I haven't seen this topic posted, so I went into the archives to try to find something on it. Nothing. Yet, my apologies if this is an old topic -- as I have been very busy and have not had much time for discussion lists. On 9/5/97, I pointed out that the MAAC was the only multi-sport conference which included hockey and thus enjoyed a certain standing with the NC$$ that the other "hockey-only" conferences did not enjoy. I asked for opinions as to what this might mean. I got no direct feedback from the list, but something arrived via snail mail this week. I arrived home for the weekend yesterday to discover the UConn season wrap-up mailing, and included in that packet was an article from the Boston Herald from Monday, 2/23/98. The thrust of the article was the fact that HE officials were highly irritated after they learned last month that the Jack McDonald, AD of Quinnipiac College, will replace Robert DeGregorio, Jr., of Merrimack and HE on the NC$$ Men's Ice Hockey Committee. Apparently UConn AD Lew Perkins and the MAAC itself lobbied the NC$$ hard for the nomination on the basis that the MAAC is a multi-sport conference, a current restructuring emphasis of the NC$$. Needless to say, Joe Bertagna and HE are said to have bruised feelings over this. The upshot is that the entire D-1 community will lobby strenuously for a five person committee so that all conferences can be represented. For his part, McDonald committed to working hard for an expansion of the NC$$ tournament to sixteen teams. Another interesting tidbit that was added to the article almost as an afterthought was the statement that the MAAC has been promised an automatic NC$$ tournament bid for the year after next (year 2000) in only its second year. If so, that will certainly draw rides into the MAAC programs at a rapid rate, and my guess is that Army and perhaps Niagara will be enticed to join the MAAC as well. It would also be another impressive display of influence for the MAAC to have achieved that stature so quickly, even before their first season of play. Sounds like Perkins meant it when he said on TV in January that ice hockey was going to be a revenue sport at UConn. -- Dick Tuthill HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.