Matt, I think that a further examination of the whole UAF-CCHA situation would show that the issues you raised are exactly the ones that kept UAF out in the first place. It's really not correct to say that the travel question was ignored by the CCHA. This was, apparently, the chief concern the other schools had and was why UAF went several years with only their affiliate status. When this problem was solved to the satisfaction of the other CCHA schools, it erased the chief concern and fortunately, UAF's full acceptance followed swiftly. It's important to understand that with the new scheduling format, the other CCHA schools will only travel to UAF every other year. Each year, UAF will host 5 of the 10 CCHA teams in 3 game series, and UAF will play 3 game series at the other 5 CCHA teams. As it stands, most CCHA teams were traveling to UAF about every other year (at least) as it was. Remember also that the travel costs for schools going to UAF are, in many cases, even smaller than playing other teams in their area, because UAF pays for 25 round trip plane tickets for each team traveling up there. But most importantly, the scheduling was worked out such that the 5 teams traveling to UAF will be able to do so over breaks in their school's schedule - i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. In fact, I believe it was guaranteed that the players would miss NO class time at all in traveling to and from UAF. Players will miss more class time during trips to play other "Lower 48" CCHA schools, since it is not unusual to leave on Thursday night for a weekend series on the road, i.e. LSSU at UIC. So I have to say that your characterization of the CCHA as "greedy, money-mongering institutions" is dead wrong. In fact, exactly the opposite is true in this case. They waited until a situation could be worked out that was in the best interests of their players and schools. And equally important, they recognized the commitment that other hockey-playing schools have to those schools trying desperately to keep their programs alive and build them further. The drastic reduction in Independents over the last 6 or 7 years left UAF with a tremendous problem in terms of finding enough quality opponents, as well as finding a place to call home. They can't even play UAA more than twice a year now (used to be as many as 8) because UAA only has 2 nonconference games to give as a member of the WCHA. So, I have to applaud heartily the CCHA's acceptance of UAF and the way in which it was negotiated. It kept alive a still budding program that has already come a long way in a very short time, and it gives them a home and a legitimate way of competing for a national title. Everyone is a winner here. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93