>Posted on 23 Dec 1994 at 05:31:22 by Ralph N. Baer >Div-II schools > >What interested me is that there are also 37 Div-II teams (and 42 >Div-III). The Div-II list includes Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, >Merrimack, St. Cloud, and Union that are now Div-I The remaining >schools are AIC, Babson, Bemidji State, Bowdoin, Brockport State, >Buffalo State, Canisius, Colby, Connecticut, Cortland State, Elmira, >Framingham State, Geneseo State, Gustavus Adolphus, Hamilton, Hobart, >Holy Cross, Lake Forest, Mankato State, Massachusetts-Boston, >Middlebury, New England College, North Adams State, Norwich, Oswego >State, Plattsburgh State, Potsdam State, RIT, St. Alselm, Salem State, >Westfield State, and Williams. > >This is a rather strange list. Canisius, Connecticut, and Holy Cross >are now Div-I playing mostly Div-III schedules. (Actually, wasn't >Connecticut actually a Div-I school all along? Weren't they in the >Big-East in b-ball then? I don't know about the other two.) Most of >the reminder are now Div-III although a few are still in Div-II and >some have probably given up playing hockey :-(. I know that at one >point the Div-II championship was abolished and teams were given the >option of changing their Division status for Hockey. However, I wonder >if all of these schools were really Div-II at the time. For example, I >thought that Union was a Div-III school. Any comments? Small colleges like Bowdoin, Middlebury, Williams, etc. have always been Division III schools according to the NCAA, but until the mid-80s they played in a hockey league that was known as ECAC Division II. Some time in the mid-80s the old ECAC Division II (made up mainly of NCAA Division III colleges) was renamed ECAC East-West. The University of Connecticut and Holy Cross are NCAA Division I schools that played hockey in the old ECAC Division II, and now play in ECAC East-West. Merrimack College is an NCAA Division II school that used to play hockey in ECAC Division II, and then briefly played in ECAC East-West before moving to Division I (in hockey). And, as you know, RPI, ST. Lawrence, Union (and I think Clarkson) are NCAA Division III schools that play Division I hockey. Luiz F. Valente