Gary Robinson asks: >Does anybody know if the Central States Collegiate Hockey League will >operate this year? If so, who will participate? Yes. Based on the schedule below, I believe the teams are Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Iowa State, Marquette, Michigan-Dearborn, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin-Whitewater. Toledo is definitely out, and it appears [from the schedule] that Purdue is also gone. Kent State would be a natural addition, but who knows. Again, from EMU's schedule, it looks as if EMU, UI, UMD and OU will form one division with ISU, UM, MU and UWW in the other. My gut feeling says this is correct, since EMU would be playing it's divisional opponents four times each and non-divisional opponents once. Btw, given the scoring system used recently in the CSCHL, that *may* mean non-divisional conference games are worth 8 points! Usually, each season series between CSCHL teams are worth an equivalent number of points. Last year, season series were either four games or two games [where each game was worth 4 points]. Here's the 1994-95 Eastern Michigan University Eagles schedule. It's not set in stone, but it's damn close. OCT 2 1:30 ALUMNI GAME OCT 7 8:00 Central Michigan OCT 8 7:30 Northwood Institute OCT 14 9:00 MINNESOTA OCT 15 8:00 IOWA STATE OCT 21 7:30 Illinois OCT 22 7:30 Illinois OCT 28 7:30 OHIO OCT 29 7:30 OHIO NOV 4 7:30 Dusquense NOV 5 4:00 West Virginia NOV 11 7:30 ILLINOIS NOV 12 7:30 ILLINOIS NOV 18 9:00 KENT STATE NOV 19 7:30 KENT STATE NOV 25 ---- UMD Thanksgiving Classic NOV 26 ---- UMD Thanksgiving Classic DEC 2 9:00 Penn State DEC 3 3:30 Penn State DEC 9 7:30 Michigan-Dearborn DEC 10 7:30 MICHIGAN-DEARBORN JAN 6 9:00 NORTHWOOD INSTITUTE JAN 7 9:00 ARIZONA [at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor] JAN 13 7:30 Michigan-Dearborn JAN 14 7:30 MICHIGAN-DEARBORN JAN 20 7:30 DUSQUENSE JAN 21 7:30 WEST VIRGINIA JAN 27 9:00 MICHIGAN STATE JAN 28 9:30 PENN STATE [at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor] FEB 3 7:30 FERRIS STATE FEB 4 7:30 FERRIS STATE FEB 10 7:30 Wisconsin-Whitewater FEB 11 7:30 Marquette FEB 17 7:30 Ohio FEB 18 7:30 Ohio CSCHL CHAMPIONSHIPS FEB 23-25 at Ohio Univ ACHA CHAMPIONSHIPS MAR 1-4 at Univ of Arizona I believe the final arrangements are being made for the games in Ann Arbor. January 7 is an off date for the University of Michigan and the January 28 Penn State-Eastern Michigan game will follow the Illinois-Chicago at Michigan CCHA game. EMU has arguably the toughest schedule in the ACHA. The grouping of EMU, Illinois, Mich-Dearborn and Ohio features four of the top 8-10 in the country at this level. These teams will beat on each other all season. Add three games with perennial power Penn State and a spotlight match with Arizona. And, that is the same ol' Kent State, comprised predominantly of former CCHA players. I'd LOVE to see a weak CCHA team [admittedly depleted due to graduation and transfer of many top players] against a tough ACHA team. However, I'm not curious enough to skip out on the Miami-Michigan series that weekend. :-) John Haeussler Univ of Michigan