Fom the New Haven Register (12/11/96)
..........................................
Talks upcoming on new hockey league
 
By Dave Solomon
 
Representatives from Quinnipiac, UConn, Fairfield and Sacred Heart are
among
a group of schools which will meet at the New Haven Coliseum later this
month
to discuss the formation of the nation's fifth Division I collegiate
hockey
league.
 
As first reported in the Register Oct. 24, the meeting, which will be
held
Dec. 27 prior to the start of the two-day Quinnipiac Cup hockey
tournament at
the Coliseum, is also expected to include Army, Canisius, Holy Cross,
Iona,
Villanova and Niagara. The league will likely fall under the auspices of
the
ECAC.
 
 "I think it would be a great thing for hockey," said Joe Bertagna, the
ECAC
commissioner for hockey, noting that he's received a lot of positive
feedback
in trying to get the league started. "I think the league has a lot of
potential." Bertagna said the way college hockey is currently alligned,
the
four leagues - Hockey East, the ECAC, the Western Collegiate Hockey
Association and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association - are all on a
similar power level. Comparatively, the new league would be like a low-
or
mid-major level to the other four power leagues.
 
 Quinnipiac Athletic Director Jack McDonald said a Division I hockey
league
is a high priority for the school, which recently announced its upgrade
to
Division I. McDonald said the idea of the Quinnipiac Cup tournament
(Quinnipiac, UConn, Fairfield and Worcester State) was to link the
Hamden
school with Division I competition, and the proposed league would be the
culmination of that attempt.
 
 Bertagna, a former Harvard goaltender, said that Army, currently an
independent, would be a key addition to the new league with its great
hockey
tradition. Moreover, there's been talk about setting up a scheduling
partnership with Air Force, a powerful western independent.
 
 Air Force would not be part of the new league, but theoretically it
could
come East and play several teams from the new league and host others.
Bertagna is also hopeful the league would help entice some schools to
play
varsity hockey and generate new Division I rivalries. For instance,
UConn,
which plays in the ECAC-East, a mixture of Division I, II and III teams,
does
not face Yale in hockey. But if UConn joined a legitimate all-Division I
league, Yale might consider playing the Huskies and/or Quinnipiac.
 
 McDonald said an ultimate goal would be for the new league to receive
an
automatic bid to the 12-team NCAA tournament. Currently, the four
existing
leagues each receive two automatic bids.
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.