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 <<<<<<