I'm glad to see others are as pessimistic about UMass's chances in moving this fast into HE. I'm a little confused about the post replying to my concern that a weak entry into HE would lower BU's strength-of-schedule rating. Why wouldn't this happen? If I've been correctly reading the posts about what the plans for HE schedules are then BU and all other HE schools will each play UMass 3 times. I would bet that UMass will be weaker than almost any opponent BU now faces so I would expect that to lower their rating. Also I thought there was a sort of second order effect whereby if each of those HE schools is considered to have a weaker schedule due to 3 games against UMass then their contribution to BUs strength-of-schedule would be less. Could someone explain whether I'm off-base on this and if so, how? Clarkson isn't the only one to set up special satellite feeds. The BU Alumni/ae group has had Beanpot parties in a number of cities including Albany,NY. If they ever open a smoke-free bar in this area and host it there, I might even go. NC$$ Goalies in NHL: has anyone else noticed that the over- whelming majority of these guys are from western schools? Any speculation on why? Eastern schools have certainly had their share of good goalies over the years so what is it? One idea that I had was that perhaps the travel demands of western scheduling was a lot closer to an NHL life than the relatively local travel that eastern schools can have. Why this should particularly effect the goalies is beyond me. Anyone know if any eastern goalies have had tryouts with NHL teams but haven't made it? Thanks for keeping the off-season interesting, Dave Carroll, NYS Div. of the Budget [log in to unmask] (or if path problems ... [log in to unmask]