In a message dated 12/17/1998 5:07:13 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
 
<< > My personal feeling is that  RIT is ripe for a move up to Division I.
 > Chris Lerch and I have debated this point before (remember
 > Chris?).  RIT really has done everything it can at the D-III level,
 >  including winning national championships.
 
 I agree with this.  They have the example of Union to follow.  The Dutchmen
 took some lumps the first few years in Div. I after being a Div. III power
 (perhaps contradicting Todd's divisional parity idea) but they can be tough
 on any given night.  It certainly gives the school more exposure, and
 they're definitely not a punching bag at the higher level - isn't that
 better than beating up on weak Div. III opponents clearly not on your level?
 Years ago (as others on the list can remember) when MAAC was not even a
 dream, people here were wistfully imagining another Div. I Conference, and
 RIT was one of the names that kept coming up. >>
 
Talent has little to do with going D-I. A talented D-III team is merely an
indictation that the program has made a commitment to succeed. That's a
necessary ingredient, but what's really needed at the D-I level is money, and,
at a D-III school, the desire to elevate one program above all others.
 
I agree that Union is a fine example, and many people associated with the RIT
program look at Union as an example of what NOT to do. No scholarships.
Limited number of games. No major upgrade to the facility. Sub .500 seasons.
If and when RIT goes D-I, they want to do it the way UNO and Niagara are doing
it. It's an all-or-nothing approach, but many feel that if they can't
realistically be as big at player at the D-I level than they are at the D-III
level, it's not worth doing.
 
That aside, there are other roadblocks. Even though RIT is a fairly large
school (13,000 undergrads) with a large alumni base, the alums have not
historically supported the school very well. There are no major boosters or
sponsors to step up and drop $1,000,000 on the table the way they did at UNO.
Bemidji has been able to raise something like $300,000, and that's more than I
think RIT could without a hell of a lot of marketing.
 
Also, the current AD at RIT isn't in favor of D-I for many reasons. One is the
money, one is a dislike of the idea of elevating one sport in the program
above the others. There's also a lot of wind about D-III being "true student
athletics" and somehow more "pure" but I'm not buying that one. Every time I
hear that from someone, I just say '"Harvard".
 
RIT's president used to be the president at the University of Hawaii, a D-I
school. He has suggested from time to time that a D-I sport would be nice to
have. Rochester, NY, is the largest metropolitan area in the US (over
1,000,000) without a Division I college program. But the RIT president has
told me personally that if they did take hockey D-I, it would be "all the way"
- see above.
 
RIT's league (ECAC West) has dwindled from 17 to 3 teams in 8 years, so
something clearly must be done. But exactly what remains to be seen.
 
<<This certainly sounds like it's time for the move - how often do you hear
about even a great Div I school racking up 10 goals against an opponent?
(Although there was the time decades ago that BU beat Cornell on their own
ice ... was it 9-0?)  If scores like that aren't enough to give them the
courage to make a move, maybe they should play against PeeWees - maybe they
could run up 20 or 30 goals?  (Sorry about bearding the Tigers, but if it
takes a goad, I'll use it to encourage creation of yet another Div. I team.)>>
 
Once again, talent isn't a real factor. If RIT went full blown D-I, all but
about 6-7 players would be replaced. What you have instead is a much larger
disparity in talent levels in D-III. It's scary, but there are whole D-III
conferences which RIT normally won't play because the skill level is below
that of even the teams the Tigers are smoking now. There are about 30 programs
in D-III that are on a par with RIT, and another 35 that are not. The fact
that the Tigers have a whopping 6 conference games this season means that they
need to get games where they can. Buff State and Cortland, for example, whom
RIT beat 11-1 and 10-2 respectively, were off the schedule for years. But then
Niagara and Canisius left the ECAC West, so the Tigers had to find some games.
Believe me, they'd much rather play non-con games with UNO than with Buff
State.
 
And RIT isn't the only program with this problem. Plattsburgh was won their
last two games by identical 9-0 scores. One of those wins was against New
England College, who previously defeated Mass College of Liberal Arts 18-1.
Ouch!
 
 
Chris Lerch
US College Hockey Magazine
US College Hockey Online -- www.uscollegehockey.com
Color Voice of RIT Hockey on 89.7 WITR
http://members.aol.com/chrislerch/main.html
 
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