Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

[norm1909]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

"Existing geographical area"? As in the entire Eastern Seaboard..? If the W is expanded as is proposed, the travel is nuts. Has to be the worst in the East, in the aggregate.

Guys, the fool's gold that is the AQ is at the root of this madness. An equitable and transparent metric that berths teams on the basis of stand-alone, all-season-long achievement is the way to go in such a small PS field. Conference-affiliation means nothing in and of itself.

(The KRACH comes to mind in that regard, being nearly perfect last year.)

Conference-affiliation means nothing in and of itself. Aside from allowing for travel partners, post season play (conference title), an AQ and marketing/prestige by affiliation (for better or worse).

[Fishman'81]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Maybe the lack of an autobid for ECAC West teams has hurt them in recruiting over the last 5 years. Think about it, the league is a shell of what it was a few years ago with Hobart the only team with a solid season last year. Even then, hobart got shellacked by Oswego in the first round.

You can't tell me that when kids went to other schools for visits that they wouldn't say ohhh...you know ECAC west teams don't automatically get into the tournament if they win your league right?

Kids want to play in the NCAA Tournament and they want to go to schools where they have a shot at doing that. Playing an entire 25 game season like its the playoffs like the ECAC west teams are forced to do can grow incredibly tiresome on the mind and body. Every loss hurts that much more without an AQ.

The W has a de-facto AQ in Pool-C right now, as long as they have a team that's worthy in a genuine sense.

[Fishman'81]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Still you ask anyone else here on the forum they all know you're just a troll *******. They added teams to an already existing geographic area for the league which means scheduling can run multiple teams in one swing to the geographic region and any idiot can realize that the losses in SOS is made up for by the autobid plus if the schools put in some resources they might not be terrible one would hope LV learned form the previous mistakes and it not in it just to suck again. This is a good time for them to join as any idiot who follows the W knows they have had a couple down years so its a chance to get in when the learning curve is a little less steep. Now go back to reddit with the rest of the Trolls.

"Existing geographical area"? As in the entire Eastern Seaboard..? If the W is expanded as is proposed, the travel is nuts. Has to be the worst in the East, in the aggregate.

Guys, the fool's gold that is the AQ is at the root of this madness. An equitable and transparent metric that berths teams on the basis of stand-alone, all-season-long achievement is the way to go in such a small PS field. Conference-affiliation means nothing in and of itself.

(The KRACH comes to mind in that regard, being nearly perfect last year.)

[UCAlum32]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Who's "dumb" here, Einstein..? Are you saying that the fact that the W already has to log a ton a ton of miles means that adding two more brutal trips is somehow moot..? (Well, hell, let's invite Lake Forest, too!)

And why bother? Neither team is likely to add value to UC's schedule; in fact, they are very likely to degrade it. I'd rather see eg. OSU, PSU and Trinity on the docket, no AQ for the W, and let it's best team get a Pool C.

The W lives and dies by it's SOS. I'm fine with that.

Still you ask anyone else here on the forum they all know you're just a troll *******. They added teams to an already existing geographic area for the league which means scheduling can run multiple teams in one swing to the geographic region and any idiot can realize that the losses in SOS is made up for by the autobid plus if the schools put in some resources they might not be terrible one would hope LV learned form the previous mistakes and it not in it just to suck again. This is a good time for them to join as any idiot who follows the W knows they have had a couple down years so its a chance to get in when the learning curve is a little less steep. Now go back to reddit with the rest of the Trolls.

[PSUChamps2001]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

I guess you either have no clue, or conveniently forgot how (good?) UC was when they came to the ECAC-W.

Come on now. If it wasn't for all those crappy automatic bids, Utica would have been in the NCAA Tournament every year. They were FOR REAL!

[PSUChamps2001]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

FWIW,

The NCHA "currently" is at an average of 268 miles between opponents. Adding Aurora next season will put it at 264 miles. 50 miles more average then the ECAC West, yet I don't see too many people whining about that? I'd say they've done pretty good too with all those bus legs...

[jconnor]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

And why bother? Neither team is likely to add value to UC's schedule; in fact, they are very likely to degrade it.

I guess you either have no clue, or conveniently forgot how (good?) UC was when they came to the ECAC-W.

[shelfit]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

I'm not sure I'd want to travel to Baltimore every year. Is their joining the league really a good thing?

[altazo]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Well, hell, let's invite Lake Forest, too!

You so crazy, Fish! What makes you think LF would be interested? They already play in a better league with an AQ, silly.

Kudos on your kooky internet persona. Nobody does it quite like you...

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Who's "dumb" here, Einstein..? Are you saying that the fact that the W already has to log a ton a ton of miles means that adding two more brutal trips is somehow moot..? (Well, hell, let's invite Lake Forest, too!)

And why bother? Neither team is likely to add value to UC's schedule; in fact, they are very likely to degrade it. I'd rather see eg. OSU, PSU and Trinity on the docket, no AQ for the W, and let it's best team get a Pool C.

The W lives and dies by it's SOS. I'm fine with that.

Maybe the lack of an autobid for ECAC West teams has hurt them in recruiting over the last 5 years. Think about it, the league is a shell of what it was a few years ago with Hobart the only team with a solid season last year. Even then, hobart got shellacked by Oswego in the first round.

You can't tell me that when kids went to other schools for visits that they wouldn't say ohhh...you know ECAC west teams don't automatically get into the tournament if they win your league right?

Kids want to play in the NCAA Tournament and they want to go to schools where they have a shot at doing that. Playing an entire 25 game season like its the playoffs like the ECAC west teams are forced to do can grow incredibly tiresome on the mind and body. Every loss hurts that much more without an AQ.

[joecct]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

If the tournament field does expand, adding two teams gets us nearer to a 12 team field.

What exactly IS an onerous road trip? 6 hours? Rochester to Reisterstown is under 6 hours.

[Fishman'81]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Mr. Fish....Have you ever driven from Plattsburgh to Fredonia in the winter? Now that's a trip even in good weather !! They are not high school kids...most have them have played Jr hockey and have traveled more than you will ever know !

Yeah but there's a lot of short trips in the SUNYAC, too... And these kids aren't in Juniors anymore. The assumption is that they are student-athletes in college.

But, to put it in the most cynical terms, this move makes no sense in terms of hockey. Adding two cannon-fodder teams (with major travel concerns) in order to guarantee a berth that is generally earned by the W's best team isn't likely to improve how the conference fares nationally.

[Birdwatcher]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Who's "dumb" here, Einstein..? Are you saying that the fact that the W already has to log a ton a ton of miles means that adding two more brutal trips is somehow moot..? (Well, hell, let's invite Lake Forest, too!)

And why bother? Neither team is likely to add value to UC's schedule; in fact, they are very likely to degrade it. I'd rather see eg. OSU, PSU and Trinity on the docket, no AQ for the W, and let it's best team get a Pool C.

The W lives and dies by it's SOS. I'm fine with that.

Mr. Fish....Have you ever driven from Plattsburgh to Fredonia in the winter? Now that's a trip even in good weather !! They are not high school kids...most have them have played Jr hockey and have traveled more than you will ever know !

[Fishman'81]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

This may be the dumbest think you have posted yet Fish LVC and Stevenson are all only about an Hour and a half from Aston where all these school are already going. Hell For Naz the trip to Stevenson (the longer of the two new drives) is only two miles longer then the trip to M'ville.

Who's "dumb" here, Einstein..? Are you saying that the fact that the W already has to log a ton a ton of miles means that adding two more brutal trips is somehow moot..? (Well, hell, let's invite Lake Forest, too!)

And why bother? Neither team is likely to add value to UC's schedule; in fact, they are very likely to degrade it. I'd rather see eg. OSU, PSU and Trinity on the docket, no AQ for the W, and let it's best team get a Pool C.

The W lives and dies by it's SOS. I'm fine with that.

[CornwallAce]

Re: Stevenson starts D-III men's hockey, joins ECAC West!

Assuming you have Hobart/Elmira, Naz/Utica,

You wouldn't want to do Hobart/Naz, Elmira/Utica?