North East Conference
East Conference
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1
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UMass-Lowell
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2
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UMass-Amherst
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3
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U Maine
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4
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U- New Hampshire
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5
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U-Vermont
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6
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UConn
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7
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URI
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*
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8
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UMass-Boston
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*
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*
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Possible expansion
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Hockey East is a great college hockey league. However the
league seems top heavy with the perennial powers of Boston College and Boston
University. They each have won 5 NCAA Championships. Even more imbalanced, they
have won 18 out of 29 Hockey East Championships. Now if I was a fan of one of
the state schools I would be feeling a little frustrated. I would consider or
suggest creating our own league. This league could represent all the large
state schools in New England. These schools have many more thing in common than
the rich private schools.
HockeyEast Championships
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1
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Boston College
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11
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2
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Boston University
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7
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3
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UMaine
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5
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4
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ULowell
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2
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4
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Providence
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2
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1
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Northeastern
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1
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1
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UNH
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1
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These
are more benefits to having your own league. First and foremost it would be
easier to win the very desirable Championship. Maine has been to the final 9
other times besides the ones they won. They lost to a Hockey East school 8
times. Now if they played in the new North East Conference they could have 13
Championships. Now that would be nice for Maine to hang their hat on. Their
fans would be tremendously proud of all the banners. They might be looked as
the power of this conference. This would do wonders for their school and their
recruiting.
The joke is UNH stands for University of no hardware. In this new league UNH could boast of 7 Championships themselves. They could quell criticism of this saying. Even our state university UMass might be able to hang a banner or 2. Spreading the wealth would be good for these New England colleges. This league would be much more competitive and every year your state school would have a realistic chance of winning the league or winning the leagues Championship.
The joke is UNH stands for University of no hardware. In this new league UNH could boast of 7 Championships themselves. They could quell criticism of this saying. Even our state university UMass might be able to hang a banner or 2. Spreading the wealth would be good for these New England colleges. This league would be much more competitive and every year your state school would have a realistic chance of winning the league or winning the leagues Championship.
There is also the consideration of the invitation to the NCAA tournament. These schools have very good hockey programs however they constantly get edged out of the NCAA’s. Why…well they cannot get enough wins each year. Presently UVM and U-Lowell might make the tournament. U-Maine, UNH, UMass, and UConn will not get in unless they win the Hockey East tournament. This HE tournament is a great however it will be so much harder to win playing in a 12 team tournament against all the great teams. This new conference might be able to place 3 schools in the tournament. Isn’t this one of the reasons the Big 10 for formed?
The 6 state schools would give the new league exposure in 5 of the 6 New England states. These state schools have more things in common than the other private schools. They are all very big schools in student body. They represent the New England states. They all would compete equally in this sport since no club is that much better than another. The travel is not that far. This new conference could represent the New England area in the NCAA's.
Expansion
They could also look to expand into Rhode Island and recruit URI have them join the league. URI I am sure doesn’t like to take a back seat to the private school in Providence College. They might join this new league where they could compete against UConn and UMass as opposed to BC, BU, Providence and Notre Dame. They would be competing against their other state peers. UMass Boston is also a very large state school with 12,700 undergraduates. The new league would love a school right in the city of Boston to take some thunder and attention away from the perennial powers.
That would give the new league 3 Mass schools which would be great for interest and media attention.
