Scott Biggar writes:
>The other mistake that the NCAA seems to be making is not allowing the DII
>programs to play down to DIII next season.  The addition of some high quality
>programs like Bemidji St. (an old RIT rival) Mankato, etc. to DIII hockey would
>be a boon to the league.  I kind of understand their concern about "playing
>down" to a lower league, etc. but there is a precedent here and when it
>happened 10 years ago with RIT, et. al. moving down to DIII it didn`t seem to
>adversely affect the DIII leagues very much.
 
However, what happened ten years ago was really a result of the NC$$
beginning to force schools to play within their own divisions.  A few
then-DivII teams were allowed to play down, but only because their
school was DivII and playing down to DivIII was one of the options the
hockey program was given.  This option will not be available this
time.  RIT and 95% of the others went down to DivIII because the
classification of the school was DivIII.
 
I would say an adverse effect upon some of the DivIII teams was that
there was suddenly no real hope that ECAC North-South (and now
Central) teams would ever be able to compete for a national title -
without moving up to the East-West.  Their "national title" is the
ECAC N-C-S championship.
 
On the ECAC, apparently we may soon see the breakup of the huge (~18
teams) ECAC East into two smaller divisions (East and Mid-East?  EastI
and EastII?).  Last season, the East had 14 DivIII schools and 2 each
from DivI and DivII.  If the split is done right, such that all of the
schools in one division are classified as DivIII, then I don't see why
that division could not petition for an automatic bid to the DivIII
tourney (like the SUNYAC and MIAC).  However, I could also see why
this might NOT happen - imagine if you're one of the DivIII schools
that will get stuck in the other new East conference and can't get that
auto bid.  Chances are you would not support the reorganization.  It
will be interesting to see what happens - maybe the East will just
remain one conference but have two divisions.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
<<<<< Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors (station TBA for 94-95) >>>>>