On Monday, October 1, the ECAC caught up with the rest of the NCAA when they approved an increase in the number of games teams are permitted to play. The new policy allows conference teams to play a full 34-game schedule during the regular season. The league also approved a change in the playoff format, expanding the conference tournament to include all 12 teams. Both changes will take effect in the 2002-03 season.
Currently, ECAC member institutions are limited to 32 regular season games, except for the Ivy League institutions (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale), which are limited to 29 regular season games. Unless the Ivy League changes their policy, only Clarkson, Colgate, Rensselaer, Union, St. Lawrence, and Vermont will be affected by the change.
The change in format spreads the playoffs out over three weekends and gives more teams a chance to host playoff games. With the change, all teams will qualify for the playoffs, and the top four seeds will receive a first-round bye. The fifth through eighth seeds will host the first round in a best-of-three game series. The following weekend, the top four teams will host the quarterfinals at their home arenas. The semifinals, finals, and consolation game will be played as usual at the ECAC Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., in the final weekend of ECAC action.
U.S. College Hockey Online reports that after the first round, teams will be re-seeded entering the quarterfinals, while the ECAC press release confirms that the ECAC Champion will continue to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
The extended schedule will help the conference grow, while the new playoff format will place more emphasis on the regular season. But until next year comes, the teams of the ECAC will fight for home ice in the first round, while two teams will find themselves looking in on the playoff picture from the outside.
