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

[UCAlum32]

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

Gonna be a brutal travel schedule for the W in general though... 14-18 hours round-trip for Hobart, Naz and UC to PA or MD.

If I'm a current W coach, I'd want neither LVC nor Stevenson in. They are just too far to go to -at best- garner a couple of low-value wins. (I'm assuming that both programs will struggle in their first few seasons.)

As it is, the W generally gets a team in the PS anyway, and it's never a random AQ. I prefer that situation.

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.

[norm1909]

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.

Your forgetting that Utica generally doesn't travel at all

[PSUChamps2001]

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.

Assuming you have Hobart/Elmira, Naz/Utica, Manh/Neumann, LebValley/Stevenson as partners the average round trip for the ECAC West is 580ish miles, in comparison to the SUNYAC (406 miles). I havn't sat down and done up the NCHA or MIAC but for some reason I think it's probably farther. (keep in mind these are ROUND TRIP numbers that include travel between the two away sites and then back home)

[Hammer]

Assuming you have Hobart/Elmira, Naz/Utica, Manh/Neumann, LebValley/Stevenson as partners the average round trip for the ECAC West is 580ish miles, in comparison to the SUNYAC (406 miles). I havn't sat down and done up the NCHA or MIAC but for some reason I think it's probably farther. (keep in mind these are ROUND TRIP numbers that include travel between the two away sites and then back home)

*laughs*

On Senior Night, I think it was said that our senior girls had traveled over 33,000 miles on road trips over their four years. Apparently someone sat down and figured it out one night.

[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?

[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.

[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!

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.

[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.

[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.

[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...

[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?

[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.

[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...

[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!