Dick Tuthill writes
 
>        Let's not get too carried away by arguments of league merit.   If the new
>league has to prove itself over an initial period,  then they once they do
>that they get two automatics just like everyone else.   And conversely,  if we
>say no and insist too heavily upon a merit system to deny them that,  then it
>is time to cut the ECAC down to one bid for next year,  is it not?
 
        Whoa!  Hold it there partner.  It might have been accurate to
consider the ECAC as a weak sister a couple of years ago, but it's
swung the other way right now.  In 1995-6 they had three teams in the
top twelve, while Hockey East had the WCHA had two each.  (HE got a
third bid when Providence won the conference tournament, and Cornell
had to win the ECACs to hang onto theirs.)  In the NC$$s last year,
Cornell lost by a hair to Lake State, Clarkson annihilated Western
Michigan and came back from a 3-0 deficit against BU only to lose 3-2,
and UVM beat Lake State to go to the Frozen Four, where they lost in
overtime on a goal people are still arguing about.  This year, the
ECAC did even better in the regular season, winning the season series
with Hockey East and landing three teams in the top ten, including the
top team in the East, but their NC$$ tourney performance was marred by
Clarkson falling on their collective sword against Colorado College.
Including ineligible Maine in the consideration makes HE look better and
the ECAC look worse, but it's not
 
>  (My personal
>favorite year was when our buddy Lainge Kennedy sold Clarkson down the river
>to get some undeserving Ivy in and all the ECAC's went down on the same night.
>  1993?)
 
        The ECAC had a dark year in 1994 when there was talk of giving
Clarkson the automatic bye that BU got this year if they won the ECAC
tournament and regular season.  That year Clarkson was the only ECAC
team in the top twelve, and if they'd won the ECACs, Vermont would
have been the "undeserving Ivy" with the second auto bid.  As it was,
the second bid went to ECAC tournement winner RPI, who were shut out
as part of the ECACs one-night exit.  I'm not familiar with what
happened in '93, but the ECAC had three bids that year, including an
auto bid for Harvard for winning the ECACs, and all three teams did
fall on the same night.  Was there actually talk of denying Harvard
the auto bid that year?
 
>        I think the debate turns on whether a single immediate bid is justified.   I
>can tell you this,  if it isn't granted,  the fifth league will never gain
>enough strength to be viable.
 
        BTW, there were a couple of minor conferences which didn't get
auto bids in the 80s, but they only had three or four teams.
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: Back-to-back ECAC and Ivy League Champions
 
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