William Sangrey writes:
>  It seems to me that HE's move to leave out the #9 team is a swipe at
>UMass-Amherst, and I do not quite understand the rational.
>Realistically, the Minutemen as a 3rd year team, are not going to be able
>to win often enough to get out of the conferece basement, yet as they
>showed last year, they were able to play the one good game that made the
>8/9 game interesting.  How does eliminating the #9 team help the building
>program?  If, like this year, they are locked into the #9 spot early in
>February, there remaining games could be played by an uninspire team in
>front of empty seats.  And give the quirky HE schedule, this could effect
>the standings of the other teams, benefiting those who play UMA late,
>while hurting those that play all the games early.
 
Yes, this could happen if the #9 team gets eliminated early - but it
has happened in the ECAC too with #11 and #12, and it will be possible
in the CCHA which will allow only 8 of 11 teams in this year.
 
This is only my speculation, but I suspect the fact that the 8 vs 9
game this past season (BC-UMA) drew only 700 fans - less than 10% of
capacity - played an extremely large part in the decision.  The game
likely lost money.
 
I see reasons for and against the decision...it's hard for me to see
one side as having a stronger argument than the other.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93