I think that the ECAC is at a crossroads. The schools really have to decide
where they are going.  The Ivies have seen their football and basketball
teams over the years change from national powers to much less than that. On
the other hand, four of the six non-Ivies are D-III schools.  I can
understand where the Ivies are going, but I don't understand at all about
Clarkson, RPI, SLU, and Union. (I'll leave out Colgate and UVM from this
discussion.)  If these four schools want to be D-I in hockey, they really
must go all the way and attempt to keep up with the other leagues.  SLU
seems to be trying as evidenced by its schedule, but I can't say that about
RPI whose OOC schedule seems to be getting worse each year.  I can see the
D-II schools who were practically forced out of D-II, but for D-III schools
to play D-I, they must go all out.  Colorado College seems to be successful
with it, so why can't RPI?

What can the ECAC do.  For one, they can increase the game limit to 34
games. This needs to be across the board.  If the Ivies keep the 29-game
limit, it will drag down the league.  (I realize that the Ivies and
non-Ivies were at an equal footing this year with each group averaging a 6.5
place finish, but the Ivies by their academic reputation will have a
competitive advantage against the non-Ivy ECAC schools if all else is
equal.)

For a second thing, the ECAC management has to understand hockey.  This just
doesn't seem to be the case. Granted that the MAAC (see Findlay) seems even
worse in this regard, but they haven't been trying nearly that long.  It has
been suggested that the league should break its ties with the ECAC.  Perhaps
that makes sense.

This is where I usually vote for reinstituting the old Tri-State League.
Something similar is certainly possible.  For those not-knowing, the
Tri-State league was originally Clarkson, Colgate, Middlebury, RPI, SLU, and
Williams.

I personally believe that the ECAC will receive more than one NCAA bid next
year as most of the better teams will not be losing much, but the long-term
trend is to one bid per year.

Ralph Baer, RPI