OK, let that sink in a second…Yeah…Uh-huh…That’d be fun, wouldn’t it?
Also, staying at 11 teams would cut the number of ECAC games to 20, freeing up two regular-season dates for Harvard and other Ivy League schools under the 29-game Ivy cap.
That would be a blessing for Harvard, which is handcuffed in its non-conference schedule by two Beanpot games, annual dates with Boston College and Boston University and two games in a holiday tournament. That leaves Mazzoleni with only one game to work with each year.
But if he gets two more, the Crimson would be able to take on two additional opponents, most likely Western powers—how about Michigan and Minnesota every year—instead of burning two games against Holy Cross (or another entrant) that will struggle upon entering the ECAC.
It’s simple, really. Wins against Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin do wonders for a team’s Ratings Percentage Index. Wins against Holy Cross, or Mercyhurst and Quinnipiac (also mentioned as ECAC candidates) wouldn’t help a team’s RPI nearly as much. And the RPI gets a team into the NCAA tournament.
From Harvard’s standpoint, as well as that of the other ECAC schools, this is an easy decision.
Lining up support
This morning, the NCAA convention opens in Nashville. It’s the beginning of the end of a long fight by officials at three ECAC Division I hockey schools (Clarkson, Rensselaer and St. Lawrence) and WCHA power Colorado College to maintain Division I men’s hockey scholarships while keeping an overall Division III profile.
Proposal 65, which would affect four additional schools in other sports, forbids Division III schools from “playing up” at Division I with scholarships.
Rensselaer athletic director Ken Ralph said after the Harvard-Rensselaer game last Saturday that about 70 percent of schools are prepared to vote against Proposal 65.
“We’ll call that a positive,” Ralph said, “but until I see the results on the board, I’m not going to consider anything official. We’re going to keep working hard until we see the final results.”
“We know some people will change their minds at the convention, probably away from us, but we feel pretty good about where things are.”
Ralph and the ADs and presidents at other seven schools have kept track of votes using a Big Board of sorts.
“It’s very similar to a political campaign,” Ralph said.
—Staff writer Jon P. Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.