I too doubt that Middlebury will choose to upgrade their hockey
program to Div-I.  I would like to add that at one time Middlebury had
a major hockey program.  In the 1950's, there was something called the
Tri-State Hockey League which consisted of Clarkson, Middlebury, RPI,
St. Lawrence, and Williams.  Williams dropped out after a few years
and Middlebury some years later.  After that the league consisted of
only three teams and was "tri-state" in name only.  The name changed
to the ICAC (Independent College Athletic Conference, I think)
after the 1963-64 season and disappeared completely as far as I can
determine after 1971-72.
 
At the time that Middlebury was a member of the Tri-State league,
there was no Div-I, so perhaps it is debateable how you should
classify Middlebury then.  Also after the first ECAC split (the one
about 1962, not the one when Hockey East was founded), Middlebury
chose to be a member of ECAC-Div-II, not ECAC-Div-I.
 
One more thing, in the years 1958-59, 1959-60, and 1960-61, a man
by the name of Phil Latreille lead the east in scoring each
year.  His stats were 57-33-90, 77-19-96, and 80-28-108.  His
ratio of goals to assists must be some kind of record.  At least
judging by the scores vs RPI in those years, Middlebury was no longer
competitive with Div-I teams.  (The score in 1960-61 was only 5-4, but
Middlebury lost 8-4 and 9-3 in 1958-59 and 7-1 in 1959-60.)
 
By the way, Phil Latreille has been discussed previously on Hockey-L,
although at least at that time, no one stated that they saw him play.
 
Ralph Baer
RPI '68, '70, '74