Steve Weisfeldt writes:
>Mike Machnik <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>
>>A while ago in talking to HE commissioner Bob DeGregorio, I wondered
>>if it would be possible for HE and the CCHA to set up some sort of
>>nonconference agreement.  Bob said that although this would be nice,
>>the league really only has jurisdiction over conference games.  Any
>>nonconference games would have to be arranged by the schools
>>themselves.
>
>A few years ago Hockey East and the WCHA had an interlocking schedule in
>which every team from HE played every team from the WCHA once and the
>games counted as conference games for both conferences.  How did this
>arrangement come about?
 
Actually, this agreement began with the HE & WCHA teams playing each
other twice a year in games that counted in both teams' league
records.  This continued for two seasons, long enough for one home
series and one away series, until, I believe, the WCHA's desire to
play more games vs WCHA members led to the change whereby everyone
played everyone from the other conference once instead.
 
I was not a follower of HE in 1983 when the agreement was set up, but
I am sure that it was arranged by the conferences themselves.
However, we are still talking about conference games here.  A CCHA-HE
agreement like the one I mentioned above would involve *nonconference*
games since you aren't going to be able to set up an interlocking
CCHA-HE schedule now w/o someone cutting back on league schedules.
Just wanted to point out the difference between the two situations.
 
BTW, note that when the agreement was announced on 12/2/83 (according
to the HE chronology), the WCHA had 6 teams and HE had 7.  That made
it much easier to set up such a schedule.  But the WCHA would expand
before HE even began its first season of play, adding MTU & NMU from
the CCHA.  Looking back, I think it's kind of amazing that the
interlocking schedule lasted as long as it did (5 years), and I think
it would be nearly impossible to do something like that today.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93