>Steve Weisfeldt wrote: > >>Earlier this week someone had posted a rumour they had heard about the >>establishment of a fifth Division I conference to, supposedly, begin full >>D-I play in the 1996-97 season. Holy Cross was among the schools that >>were mentioned. I imagine that their success against UMass gives them >>alot of confidence in their choice to give up their indepedent status. > >and then Bill Fenwick wrote: > >>A couple of follow-up posts on hockey3 have indicated that this is more >>of a scheduling agreement than a full-blown fifth Div. I conference. The >>teams will play one game against each other and conference "standings" will >>be kept, but all the teams involved (except for Army) have ties to other >>Div. III conferences, and they are not expected to break those ties. And then Ralph Baer added: >I wonder why these schools would set up this conference and then play >only a single round robin. This would mean that they were playing five >games against other Div-I schools and would still need another 15 to be >eligible for the NC$$ Div-I tournament. Besides for Army, none of >these teams will be coming close to the 20-game minimum, so why form >this conference unless the schools have visions of expanding the number >of games within the conference in the future? I assume they would have to think about expanding either the number of games or the number of teams in the future. I suspect that this fifth conference is taking a path rather like what the Big East football conference did. I suspect that (correct me if I'm wrong) most of these Div I independents are tied to Div III conferences, and can not break them on a moments' notice. If so, their schedules would be full until such time as they can leave. As I remember of Big East football, it didn't really operate like a true conference in its first year. Because of schedule commitments, teams could only play 3 or 4 games against other Big East foes, as opposed to the 7 or 8 that is normal. I'm not sure how much notice the Div I independents would have to give to their respective Div III conferences to leave. But once that notice is up, I would suspect the fifth conference would operate much like the other four. Of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps all they want to do is schedule more Div I games, and try to be accepted into either the ECAC or HEA. See you later, John -- John C.K. Edwards Stats Geek, Ottawa Jr Senators (19-20-2 41pts) (CJHL) Carleton U., Law IV I don't give a damn about being liked, [log in to unmask] but I sure as hell intend to be respected. All Canadian [Tier II] Junior A standings: http://chat.carleton.ca/~jedwards