Let me try to explain the NESCAC and ECAC picture -- as well as the
wrinkle Bowdoin will be throwing into any potential change in the
situation as it relates to hockey...
 
David writes:
 
< I read the two posts on UConn hockey and I was totaly confused. What is
< NESCAC and ECAC.  Now I know that their is an ECAC that consists of RPI,
< Harvard and other teams.  But all the schools listed were small schools
< like Amherst College.  Could some please explain to me what these acroynms
< mean.
 
ECAC stands for the Eastern College Athletic Conference, while NESCAC
stands for the New England Small College Athletic Conference. The ECAC is
an "umbrella" conference that, when you have all of the colleges in all of
the sports involved, consists of 270 member colleges and universities from
Maine to North Carolina in all three NC$$ divisions.
 
NESCAC is a group of 11 colleges and universities (Amherst, Bates,
Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan,
and Williams) that have joined and have more restrictive regulations than
the NC$$. All of the NESCAC schools are members of the ECAC.
 
In hockey, most of the NESCACs are members of the ECAC East. (Tufts is a
member of ECAC Central, and Wesleyan is a member of the ECAC South. Bates
does not sponsor varisty hockey.) This is similar to Salem State, a member
of MASCAC that is a member of ECAC East. NESCAC does not sponsor any
tournaments -- it even is not a scheduling conference -- instead, the
members play in ECAC tournaments, and for the first time this year the
NESCAC schools are eligible for NC$$ tournament competition.
 
Now to the UConn situation:
 
Chris Lerch writes:
>
> Dick writes:
>
> >Apparently Brian Cavanaugh's
> >contention that NESCAC is about to pull out of the ECAC
> >East is very real.I have it from a very reliable source in Storrs that
> >there will be a meeting of the Division I no-scholarship schools and the
> >Division II schools in mid November to discuss what to do if
> >that happens.   A new league is very possible.   What happens to New >England
> College and North Adams,  etc., under that scenario
> >is a real problem.   None of the former schools wants
> >to leave anyone out in the cold.
>
> Perhaps the remaining D-III non-NESCAC schools could combine
> with the ECAC West to form a true D-III ECAC conference. After
> the SUNYs pulled out of ECAC West, Hamilton went ECAC East
> and St. Bonas went club, the West has only 6 teams left.
 
 
This rumor is probably based on discussions that occurred two or three
years ago. This afternoon, I quizzed Bowdoin's athletic director Sid
Watson (who is the chairman of the NC$$ men's ice hockey rules committee)
and Bowdoin's Men's Hockey Coach Terry Meagher about the situation.
 
Yes, there have been discussions about the NESCACs forming a scheduling
arrangement within the ECAC structure -- again, there have been *no*
discussions to Sid or Terry's knowledge about the NESCACs leaving the
ECAC. And, you should know, that Bowdoin is totally against the idea of a
home-and-home scheduling arrangement with each of the NESCAC schools. In
fact, Sid has Bowdoin's president, Robert Edwards, on record saying that
if the other NESCAC schools decide to have a scheduling arrangement that
Bowdoin does not have to be a part of it.
 
Sid and Terry do not want to lose games with our traditional non-NESCAC
rivals, like Babson, Salem State, UConn, and Norwich. In fact, while I
can't say who, there are two or three other NESCAC teams that are against
the scheduling proposal for similar reasons.
 
It is next to impossible for the NESCACs to split away from the ECAC
structure. First, Bowdoin and a couple others are against it, and a NESCAC
conference without Bowdoin and these other schools would not make sense.
Second, the decision to allow NESCACs to play in the NC$$ tournaments is
not a final decision -- it is instead a three-year trial period. There
will not be a NESCAC conference formed to get an automatic bid with the
specter of a return to the old days possible in a mere three years (the
old days being, of course, NESCAC teams not being allowed to compete in
NC$$ competition). Third, because of a NESCAC rule, teams are only allowed
to compete in ONE postseason tournament. Thus, a NESCAC conference could
not have a postseason tournament, if any of the members wanted to compete
in the NC$$. As it stands, NESCAC teams with a chance of making the NC$$
will have to opt out of the ECAC tournament to take the chance of making
the NC$$...that's right, if Middlebury or whoever thought they had a good
enough record to make the NC$$, the team would not be allowed to play in
the ECAC Tournament. (That should make for an interesting early March!)
 
So, a NESCAC split is unlikely, to quote both Sid and Terry. And, if they
do go, you can expect to see Bowdoin and two or three others remain in the
ECAC structure anyway.
 
Sorry to have written this much, but I thought it was necessary to get the
other side of the discussion involved.
 
I can't wait to actually talk about hockey!!!
 
119 Hours to the First Practice (6:00 p.m. Monday, November 1)
 
Craig Cheslog
Bowdoin College
Sports Information Director
internet: [log in to unmask]