Some have championed the cause of an early season tournament for
college hockey, and I tend to think it would be a good idea.  A number
of DivIII teams hold tourneys to open their seasons and they seem to
have a good following.  In DivI, the only tourneys since 1986-87 that
were held before Thanksgiving have been the USAir Tournament at
Providence College (90-91, 91-92) and the Maine Faceoff Classic
(88-89).  They didn't have sparkling fields, although the 1990 USAir
Tourney championship game does rank as the 13th longest game of all
time (PC 6, RPI 5, 83:02).
 
BTW, I just want to clarify, some have suggested that such a tourney
could receive wider interest if the games were to be considered
exhibitions.  However, unless one of the NC$$ exceptions were taken
(such as hosting a foreign team), these games would have to count
towards the limit for everyone, whether they are called exhibitions or
not.  That's a problem with trying to get together the 4 preseason
conference favorites, as Bri suggested.  You're not going to know who
those teams are until soon before the season starts, and that is long
after everyone has usually got their schedule set in stone (or close
to it).
 
What someone could do, is to take a guess at picking who they think
will be four of the best teams in the nation, one from each
conference, and put together a tourney to open the season somewhere.
Being from around here, I'd love to see BU host such a tourney when
the new Garden opens in fall of 95.  But I suspect it could be
successful in other places, too.
---                                                                    ---
Mike Machnik                                             [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                     *HMM* 11/13/93
>>>>>> Dean Borrelli (C, Tacoma, AAA) .348, 31-for-89, 3 HR, 15 RBI <<<<<<