I found the article in Friday's Schenectady Gazette regarding RPI's remaining in the ECAC. Since most of the facts have been reported on Hockey-L, I won't post all of it, just excerpts. "The Engineers began looking at the possibility of changing conferences in February... They were intrigued with Hockey East because the league offered something that the ECAC could not provide: national exposure." "RPI officials also considered changing conferece because of the ECAC's stringent academic index, which ranks incoming freshman hockey players according to class ranking, high school average and SAT scores. The fans were all set to move into Hockey East as early as the ECAC playoffs. During their quarterfinal series with Union, a homemade Hockey East banner was displayed. But a series of events may have cost Hockey East. [RPI President R. Byron] Pipes and the committe [appointed to study a move] continued to weigh their options well into the summer. Then, coach Buddy Powers, who was in favor of making the switch, left the program last week to become head coach at Bowling Green. On Wednesday, the Engineers named assistant Dan Fridgen as Powers' replacement. Also, the ECAC has been in negotiations with the Empire Sports Network to televise several regular season games. ESN has televised the ECAC Tournament semifinals and championship game from Lake Placid." -- Bri Farenell [log in to unmask] Glens Falls, NY AHL, NCAA and ECAC contact for rec.sport.hockey "There are 999 patrons of virtue to 1 virtuous man." ---H.D. Thoreau Forza Azzurri! Italia: 1994 World Cup Co-Champions