Well, I sat down to breakfast this morning and opened up today's copy of
the Washington "Post" to find on Page 1 of the Sports Section a long article
entitled "Now, Notre Dame's Golden Season" by Leonard Shapiro, a long-time
"Post" sports staffer.  As you might expect with the college football season
now underway, the gist of the article concerns the impact of Notre Dame's
break with the rest of the CFA schools to cut its own $38 million TV package
with NBC.  In amongst the predictable whining from several CFA ADs, however,
are several nuggets of information regarding the ND hockey program.  I've
gathered together several excerpts from Coach Schafer's recent post to
HOCKEY-L, and followed those with pertinent blurbs (in quotes) from the
"Post" article:
 
>.... all persons (i.e. coaches and hockey fans) close to N.D. Hockey
>strongly favored the proposal to upgrade the program so that it might
>become a member of the CCHA.  If N.D. were to join the CCHA it would
>probably only do so with 14.5 scholarships instead of the maximum of 18.
 
"There is much to cheer, cheer at old Notre Dame these days, what with
..... blah, blah ..... and an athletic department that continues to operate
at a profit and expand its programs in an era when most schools are slashing
budgets and eliminating teams ..... The hockey team, once a national power,
is making a comeback, going from no scholarships pre-Rosenthal [ND AD] to
nine this year and eighteen projected."
 
See what these pushy "Post" reporters can do for you: 3.5 extra scholarships !
 
>.... our athletic department was "actively considering membership in the
>CCHA" (at least that's what I had read in the paper).  The proposal was made
>to our executive vice President of the University on May 1 .... [but] Notre
>Dame simply has not yet decided whether or not to join Division I hockey in
>a more favorable way.
 
"Notre Dame, like everyone else in college sports, is attempting to squeeze
some income from traditionally non-revenue sports.  Under Rosenthal, now in
his fifth year as athletic director, more money and scholarships have been
earmarked to improve the the school's "Olympic Sports" program.  Already
there is a $10 million athletic endowment available for those sports, just in
case.  Rosenthal says he hasn't had to use any of it just yet."
 
So, now some questions for coach Schafer:  Is hockey considered an "Olympic
Sport" in the eyes of the ND administration, and thus eligible to tap into
this pool of money ??  What a boon to the program if it is !!  Will ND have
to pay an entry fee to rejoin the CCHA (as Kent State was reported to have
done) ??  Might revenue from the Olympic Sports endowment be used in this
regard ??  In these austere times it's not every school that would commit to
such an ambitious plan for growth of non-revenue sports, so my hat's off to
Notre Dame.
 
>My final comment is this: Notre Dame is a great place with or without a bona
>fide DivI hockey team. It could simply be so much better a place if it did!
 
Good luck on the road back to the Top Ten !!
 
Jim Love
UNH '79, '85G
 
P.S.  Coach, if you'll e-mail me your snail mail address, I'll clip the entire
      article and send it along for your scrapbook ....