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Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

FlagDUDE08 said:
If Yale hadn't won the NC this past year, I would have seen it as a foregone conclusion. Non-ivies are stepping up.
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I've heard the whole Ivies bolting thing since it seems right after the HE teams left. Until Penn and Columbia announce they are going to ice a varsity team, this is pure fan speculation. I'll believe it when I see it.
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

MattS said:
I've heard the whole Ivies bolting thing since it seems right after the HE teams left. Until Penn and Columbia announce they are going to ice a varsity team, this is pure fan speculation. I'll believe it when I see it.
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I sort of agree with Matt on this. I doubt the Ivies are going anywhere. As for the "western 4" I'm equally skeptical that they are going any place other than the AHA. RIT is a good AHA team but with zero scholarships due to the NCAA rule, they'll struggle in another conference. Union is doing ok right now but they have struggled mightily in the recent past. It is very tricky to compete without scholarships. And I don't think the other 3 are as unanimous as some think. Canisius doesn't have its own arena, Mercyhurst's is substandard, RIT can't give scholarships and that leaves Niagara who would leave in a heartbeat if they could. They don't want to be here. never wanted to be here and even were willing ot struggle through the CHA knowing it was a longshot just to not be there.
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

Jim said:
I sort of agree with Matt on this. I doubt the Ivies are going anywhere. As for the "western 4" I'm equally skeptical that they are going any place other than the AHA. RIT is a good AHA team but with zero scholarships due to the NCAA rule, they'll struggle in another conference. Union is doing ok right now but they have struggled mightily in the recent past. It is very tricky to compete without scholarships. And I don't think the other 3 are as unanimous as some think. Canisius doesn't have its own arena, Mercyhurst's is substandard, RIT can't give scholarships and that leaves Niagara who would leave in a heartbeat if they could. They don't want to be here. never wanted to be here and even were willing ot struggle through the CHA knowing it was a longshot just to not be there.
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Ya, I think you'd be more likely to see the Liberty League group up with Niagara (or Colgate) than the Ivies bolt.
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

MattS said:
I've heard the whole Ivies bolting thing since it seems right after the HE teams left. Until Penn and Columbia announce they are going to ice a varsity team, this is pure fan speculation. I'll believe it when I see it.
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Actually, Ivies bolting is the reason HE was formed.
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

joecct said:
Liberty League + Canisius, Niagara, Colgate gives the ideal 8 team league. RIT pairs with 'gate.
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Yes ... but can't we please have Mercyhurst instead of Canisius?? I know, my bias is showing. ;)


115 miles: Niagara Falls to Erie
132 miles: Rochester to Hamilton
(Neither are "ideal" travel partners, but Mercyhurst-Niagara is comparable to RIT-Colgate. There are probably some other options.)
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

It is fun to speculate. However, just because its possible, doesn't mean its even remotely probable. All indications are that the ECAC is sound with its current membership. I've never heard anything about the Ivies bolting. I've been around ECAC Hockey for 30 years.
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

Agree, fun to speculate but that is about all it is. And if we are speculating, as much as I hate Canisius, I would not see NU leaving them behind. I am expecting Cantisius to step up their program a bit with their new arena deal.
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

RITProf said:
Yes ... but can't we please have Mercyhurst instead of Canisius?? I know, my bias is showing. ;)


115 miles: Niagara Falls to Erie
132 miles: Rochester to Hamilton
(Neither are "ideal" travel partners, but Mercyhurst-Niagara is comparable to RIT-Colgate. There are probably some other options.)
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How about bringing in a travel partnership of Mercyhurst and Robert Morris? I hear at least one of those schools would also like to go up to 18 schollies... ;)
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

electpuck said:
It is fun to speculate. However, just because its possible, doesn't mean its even remotely probable. All indications are that the ECAC is sound with its current membership. I've never heard anything about the Ivies bolting. I've been around ECAC Hockey for 30 years.
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It's not even remotely likely, but since it's fun to daydream it's amazing to think that we could conceivably have 8 relatively stable conferences with very minimal change to college hockey's conference landscape:

BTHC, NCHC, WCHA and HE can stay as they are.

Ivies split from ECAC, forming two 6 team conferences. AIC and Bentley split from the AHA to form a new conference with their NE-10 brethren currently playing "D-II" hockey (St. Anselm, St. Michaels, SNHU, Assumption, Stonehill, Franklin Pierce). Merrimack can join the NE10 party if they really want to... but why would they?

There's not a lot of space in there for potential foldings: a 6-team ECAC is likely to take a few programs from the 9-team AHA and put that one in a CHA-level of instability. But, all in all, there's a fairly large amount of theoretical stability in such an alignment with a relatively small amount of shuffling.

One can play around with this to see what might be likely possibilities based on non-hockey conference affiliation: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Au_AR8CBELzGdFAxZFY4NllwLTRZemZuUUtwdDFoWUE&usp=sharing
 
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Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
In this case, the remaining D-II/NE-10 Schools are just joining the AHA, right? Is there a scenario where they all come up and form their own conference? They could probably steal AIC and Bentley from the AHA easily enough, but I doubt that they'll get their hands on Lowell or Merrimack ever.

Would a NE-10 hockey league be able to survive?
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I would assume that if the NE-10 were to make such a move, Merrimack could be forced to rejoin the conference for hockey. However, it is most likely Merrimack is leaving for D1 anyways so they won't be in the NE-10 for very long.

Lowell as of July 1st will no longer be in the NE-10 as they begin their move to the AEast conference.
 
SNHUPenman said:
I would assume that if the NE-10 were to make such a move, Merrimack could be forced to rejoin the conference for hockey. However, it is most likely Merrimack is leaving for D1 anyways so they won't be in the NE-10 for very long.

Lowell as of July 1st will no longer be in the NE-10 as they begin their move to the AEast conference.
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Merrimack would likely leave the NE10 before they would join with them in D1 hockey.

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Not that such a thing wouldn't have been possible five years ago when there were Div 3 rumors floating around
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

Patman said:
Merrimack would likely leave the NE10 before they would join with them in D1 hockey.

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Not that such a thing wouldn't have been possible five years ago when there were Div 3 rumors floating around
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Absolutely. Merrimack will be leaving the NE-10, they will make the announcement in the next three years. I am sure of it. I am also sure they will fail miserably and suffer thru horrid seasons in most sports at the D1 level.

Unlike UML, who is big enough and built for the next level.
 
SNHUPenman said:
Absolutely. Merrimack will be leaving the NE-10, they will make the announcement in the next three years. I am sure of it. I am also sure they will fail miserably and suffer thru horrid seasons in most sports at the D1 level.

Unlike UML, who is big enough and built for the next level.
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Well, again, its been a work in progress for us which people don't understand that it is important to have that kind of commitment.

That being said, I meant that they'd protect the hockey program at all costs even if that meant going division 2 independent
 
Re: Atlantic Hockey Adds to Scholarship Limit, Mulls Expansion

Patman said:
Well, again, its been a work in progress for us which people don't understand that it is important to have that kind of commitment.

That being said, I meant that they'd protect the hockey program at all costs even if that meant going division 2 independent
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Totally agree. I wish if Merrimack were truly interested in being a big boy they would aleast spend some money. They need a new ice arena. They get the luxury of playing in the HEA and they play in the worst facility in the country.
 
SNHUPenman said:
Totally agree. I wish if Merrimack were truly interested in being a big boy they would aleast spend some money. They need a new ice arena. They get the luxury of playing in the HEA and they play in the worst facility in the country.
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There are some pretty dumpy AHA rent a rinks
 
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