Re: 2010-11 Schedules
i was thinking they would go to the 33 game schedule and use the 3 game format against everyone, but that might be kinda hard with alaska and the travel.
Well, it would be 30, not 33, you don't play yourself.
When the CCHA last did the play everybody 3 times thing, there were three different methods. Pretty much all scheduling issues revolved around Alaska.
First method (pre-Alaska):
Simply 2 home/1 road or 1 home/2 road against everybody. This was the schedule for 1992-93 and 1993-94 when Kent was in the league. This was also intended for the 1994-95 schedule, but when Kent dropped out, they went to a 27 game schedule.
Second method (Alaska in the mix):
Starting in 1995-96, everybody either played Alaska 3 at home or 3 on the road. If you played Alaska at home, you then had 3 other schools you played 2 home/1 road, and 6 schools you played 1 home/2 road to get you to 15/15. If you played Alaska on the road, this was all reversed. Illinois-Chicago dropped out after the 1996-97 schedule was drafted, so for that year it was a 27 game schedule.
Third method:
Having 3 games in Alaska tended to be problematic on several fronts. So for 1998-99, it was changed to having one school go up and play 3, essentially during that school's break. Six other schools would visit Alaska for a 2 game series to give Alaska their 15 home games. Alaska would then visit six schools once and 3 schools three times for their 15 road games. The other schools would then do whatever necessary with 2 home/1 road or 1 home/2 road to get to 15-15.
After just one year, it was changed to 1/1 with three bonus series. At first it was not cluster-based, but rather a rotation. The cluster system started for the 2000-01 season.
Coming back to the present/future, there still hasn't been an inkling of the playoff format for next year that I've heard. If they go back to 8, that frees up another weekend.
