>The obvious question is: Will the NCAA still give an exemption
>from schedule limitations for games played in Alaska?  If so, it sounds
 
Current intentions are that yes, they will.
 
>like an unfair advantage for the WCHA to get in an extra 4 games that
>the other leagues don't have.  If not, the WCHA will only
 
But UAA isn't in the WCHA and UAF in the CCHA for the benefit of those
leagues, they are in mainly to help keep those two schools' programs alive
and well.
 
All the WCHA & CCHA teams are doing is saying, we commit to playing the Alaska
schools every year, the games will just count in the standings.  The ECAC
could have done the same thing if it wanted.
 
The reason for the Alaska rule isn't to allow the other DivI teams to get in
extra games.  It is to allow the Alaska schools to schedule quality opponents
that might not otherwise make the trip.
 
>play two non-league games per team. So much for the validity of
>inter-league comparison models like TCHCR.
 
As far as this goes, it is more important to keep alive the fine programs of
these schools which have brought DivI college hockey into Alaska, than to
be concerned about effects on TCHCR.
 
>I find this arrangement puzzling.  Why the need to play 32 league games?
>Wouldn't a divisional arrangement where you play the other 4 teams in
>your division 4 times and the five teams in the other division 2 times
>make more sense?  What is so special about playing 7 teams four times?
 
Unless there is a unilateral agreement across DivI to reduce all conference
schedules and insure more nonconference games, it doesn't make sense to
go after the WCHA here.  We could just as easily ask, why did HE expand
from 21 to 24 games?  Why does the ECAC refuse to allow its teams to play
more than 30?  Why do the Ivies refuse to play more than 26?  Every
conference sees the small number of nonconference games available to teams
from other conferences and knows that if it doesn't maintain a significant
league schedule, it will be nearly impossible to find enough games to round
out the schedule without going to DivIII or Canada.  If we take one league
to task here, we have to repeat the charges for all of them because they're
not working together.
 
 
- mike