This topic has been discussed a bit in HOCKEY3 but not here,  so I thought
I'd raise it for discussion.   Quinnipiac College notified the ECAC
recently that it was giving athletic scholarships in hockey this year in
preparation for its transition to D-1 in the MAAC next year.   In response,
 the ECAC N/C/S executive committee ruled QC ineligible for post-season
play in the lower level D-3 conference and its games will apparently not
count in conference standings.   Thus,  QC becomes essentially a D-2
independent for the year.
 
        What is significant about this is that most schools in the MAAC hockey
conference currently play at the non-scholarship level and had intended to
continue to do that when the MAAC started operation in 1998.   QC thus has
served notice that it takes this new hockey conference very seriously and
will position itself to claim any NCAA bid which might come the way of the
MAAC during the next few years,  be it automatic or at-large.   There are
also rumors coming out of QC that they will be putting a new hockey
building on campus.   If true,  that would be a further manifestation of
QC's commitment to the sport.
 
        What I find so interesting about this development is that it will probably
have a domino effect which would very quickly solidify the MAAC into a
viable conference perhaps even on an almost equal footing with the other
four.   Hockey scholarships at QC will very quickly pull scholarships into
other MAAC hockey programs just to keep the other schools competitive and
that will raise the standard of competition significantly.   That in turn
might very well also pull other schools such as Niagara,  Army,  and
Alabama-Huntsville into the MAAC.   With a year-end tournament showcase at
the Hartford Civic Center,  the MAAC could very quickly develop into an
attractive option for prospective student athletes.
 
        Somehow I suspect that Jack McDonald,  the former AD at Denver University,
 had a lot of this in mind when he convinced QC to upgrade their sports
programs.   It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
 
        -- Dick Tuthill
 
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