Luiz Valente writes:
>Small colleges like Bowdoin, Middlebury, Williams, etc. have always
>been Division III schools according to the NCAA, but until the mid-80s
>they played in a hockey league that was known as ECAC Division II.
>Some time in the mid-80s the old ECAC Division II (made up mainly of
>NCAA Division III colleges) was renamed ECAC East-West.
 
Every once in a while, this topic comes up. :-)  Just to give a little
more background...this happened when the NC$$ decided to try to start
forcing teams to play within their own divisions for NC$$ championships
(or at least not below their divisions).  Schools that were playing
DivI but were really DivIII (i.e. RPI) were ok, and in fact an
exception is allowed in the NC$$ manual for, I believe, one men's and
one women's sport to play above your division.  But schools that were
DivI and playing DivII (or III) were deemed to have an unfair
advantage over the smaller/not as well funded DivII/III schools.  The
idea was to try to make things fair by grouping schools the way the NC$$
believed they should be grouped - but if you were DivIII and wanted to
try to play up, well, then more power to you.
 
Basically, they made three lists of schools: DivI, DivII, and DivIII.
Former DivII teams like RIT were moved to the DivIII list since that
was the school's classification.  And former DivII teams like Holy
Cross were moved to the DivI list.  The result was that of all teams
playing NC$$ hockey, most were DivI or DivIII, but very few were DivII
(Merrimack, St Anselm, Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji, etc.) - based, again,
upon the classification of the school.
 
In fact, there were so few "real" DivII teams that the NC$$ decided to
stop sanctioning a DivII national championship tournament after the
1983-84 season.  However, the "real" DivII teams were given three
options: 1) declare up for the DivI tournament, 2) declare down for
the DivIII tournament, or 3) stay DivII and be unable to play in any
NC$$ tournament.  I also believe that schools now had to follow the
rules of whatever division they declared for.
 
Some schools like Merrimack, UAA and UAF declared up for DivI.  But
Merrimack continued to play primarily a DivII-III schedule until 1989
when they joined Hockey East.  Other schools like Bemidji and Mankato
declared down for DivIII, and a few like AIC stayed DivII.  The
schools that declared down were the only ones allowed to play below
their division, because of the special case involving DivII.
 
This was not a hockey-only change.  It affected schools across many
different sports.  In addition, there is a rule in the NC$$ manual
that states that every year (May or so), you must file paperwork with
the NC$$ stating your intention to play in DivI the following season
if you are DivII or III (for example).  Even longtime DivI hockey
schools like RPI and Colorado College have to do this.  Can you
imagine what would happen if somebody forgot to do the paperwork one
year?  I'd think this is pretty high on the "To Do" list. :-)
 
Anyway, from 1985-1991 the DivII tourney did not exist.  It was revived
temporarily starting in 1992 and the former DivII schools that had
been playing DivIII reverted to DivII.  But, I find it curious that
the NC$$ simultaneously (as far as I know) decided that if by 1995-96
the division did not have the minimum number of schools required to
hold an NC$$ championship (40, I believe), it would be canceled again.
THIS time, schools would only have 2 options: 1) declare up for DivI,
or 2) stay DivII with no tournament.  The DivIII option is now out for
DivII schools.
 
I believe that the revival of the DivII tourney was the NC$$'s way of
getting schools like Bemidji and Mankato out of DivIII.  (as well as
other schools in similar situations in other sports.)  Everyone knew
when the DivII tourney was revived that it was not going to last, and
it has almost been a token tourney: many of the schools hardly play
each other at all during the season, and a committee decides on two
teams that play a best of two series at the higher seed for the title.
That's the entire DivII tournament: 2 games (plus minigame), 2 teams.
 
As it stands, 1995 will be the last DivII hockey tournament, possibly
ever.  There are nowhere near enough teams (13) to be able to petition
for an NC$$ championship in hockey, and there is no real hope that
there will be enough in the near future at least.  What the DivII
teams are going to is unknown; I suspect most will remain DivII but
that a handful may move up to DivI.  This is a situation we should
keep a close eye on...the end result in a few years could very well be
a fifth DivI conference.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93