Spurred by Ralph Baer's comment on Union's 1995-96 reg season schedule
length and also the wonderful RPI hockey media guide I just received in
the mail (with info from his post earlier!), I must ask .....
 
Pardon the mid-week boredom query, but I have always wondered about the
wide variation in total reg season games scheduled. (Pardon me if this has
been discussed thoroughly on the net ... I have not seen it since my
joining last May :-)
 
Back in the early 60s, RPI and other teams of the eastern ilk typically
played betwen 18 and 24 reg season games, whereas the bigger and better
teams out west played about 30. We were always envious, not only because
they were so much better, but because their seasons were much longer.
Certainly Troy winters supported longer seasons.
 
Nowadays we have eastern teams sort of the same general strength as
western teams, but still, on average playing shorter reg seasons.  The
ECAC in particular limits now at 32 and most are under that.  The western
teams seem to be near 40.
 
Is there an NCAA limit?  If so, I believe it has been going down in recent
years?  Is this a psuedo academic concern, or one  of finances?  Do
individual schools determine the max number, or is it the conference, like
the ECAC, or a combination of both.
 
In general I feel more games means a stronger team especially if you
choose strong non-conference foes.  In the 80s the UCLA basketball team
scheduled very weak non-conf foes, raced off to 10-0, finished at 22-8,
12-8 in conference (rough numbers) and would get knocked off early in the
tourney... lots of fans attributing this to lack of "fire" in the
pre-season.
 
Could this be true in college hockey?  Does playing more games make for a
generally stronger league?
 
Thanks for any info!
 
Tony Buffa
RPI '64
 
PS RPI's record in 1964 was 18-8 including the NCAA's where they finished
"third in the nation" at a time when the NCAA condescended to pick two
eastern teams and two western teams just to say that they didn't ignore
half the hockey-playing schools. In reality, the 50s and 60s almost every
year the top four teams were all out west, in fact, the top 15 probably
were. Note that RPI's record vs. Denver, for example, the big bad team of
the late 50s and early 60s is 0-10, most of the losses, I believe  coming
in that era.