Just so you know...it's just William Smith College.
William Smith is for females only and is the sister college of Hobart which is the male school.
Great find though! Are we getting closer to the point where the ECAC West might have to split? I'm thinking the New York state schools are still looking for two more state members to split off and form their own league.
Just need one more...Utica screwed the pooch on that one...
You're assuming that SUNY Canton is joining the SUNYAC in all sports. While it certainly looks like a strong possibility, nothing's written in stone quite yet in that regard.
Just so you know...it's just William Smith College.
William Smith is for females only and is the sister college of Hobart which is the male school.
Great find though! Are we getting closer to the point where the ECAC West might have to split? I'm thinking the New York state schools are still looking for two more state members to split off and form their own league.
Fully aware, just using their line from the posting...did want to offend anyone,
Should a SUNYAC become a reality would membership be open to non-SUNY institutions? Will this not force some sort of realignment of the ECAC East and West teams? The ECAC-East has something like 15 schools with UNE and Franklin Pierce; if the SUNYs bolt and form their own conference (and 7 is obviously the magic number) doesn't it make sense for the for the ECAC-West to add Stevenson and pick up a few of the geographically contiguous schools (Manhattanville, Nichols, Salve Regina, Castleton) and better balance the travel involved? The ECAC-East still faces the issue of what to do with the DIIs, but with Sacred Heart in that mix (with Holy Cross, St. Anselm, St. Michaels and Franklin Pierce) they are at least a bit closer to being weaned out of the ECAC-East. I have never understood having a conference where, as was the case in this season's ECAC-East, the 3rd and 4th finishers in the regular season (Holy Cross and St. Anselm) have an impact on the regular season, but are not eligible for the post season (not to mention the Manhattanville loss to St. Michaels not impacting their regional NCAA ranking).
Should a SUNYAC become a reality would membership be open to non-SUNY institutions? Will this not force some sort of realignment of the ECAC East and West teams? The ECAC-East has something like 15 schools with UNE and Franklin Pierce; if the SUNYs bolt and form their own conference (and 7 is obviously the magic number) doesn't it make sense for the for the ECAC-West to add Stevenson and pick up a few of the geographically contiguous schools (Manhattanville, Nichols, Salve Regina, Castleton) and better balance the travel involved? The ECAC-East still faces the issue of what to do with the DIIs, but with Sacred Heart in that mix (with Holy Cross, St. Anselm, St. Michaels and Franklin Pierce) they are at least a bit closer to being weaned out of the ECAC-East. I have never understood having a conference where, as was the case in this season's ECAC-East, the 3rd and 4th finishers in the regular season (Holy Cross and St. Anselm) have an impact on the regular season, but are not eligible for the post season (not to mention the Manhattanville loss to St. Michaels not impacting their regional NCAA ranking).
UNE and Franklin Pierce are not members of the ECAC East and they will not be members next season.
But I do agree, we need to have some short of shift in the D-III women's hockey landscape. We have enough teams now to have four D-III East conferences.
There are 31 D-III women's hockey teams if you count SUNY Canton and William Smith.
By the 2014-15 season IMHO, we should be able to create four eastern conferences so that all four can have an autobid.
NESCAC (9)
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Williams
Colby
Conn. College
Hamilton
Wesleyan
Trinity
Amherst
ECAC West (8)-
Elmira
Stevenson
Buffalo State
Utica
Neumann
Chatham
William Smith
Cortland
ECAC New England (7)-
Norwich
Southern Maine
Castleton
UMass-Boston
New England College
Univ. of New England
Plymouth State
ECAC East (7) -
Plattsburgh
Potsdam
SUNY Canton
Nichols
Salve Regina
Manhattanville
Oswego
This is obviously just a rough guide and would take some RADICAL changes in administrations, leagues etc. However, it would be for the better advancement of Division III women's hockey as whole giving every D-III playing and eligible team a conference to play in and chance to compete for an auto-bid to the NCAA's.
I think what would make this a whole lot easier is if the New York State schools got a 7th team so we don't have to split hairs over who should go where and split up existing conferences too much.
But, that would require someone like Geneseo, Brockport, Fredonia etc to start a team and who knows if that's even on their radars. I do know Brockport has a club women's team and had explored the option of possibly elevating to varsity a few years ago.
I tried to keep teams as best as I could geographically and keep other teams that are close to them in the same conference for travel purposes. Finding a 7th team for the new "ECAC East" was very challenging...eventually I settled on Oswego since they are relatively closer to Plattsburgh, SUNY Canton, Potsdam etc.
Just so you know...it's just William Smith College.
William Smith is for females only and is the sister college of Hobart which is the male school.
Great find though! Are we getting closer to the point where the ECAC West might have to split? I'm thinking the New York state schools are still looking for two more state members to split off and form their own league.
While correct, it is a nuance of significance largely to alumni. If you say "Smith College", 90% of the free world is probably going to think of The Smith College in Northampton, MA, which is also all women and better known. Keeping the Hobart tag clarifies the school and location.
UNE and Franklin Pierce are not members of the ECAC East and they will not be members next season.
But I do agree, we need to have some short of shift in the D-III women's hockey landscape. We have enough teams now to have four D-III East conferences.
There are 31 D-III women's hockey teams if you count SUNY Canton and William Smith.
By the 2014-15 season IMHO, we should be able to create four eastern conferences so that all four can have an autobid.
...
ECAC New England (7)-
Norwich
Southern Maine
Castleton
UMass-Boston
New England College
Univ. of New England
Plymouth State
ECAC East (7) -
Plattsburgh
Potsdam
SUNY Canton
Nichols
Salve Regina
Manhattanville
Oswego
...
I tried to keep teams as best as I could geographically and keep other teams that are close to them in the same conference for travel purposes. Finding a 7th team for the new "ECAC East" was very challenging...eventually I settled on Oswego since they are relatively closer to Plattsburgh, SUNY Canton, Potsdam etc.
Salve Regina is in Newport, RI and Nichols just south of Worcester, MA. Makes much more geographic sense to put Castleton and Norwich in your ECAC East and Salve Regina and Nichols in ECAC New England. Also, ECAC is more than just a hockey conference and all of the schools would have to be members in multiple sports to join - I'm not sure that this is the case or feasible.
SUNYAC women's league is basically inevitable - just a matter time but going slowly.
Also, this new grouping looks good for geographic balance but there is some noticeable competitive imbalance. This might be a temporary concern if some certain schools would get their act together.
SUNYAC women's league is basically inevitable - just a matter time but going slowly.
Also, this new grouping looks good for geographic balance but there is some noticeable competitive imbalance. This might be a temporary concern if some certain schools would get their act together.
I agree completely and it would drastically change the proposed conference realignment below.
The only question is, who is that key seventh team that will allow for the SUNYAC women's league to move forward?
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