>Steve Weisfeldt wrote:
>
>>Earlier this week someone had posted a rumour they had heard about the
>>establishment of a fifth Division I conference to, supposedly, begin full
>>D-I play in the 1996-97 season.  Holy Cross was among the schools that
>>were mentioned.  I imagine that their success against UMass gives them
>>alot of confidence in their choice to give up their indepedent status.
>
>and then Bill Fenwick wrote:
>
>>A couple of follow-up posts on hockey3 have indicated that this is more
>>of a scheduling agreement than a full-blown fifth Div. I conference.  The
>>teams will play one game against each other and conference "standings" will
>>be kept, but all the teams involved (except for Army) have ties to other
>>Div. III conferences, and they are not expected to break those ties.
 
And then Ralph Baer added:
 
>I wonder why these schools would set up this conference and then play
>only a single round robin.  This would mean that they were playing five
>games against other Div-I schools and would still need another 15 to be
>eligible for the NC$$ Div-I tournament.  Besides for Army, none of
>these teams will be coming close to the 20-game minimum, so why form
>this conference unless the schools have visions of expanding the number
>of games within the conference in the future?
 
I assume they would have to think about expanding either the number of games
or the number of teams in the future.
 
I suspect that this fifth conference is taking a path rather like what the
Big East football conference did. I suspect that (correct me if I'm wrong)
most of these Div I independents are tied to Div III conferences, and can
not break them on a moments' notice. If so, their schedules would be full
until such time as they can leave.
 
As I remember of Big East football, it didn't really operate like a true
conference in its first year. Because of schedule commitments, teams could
only play 3 or 4 games against other Big East foes, as opposed to the 7 or
8 that is normal.
 
I'm not sure how much notice the Div I independents would have to give to
their respective Div III conferences to leave. But once that notice is up,
I would suspect the fifth conference would operate much like the other four.
 
Of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps all they want to do is schedule more
Div I games, and try to be accepted into either the ECAC or HEA.
 
See you later,
John
 
--
John C.K. Edwards        Stats Geek, Ottawa Jr Senators (19-20-2 41pts) (CJHL)
Carleton U., Law IV                   I don't give a damn about being liked,
[log in to unmask]           but I sure as hell intend to be respected.
All Canadian [Tier II] Junior A standings: http://chat.carleton.ca/~jedwards