According to the Portland Press Herald, Maine's post-season ban includes the Hockey East tournament. I don't think HE had anything to do with the ban because no mention has been made of the sort by the Portland Press Herald or the Bangor Daily News or by any of the three Bangor TV stations. Surely if HE officials got together to decide Maine's fate somebody in the media would have known about it and reported it. As for the TV ban, Maine is set to enter its final year of a contract with the Maine Broadcasting System. Maine can ask the NCAA to suspend the TV ban for this season because of the contract. At last report, the Bangor Daily News said no decision had been made yet by UMaine officials or MBS officials. If Maine were allowed to play in the HE tournament (which it's not), I don't think there would be a problem with the NESN contract because the contract, I presume, has already been signed. Also, the contract is with the league, not Maine. The league could use this point to argue for keeping NESN coverage of Maine games. But because Maine apparently isn't going to be in the HE tournament, this is moot. Now about regular season NESN games... _____________________________________________________________________ Ryan Robbins "Nothing in fine print is ever good news." University of Maine -- Andy Rooney _____________________________________________________________________ [log in to unmask] ____________________________________________ http://maine.maine.edu/~rrobbi32/____________________________________ HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.