{"id":25485,"date":"2003-02-06T21:54:55","date_gmt":"2003-02-07T03:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2003\/02\/06\/this-week-in-the-ecac-west-feb-6-2003\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:55:23","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:55:23","slug":"this-week-in-the-ecac-west-feb-6-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2003\/02\/06\/this-week-in-the-ecac-west-feb-6-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the ECAC West: Feb. 6, 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"
There are four weekends remaining in the regular season of the ECAC West. As usual, it is coming right down to the end to determine who walks away with the title and the right to host the league playoffs.<\/p>\n
None of the top five teams can afford to lose a game at this point, as they jockey for those four coveted playoff berths. While the possible permutations and combinations are still nearly endless, let’s take a look at some of the possible outcomes.<\/p>\n
If there is a tie amongst any of the teams for position at the end of the regular season, the four tiebreaker criteria, in order of evaluation, are:<\/p>\n
Elmira is in the driver’s seat at this point. The Soaring Eagles have only played three league contests, but are the only team that is currently undefeated. Elmira also owns the “record vs. common opponents” tiebreaker against all other teams.<\/p>\n
For Elmira not to win the regular-season title, at this point, it must lose at least two of the seven remaining league games. The Soaring Eagles have two big games against RIT remaining, as well as a game at Manhattanville and a pair against Hobart.<\/p>\n
RIT is nipping at the heals of Elmira. The only league blemish on the Tigers’ record so far is the drubbing at Manhattanville. RIT owns the common opponents tiebreaker against all teams except Elmira.<\/p>\n
RIT can win the regular-season title in either of two ways. First, if RIT sweeps its two remaining games against Elmira, and holds serve in its other contests against Hobart and Utica, then the Tigers would finish on top of the league.<\/p>\n
The other possible way is for RIT to split its games with Elmira, and then have Elmira lose a second league contest somewhere along the way. As the four-time ECAC West Champion, it is hard to count RIT out late in the season. But the Tigers are fighting uphill this year to five-peat.<\/p>\n
Manhattanville’s hope of a league title was hurt two weeks ago with the loss at Elmira. The Valiants now have to defeat Elmira in the rematch on the final day of the regular season. They must then hope that RIT and Elmira both split, and also lose or tie another game along the way. Not likely, but possible.<\/p>\n
Mathematically, Hobart and Utica are still in the hunt for the top, but realistically these two teams are fighting for the fourth playoff berth. Each may finish as high as third or as low as fifth. <\/p>\n
Utica has the most upside potential as the Pioneers have only played two league contests so far, both losses to Elmira. However, Hobart holds the common opponent tiebreaker against Utica.<\/p>\n
The next two weekends could decide much within the league. The travel partners of Hobart\/RIT and Elmira\/Utica play each of the next two weekends. Those four games could either set the league standings in concrete, or create chaos.<\/p>\n
In auto racing, the Silly Season is that time of year when drivers are searching around for rides for the following year. It starts around midseason and results in drivers doing strange things as they try to impress team owners.<\/p>\n
The last few years, the ECAC West has had a Silly Season of its own. Each year, speculation begins to run rampant about which team might join the league to get them over that magic number of seven needed for an NCAA autobid.<\/p>\n
This year is no exception. The Silly Season started early this season, around November, and has been quietly simmering ever since.<\/p>\n
The usual rumor about Lebanon Valley jumping from, or being forced out of, the ECAC Northeast surfaced early. Besides discussions amongst the Northeast Athletic Directors concerning travel costs, nothing has substantially changed here from previous years.<\/p>\n
There don’t appear to be any schools forming new teams that might join the league on the horizon. Manhattanville, Utica, and Neumann all formed teams and joined the league over the last four seasons, basically saving the ECAC West from extinction. However, it doesn’t appear that there will be growth from new teams in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
But hold on to your hats, because there has been a new and wild rumor circulating. It surfaced in December and puts a new twist on an old story. The rumor is that up to six ECAC Northeast teams would bolt from that league and join the ECAC West. The ECAC West would then be subdivided into East and West divisions. Each division would play other teams in its division twice yearly in a home-and-home series, and play teams of the other division once each year, alternating home venues.<\/p>\n
The justification being rumored for the ECAC Northeast teams to abandon ship is that they are being held back in their development by the cost containment provisions of the league. These teams appear ready to make the next step into the mainstream of division III hockey, yet feel that they may not be able to do that within the confines of the ECAC Northeast.<\/p>\n
Publicly, all of the coaches involved in this rumor are claiming ignorance of its existence. However, if this is being talked about behind closed doors, it is in the very early stages of development.<\/p>\n
Remember, this may only be a wild rumor with little or no substance behind it.<\/p>\n
Personally, I think this is an intriguing idea. It benefits the current ECAC West teams with more league contests, an autobid, and access to a Pool C bid as well without waiting for 2005. It can also benefit the six ECAC Northeast teams, as they will be able to regularly schedule games against top teams, and with proper administrative backing the move can only help to improve their programs. For the other 12 Northeast teams, it provides a more reasonably sized league and opens up an opportunity for one of them to earn the league’s Pool A autobid.<\/p>\n
But then again, this may be only a rumor.<\/p>\n
From Elmira’s Thunderdomes last week, we head 95 miles north by northwest to RIT’s Ritter Arena. Situated between the academic buildings on one side and the athletic fields and dorms on the other, Ritter is right at the center of the RIT campus.<\/p>\n
I would like to apologize to the Elmira faithful. A technical glitch at USCHO caused a 24-hour delay in attaching the pictures of the Murray Athletic Center into last week’s ECAC West column. Hopefully we have things fixed now to minimize the likelihood of a reoccurrence of the problem.<\/p>\n