences are not as closely allied with the NCAA
as DivI, at least as far as awarding bids go.  I wonder if the conferences
that Wis-Stevens Point, etc. play in carry automatic bids?
 
>Minor point:  I like these awards, but I have to wonder how awe-inspiring it
>will be for fans to look up in the rafters and see a banner which says
>"1991-92 Hockey East Least Penalized Team" or some such.
 
Agreed.  The sportsmanship award is a worthwhile one, and I would also like
to see HE publicize better its All-Academic Team like the other conferences
do.  But the penalty minute banner isn't needed, IMO.  I would only like
to see banners for regular season/tourney championships & NCAA
championships.  Even banners for NCAA appearances are ok.  If the
intent of the banner is to try to get teams to keep their penalty minutes
down, I have serious doubts as to whether it will succeed.  Something tells
me the players just aren't going to place a high priority upon it; if they
win it, then fine.  I can just see it, a team like UNH or Merrimack
holding a ceremony in October 1992 to hoist a Least Penalized Team banner
to the rafters...well, maybe not.  It will probably be the type of thing
the rink workers do at 2 am while they're scraping the ice.
 
(on HE going from 21 to 28 league games in 91-92)
>Maybe not, but a fair number of Hockey East fans probably are happy to see
>the teams in the league play each other more often.  The extra game might
>add fuel to some already hot league rivalries.
 
This is true, and it will cut down on travel costs even more since 7 of the
8 teams are within 1-1.5 hours of each other.  But I go back to a few
years ago when, first, the league schedule was reduced from 4 games/opp to
3, and then when the WCHA games ended and the proposal to go back to
4 was rejected.  The idea was to be able to play more games against non-
conference teams and allow HE teams to prove themselves outside of the
league.  It was successful in that 4 HE teams did get in the tourney this
year on the strength of their nonconference performances.  Now it will
again be difficult to prove yourself to people outside your conference,
but I guess all leagues will be in the same boat on this one.
 
I understand why they went back to 4 games/opp, but I would have liked
to see what the CCHA & WCHA do before this action was taken.  Maybe the
HE brass have inside info on this that we don't have.  Or, maybe they
want to shake things up by announcing this now, letting DivI people
panic over thoughts of returning to the Dark Ages when everyone played
within their own conferences and only met in the NCAAs and midseason
tourneys - then after an agreement will be reached to reduce conference
schedules, HE included.
 
But I doubt it.  There's also the fact that budgets are getting tight
lately, and playing more local games makes fiscal sense.  Merrimack,
for example, has routinely traveled to Alaska, Alabama, Notre Dame, Kent,
Air Force, etc. in recent years (and to San Diego for US International
in the mid-80s), but in 91-92 the only overnight trips are scheduled to
be at RPI/Union, one game at Army, and one game at Maine.  No flying
trips.
 
I agree with you, Bill, on the disturbing trend towards fewer and fewer
nonleague games.  I've heard many people say they would like to see
more ECAC-HE matchups, and I would prefer to see these as well over an
additional 7 league games.  The poll (to be released soon!) shows a large
number of people would like to see more nonconference play.  It doesn't
look like that will be happening.
 
MISC.
 
Sources tell me that the two top candidates for the BC job, assuming
AD Chet Gladchuk wants to clean house (Vegas won't even book this now),
are Providence's Mike McShane...and Shawn Walsh.
 
I've also heard that Maine's AD resigned and that Walsh is likely to be
considered for that position as well - any word up there?
==========================================================================
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)
==============================cmk=========================================