Seems like a no-brainer to me that the ECAC should establish a permanent home in Albany. Just look at the map. It's equidistant to so many schools in the conference, it's got great transportation into and out of, and it's got a large first class facility (the Knick). What more could one possibly ask for???? On top of that, the Knick can be configured for the same size ice that the NC$$ regionals are using that particular year!!! Boston is clearly HE country, and the ECAC should just leave it that way. They'll never compete in that market. Placid is just too remote to get *all* the student contingents to. In addition, it's only got Olympic ice. The only other fairly central choice is Hartford which has no college hockey tradition -- with the exception of two sparsely attended tournaments hosted by Yale at the Civic Center about a decade ago. -- Dick Tuthill