Jeffrey Sklar of the RPI Sports list posed the following question:
 
>When was the last time a defending ECAC champion missed the play-offs?
 
Jeffrey asked this because RPI still has the chance of not making the playoffs.
 
To avoid an argument over whether "champion" is regular season or tournament,
I went back and looked up both.
 
All instances:
 
1962-63:  In the league's second year, Colby, who won the regular season the
          year before, finished 21st and missed the tournament.  The tournament
          field was picked by committee in these early years, but Colby would
          have missed either way.
 
1978-79:  Boston College, defending tournament champions, finish eleventh and
          miss out defending their title.
 
1979-80:  A double whammy.  Boston University won the regular season in 1978-79
          and Providence won the tournament.  Both missed the tournament this
          year, with BU finishing 14th and New Hampshire 13th.
 
1982-83:  Northeastern finishes 12th and does not defend their tournament title.
 
1986-87:  Cornell just misses defending their 1986 tournament title by finishing
          ninth.
 
So, in all, 4 tournament champions and 2 regular season champions didn't get to
the tourney the following year.
 
 
 
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Kurt Stutt              http://www.rpi.edu/~stuttk/hockey.html
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