Help Division I Hockey Survive!!!

[bills976]

My son attends RPI and is a big fan of the hockey team there. RPI is a Division III school "playing up" in Division I for Men's Ice Hockey. The Women's team will be D I in two years. The NCAA has just introduced the worst proposal that they've ever cooked up.

In this proposal, Division III schools will no longer be able to offer scholarships to athletes playing up in their Division I sports. Meaning that in hockey, RPI, Clarkson, Colorado College, and St. Lawrence would be unable to offer hockey scholarships, yet all other DI hockey schools could offer athletic scholarships. This affects nearly all other sports and a handfull of other DIII colleges playing up in Division I in some sports.

Although it's probably futile, please sign the petition located here: http://www.petitiononline.com/NCAAD3/petition.html. Help keep alive these storied hockey programs. RPI has won the DI hockey championship in 1954 and 1985, and has won their conference numerous others (against the likes of the Ivy league and other opponents). Don't let this happen!!!

[Greg Bimson]

Now that is horrible! Why is it the first time I've heard about this? Doesn't this affect Johns Hopkins as well, for lacrosse? That is their only D1 sport, I believe.

[bills976]

Yep, it affects JHU for Lacrosse. The kicker here is that colleges like JHU and RPI will now be forced to either unethically give student athletes need-based scholarships, or move up to Division II for the rest of their sports. While RPI has a wonderful DIII program, they're not ready for Division II competition. The GPA of the hockey team is really awesome as well, over 3.0.... RPI and JHU are certainly not slouches when it comes to academics, which is probably what this "idea" is targeting.

US College Hockey online -- http://www.uscho.com has a lot more about this particular issue and who/how it affects. Division I hockey just lost two teams after this season... it really can't afford to lose four more, and the ECAC can't lose three teams (RPI, Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Union). I doubt they'll survive if this happens.

[John Corn]

Signed! Good cause! :)

[Geronimo]

College hockey is a great sport. But the NCAA does its best to hide it and cuttle it. Amazing.

[John Corn]

This is so wrong...small schools like SLU and Clarkson don't have the resources or student populations to play D1 in all sports, but they have long traditions in hockey and have (some more than others ) been competitive at the national level in D1, which is a huge source of school spirit. If they're forced to drop to D3 in hockey, it's going to diminish those traditions. I hope somebody at the NCAA comes to their senses before they ruin some of the most storied hockey programs in the country.