[News on construction of hockey facility at UMass-Amherst deleted]
 
>Upon completion, it will immediately become the largest rink in the East and
>possibly all of college hockey.  It will seat an estimated 10,000 for hockey.
 
  Oh Great, another "barn" like Conte Forum .... will they call it the
"Bulger Dome" .... (Massachusetts politics inside joke :-)
 
>I wonder if this will inspire UConn to move up its program.
 
    Rumors persist that the necessary under-ice piping and rink stanchions
were installed during construction of UConn's new basketball facility, but
I've not heard any official confirmation of this.  I attended the Delaware-
UNH football game in Newark, DE this past weekend, and much of the "tailgate
talk" centered on rumors that both UConn and Villanova would soon upgrade
their football programs to DivI (up from their current 1-AA Yankee Conference
affiliation).  Now that the Big East Conference has formalized football
competition (and added Miami of Florida to boot) among its DivI football-
playing members, UConn and Villanova would undoubtedly love to share in
football revenues by competing with their big-time brethren.  How this might
affect UConn's willingness to upgrade its hockey program is a big unknown.
They might choose to roll some of this added revenue into the hockey program
to bring ALL its men's sports up to DivI, or may simply choose to continue
or (shudder ....) even de-emphasize to club status (as at Delaware, Maryland,
Navy, etc.) its current DivIII affiliation.  B-ball rules the roost at UConn
during the winter months, and unlike Providence and Boston College which
had a long DivI hockey history BEFORE the formation of the Big East, there
is no comparable hockey tradition at UConn to bolster its head-to-head
competition with basketball.  I could one day [happily] eat my words, but
IMHO I don't see UConn Hockey (or Syracuse for that matter) competing at the
DivI level for quite some time (if ever), especially now that the good
citizens of the Nutmeg State are hanging governor Lowell Weiker if effigy for
his handling of the state's perilous financial condition.  Of course, if some
deep-pocketed booster (x-ref Alfond at Maine) gets a hankering for big-time
hockey at UConn, all bets are off :-)
 
Jim
Go 'Cats