>The biggest >problem I see is the potential travel problems between pairs host schools on >a given weekend. Minneapolis--Madison and Duluth--Grand Forks are both 260 >mile trips. Winter storms could cause some difficult travel. Maybe they aren't proposing travelling BETWEEN travel partners, but an organization that just makes scheduling easier. Maybe when Tech goes to Colorado for 2, then Denver will go to NMU for two. That is, when N-1-a hosts, N-1-b the partner) travels. "Scheduling partners" would be a better term. Using Erik's breakdown, let's see what Wisconsin's schedule might be: All are 2 games series. AT HOME West UAA UAF CC DU North Tech NMU Duluth UND Central Minn Minn SCSU SCSU MSU MSU -------- -------- 14 14 The following season, reverse the home and away columns. This makes 1 trip to Alaska and 1 trip to Colorado each year for teams in the North & Central, just as the story indicates. For play-offs, you can do any number of crazy things, including wild card berths. I won't touch it. No inside info here; I am just speculating. But I assume that if the plans we come up with here on hockey-l are significantly better than what UAF has already proposed, then Ric Schafer will forward them on to the UAF folks. (half smiley) Keith