Ryan Stone writes:
>with a question.  Actually this has always bothered me.  What posesses a league
>to want to play each other so many times during a season.  Don't you think 2
>games would be sufficient, 1 home 1 away.  Traveling partners as is done in
>the ECAC can be arranged to make travel easier, and those teams who WANT to
 play
>an extra game with a conference RIVAL can schedule it in the many extra games
>left over for non-league play.  This 3 game 2 year cylce is ridiculous and
>playing each other 4 times is worse.  If I am correct, if Michigan had beaten
>Wisconsin in the Semi-Final, they would be playing a National Championship
>against a team they had ALREADY faced 5 times.  That probably would have been
>
First of all, Wisconsin is in the WCHA and Michigan is in the CCHA.  I don't
believe they met during the regular season.  I assume you mean LSSU and
Michigan.
 
Traveling partners for a 1 home 1 away series may be fine for the ECAC, but
it's not quite so easy out west.  Look at the WCHA.  The first problem is
that you've got 9 teams, but beyond that, who would you pair North Dakota
with?  I'm just guessing distances, but I can't imagine there's any school
within less than about 4 hours drive of Grand Forks.  Same problem with
Wisconsin.  Minnesota is probably the closest rival, but that's still 250
miles off.  I can't speak for the CCHA, but there are reasons the western
schools have stuck with this scheduling as long as they have.  I don't
know if you should really say it's ridiculous until you've tried it.  It
builds up some exciting rivalries.
 
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!