{"id":25837,"date":"2003-06-24T21:36:53","date_gmt":"2003-06-25T02:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2003\/06\/24\/ice-hockey-committee-approves-hea-ref-change-and-more\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:55:29","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:55:29","slug":"ice-hockey-committee-approves-hea-ref-change-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2003\/06\/24\/ice-hockey-committee-approves-hea-ref-change-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Hockey Committee Approves HEA Ref Change and More"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hockey East will utilize a new officiating system this year, going to one referee, one assistant referee and one linesmen. This replaces the one referee\/two assistant referee formula used in all of Division I in recent years.<\/p>\n
The new system was approved by the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee at its recent meetings. The committee also said the use of the experimental system will not affect the ability of Hockey East officials to referee NCAA tournament games. In the past, officials have been prevented from working NCAA tournament games if their league uses unapproved systems.<\/p>\n
Also at the meetings were the presentations by five cities<\/a> to host the 2007 and 2008 Frozen Fours, plus other presentations by host candidates for upcoming regionals. The committee forwarded their recommendations to the NCAA Championships and Competition Cabinet, which meets June 23-26. A news conference is scheduled for June 27 to announce the Cabinet’s approved locations.<\/p>\n In other NCAA tournament news, fans will now be able to buy split tickets to regionals instead of being forced to buy all three games at once. Those single-game tickets will go on sale the Monday after selections are announced, though all-session tickets will be cheaper as a whole, and have better seat locations.<\/p>\n Additionally, a price range of $60-$75 for all-session tickets was set by the committee. Last year, tickets to Worcester’s regional were within that range, but there was a wide disparity with the price of Providence’s regional, which was much higher.<\/p>\n “This will allow us to reward our loyal fans by giving them better seat locations and prices,” said committee chair Ian McCaw, athletic director at Massachusetts, to the NCAA News. “However, this also gives the fans from the schools the flexibility to just buy tickets for their own game without having to buy a ticket for the championship in case their team doesn’t advance.” <\/p>\n There were no major changes made to the NCAA tournament selection and seeding process, but one area of concern was addressed regarding the “banding” system and intra-conference matchups.<\/p>\n