Something seemed off when I saw this picture after Union had clinched its first ECAC Championship in Atlantic City in March. No, I do not mean that as a sarcastic comment about how far Union has come in its 21 years in the ECAC. I meant that a key element in the photo, the focal point even, was different than it should be. The Whitelaw Cup awarded to the 2012 Union College Dutchmen looked different than the Whitelaw Cup that had been awarded to previous ECAC Champions. I knew that it looked very different from the Whitelaw Cup awarded to Cornell in 2010 when I had the pleasure of watching that dominant team defeat a well-coached Union team to claim yet another ECAC Championship. I watched the 2011 ECAC Championships on CBS Sports and recognized that Yale's 2011 Whitelaw Cup was nearly identical to the one awarded to Cornell in 2010. So, I decided to research the history of the appearance of the Whitelaw Cup.

The results of my search are posted above in a gallery of six Whitelaw Cups awarded over the span of seven years. These were the years for which it was easiest to find an image in which the form of the Cup was readily discernible. As one is always able on WAFT, click the images if you want to view a larger version for better comparison.

The trend is fairly pronounced. The appearance of the Whitelaw remains relatively constant from Cornell's eleventh Whitelaw in 2005 through Yale's second in 2011. The slight variation that is noticeable is that the Whitelaw had a less polished patina in the earlier 2000s than it did in 2006. Notwithstanding the brilliance of the finish of the Cup, very little changed in its appearance. It maintained the same shape and general appearance.

The form of the Whitelaw changed drastically some time between March 2011 and March 2012 when Union celebrated with it on the ice of Boardwalk Hall. Maybe it was the seabreeze. Maybe it was the Jersey Shore. But, the Cup increased in volume by what appears to be a factor of four. The accessory, understated handles on the side of the Cup grew. They extended from the base of the Cup to the top, scrolling into the beveled opening, much unlike the small handles that extended only slightly from the base of the Whitelaw that Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Cornell hoisted. The height of the Whitelaw grew considerably too to about 1.25 the total height of the trophy.

The next thing I looked at to see exactly how much history and tradition was altered within a matter of one season of hockey was to check what Whitelaws from further back than 2005 looked like. The only place where I knew that there were many on displays was Cornell's locker room in which a large portion of the collection of trophies that Cornell has won are displayed. I used a video in which Schafer was interviewed in the locker room to get a glimpse at what those previous trophies looked like. I've pieced the images together into a panaroma, found below, of the view of the trophies from part of the locker room.

The dates on each trophy cannot be deciphered. However, based upon the timing of ECAC rebranding and the 2005 photo in the above gallery, one can conclude that the trophy in the center is Cornell's 2010 Whitelaw. The 2005 photo in the above gallery appears most similar to one of the other three similarly looking cups in the photo (the far left and the two rightmost). That leaves two trophies that look nearly identical to the trophies in the above gallery (2005-11) remaining. If one assumes that the four ECAC Championship trophies pictured are Cornell's four most recent ECAC Championship wins, the oldest would have been won in 1997. That would mean that the Whitelaw Cup remained unchanged for at least 14 years.

Why the change? I checked the ECAC Hockey website and press releases to read what was said about the Whitelaw Cup in formal press releases. I was suprised pleasantly to find that the ECAC press release that describes the Whitelaw Cup includes a photograph of a representative Whitelaw. It is below pictured.

The representative Whitelaw Cup looks like those won from at least 1997-2011, but likely even earlier. It looks very different from the trophy that Union received in March 2012 at Boardwalk Hall. I expect that when a trophy changes in a conference that alleges that it takes itself and its history seriously that there would be a public announcement regarding the redesign of the trophy. Hockey East did this in 2008 when it redesigned its regular-season championship trophy. Why didn't the ECAC do the same with such a drastic trophy change for the tournament championship?

The ECAC is currently the second-oldest collegiate hockey conference in the nation. It will be the oldest conference when the 2013-14 season begins. The only way that title is challengeable is if people argue that retention of one charter member (Michigan Tech) in the WCHA Lite makes it the clear heir to the historic WCHA. I am not convinced that it does. I digress. The ECAC is at least the second-oldest collegiate hockey conference in the nation whose constituent members include the oldest universities in the nation to sponsor NCAA hockey and the oldest hockey programs in the nation.

The ECAC Championship is the second-oldest collegiate hockey tournament championship recognized in the nation. The WCHA crowed its first champion in 1952. The ECAC crowned its first champion in 1962. The CCHA did the same a decade later. The ECAC Championship trophy was named in honor of former ECAC Commissioner Robert M. Whitelaw in 1989. The Broadmoor Trophy became the standard WCHA Championship trophy in 1985. The Lamoriello Trophy did for Hockey East in 1988. The CCHA Championship trophy was not recognized as the Mason Cup until 2001. By either metric, the Whitelaw Cup is one of the oldest and most historic tournament trophies in college hockey.

Three of the four named historic tournament champion trophies have one thing in common: absolute consistency in appearance over most of their lifespan. The Broadmoor Trophy, Lamoriello Trophy, and Mason Cup follow this trend. The Whitelaw Cup does not. The appearance of the Whitelaw verifiably remained unchanged from at least 1997-2011. It likely was unchanged much longer. Even if the simplistic cups in Cornell's locker room that are not indentifiable to an eye, such as mine, that has not seen them in-person are earlier versions of Whitelaws, why the change now again? Moreover, why the change in 2012 without any publicity?

The ECAC celebrated its move back to Lake Placid as the appropriate choice with claims emphasizing the historic nature of the league and once-and-future host venue. I am sure that in 2014 there will be no shortage of marketing that heralds the ECAC Championships in Herb Brooks Arena as "the oldest and most legendary hockey programs in college hockey in the most famous hockey arena in the United States." It is a nice catchphrase, but as a conference and fanbase if we do not value the history and prestige of our most prestigious honor, do we really deserve such appellation? Can we really claim that we care that much about the history of the conference and winning its grandest trophy if we allow the embodiment of that achievement to change without questioning those whose hallmark decisions include moving the tournament outside of the league's geographic footprint for increased television coverage and then having no such coverage but a year later?

I've offered many questions, but few answers. I am not sure what the answers are. But, I know that it is wrong when a historic conference abandons its traditional trophy, the one that even appears in its formal press releases still, and the first that loyal fans know of this is when it is handed off to the captain of that year's championship team.

I hope that it was just the Jersey Shore getting to Mr. Whitelaw. He made some bad decisions and ended up not looking quite the way he used to. Maybe it was the G.T.L. lifestyle or the gambling or the women. Maybe he hired a double when he realized he would not be on national televsion. Maybe all of the above. But, I hope that the ECAC and Mr. Whitelaw will take this as a sincere invitation to bring the original back. We preferred him. The version that was rolled out in 2012, even though in some ways more aesthetically pleasing, was not a Whitelaw Cup. That version deserves to suffer the same fate as the television show referenced in the title of this post and the ECAC stint in Atlantic City.

Brandon Thomas of The Ithaca Journal broke last week which numbers each incoming freshman for Cornell chose to wear. Stoick chose the number that Jillson wore for four years previous. Tiitinen did the same with Whitney's number. Roeszler from the Class of 2011 wore Hilbrich's chosen number last. It was the choice of Willcox that should have gained most notice because the most significant player to have worn that number on his sweater was current head coach Mike Schafer.

Schafer's antics while a player are the stuff of legends. We know that the Broad Street Bullies chose Willcox in the 2012 NHL Draft, but does that make him of stern enough stuff to live up to the reputation of Schafer?

Schafer was a player who famously broke a hockey stick emblazoned with "Harvard Sucks" on it over his head before a game against the Crimson in Lynah. A showman who shot a puck at Harvard's Cleary for elements of his sportsmanslike attitude toward the Big Red. A defenseman whose competitiveness and tenacity was so great that the Faithful felt obliged to propel him onward with chants of "kill, Schafer, kill." A leader who donned the captain's C and led his program to its seventh ECAC Championship in program history and in so doing overcoming the doldrums of 13 years without a title. Then, because his role as player was not sufficient somehow in his mind, he returned to his alma mater and resurrected a program that had begun to fall asunder to the cheers of "thank you, Schafer" in Lake Placid as Cornell claimed its first ECAC Championship in a decade.

Schafer is known to make new players learn the histories not only of the Cornell hockey program but the players who wore their chosen numbers before them. Willcox will learn shortly, if he has not already, that he has quite the sweater to fill.

The first metric by which Willcox can be compared to Schafer is through his statistics as a player for Cornell. Schafer amassed 70 points over 107 games during his time as a student-athlete for Cornell. His pace of 0.65 pts/game was earned with 10 goals and 60 assists over his collegiate career. This record might not seem entirely overwhelming in itself but if one compares those statistics to current senior defenseman Nick D'Agostino who is regarded often as an offensively minded defenseman the achievement becomes more apparent. D'Agostino has averaged 0.56 pts/game during his first three years. Schafer might be best remembered for his defense-mindedness, but his offensive contributions as a player were considerable.

It is no surprise that a player memorialized for stick-breaking and tenacity has another statistical claim to fame. Schafer's aggressive play has him occupying two of the top 25 records for penalty minutes served in a season for Cornell. His times served of 91 minutes and 72 minutes from his senior and junior seasons respectively rank seventh and twenty-third. D'Agostino served the greatest number of penalty minutes of any defenseman from last season. His total penalty minutes served during his junior campaign was 26% of the total that Schafer served his senior season and 33% of the time that Schafer occupied the sin bin his junior year. Willcox has much to live up to at both ends of the ice.

Foremost, it must be noted that Willcox has displayed the character already that should make the Lynah Faithful very proud that in a few short weeks he will don the carnelian and white. The Portland Winterhawks of the Canadian major junior Western Hockey League drafted Willcox in 2009. He decided that he would not want to forsake the college hockey route by suiting up for the Winterhawks so he chose to wait for other opportunities. He hoped still that college hockey would be in his future. Such an opportunity arose in the form of being offered a position on the Merritt Centennials of the Junior A BCHL. Willcox joined the Centennials and the rest is the most recent chapter in his hockey career until he takes the ice in Lynah Rink on October 19, 2012.

Willcox had a successful career in Merritt, BC. He played in 105 games in the BCHL. His stat sheet indicates that he scored 10 goals and 27 helpers over his BCHL career which amounts to an average of 0.35 pts/game. His 42 penalty minutes over his BCHL career amounts to 0.40 PIM/game.

Statistically, the comparison between Schafer's Cornell numbers and Willcox's BCHL numbers seems lopsided. Schafer's numbers outpace those of Willcox by 186% for pts/game while Schafer's rate of penalty minutes served per game during his senior year eclipses the time served of Willcox by a margin of  710%. Yes, Schafer's earning of penalty minutes are greater by more than a 7:1 margin to a future Philadelphia Flyer. That is eye-opening for anyone who could not imagine what Schafer was like on the ice as a player. So, the statistics are fairly one-sided. It appears that stastitically that Willcox has much room for improvement to carry the mantle of the number 3 that Schafer wore.

Statistics are not everything. Schafer brought far more than statistical contributions to the Cornell hockey program. This is not to say that Willcox will not meet or surpass the precendence of Schafer during his tenure at Cornell because he has unquestionable upside. However, this leaves far more ways that Willcox will be able to rise to the challege of carrying the mantle now accustomed with wearing number 3 for the Big Red.

Schafer's greatest contribution to the program was a change in outlook and attitude. Schafer inspired faith in a program both as its captain in his senior year of 1986 and as a coach from 1996 until the present. This attitudinal shift that Schafer inculcated is for what the Lynah Faithful should be most grateful to the coach. It is in this respect that Willcox can and has shown the propensity to be Schaferian.

Willcox did not serve in any formal leadership role on the Merritt Centennials, but he did play on Team Canada West and assisted in their attainment of a gold medal in the 2011 Junior A World Challenge. Furthermore, his choice to turn down a path in major junior hockey for the dual rigors of hockey and education on East Hill can scarcely be overstated as a barometer of character. It is this strength of character and resolution that shows his potential to become a great leader like the most famous Cornellian to wear 3 in carnelian and white.

Willcox will have one season to develop, but his development arc may be required to be steeper than those of previous defensemen. Cornell graduated two key defensemen last season in captain Keir Ross and workhorse defenseman Sean Whitney. They will leave a void undoubtedly that will need to be filled and that will be difficult to fill on a defenseive core that now has a high representation of youth. The exodus of defensive talent was exacerbated when a less-played defenseman chose to depart from Central New York early to pursue his fortunes in professional hockey.

The younger defensemen, including Willcox, will be able to rely upon the skills of seasoned and reliable veterans in the defensive core like Ryan, Gotovets, Birch, and D'Agostino. However, the quick loss of Birch and D'Agostino after the 2012-13 campagin will require freshmen like Willcox to occupy leadership roles and it is in this respect that the character and intellect that Willcox has shown through his accolades (winning the Merritt Centennial's Academic Scholar Award) and choices that he can prove that he is more than worthy to wear the number of Schafer. Expectations on the program this coming season are exceedingly high and new talent, like Willcox, can give the Faithful more reason to believe.

Schafer is a figure who will continue to rise in the esteem of those who follow the program. He is the ninth-ranked active coach in college hockey in terms of number of wins and the seventh-ranked active coach in college hockey in terms of winning percentage. He is the winningest coach in terms of total wins in Cornell hockey history. He has meant so much more to Cornell hockey and the Cornell University community than any numbers can capture. His sweater will likely someday hang from the rafters alongside Dryden's number 1 and Nieuwendyk's number 25. It deserves to be there.

Willcox can carve out a niche within the history of the number-3 sweater at Cornell. He can prove that with his leadership and skills, both of which seem ample, that he deserves to be respected as a historic wearer of number 3 in his own right someday. We hope that Willcox's tangible, statistical, and intangible contributions to Cornell hockey become so great that Cornell hockey is left with the same dilemma that plagues other programs, that revere their history no less than does Cornell hockey its own, when an integral figure to a program and a noteworthy player wore the same number while playing for that program.

Willcox has given himself a large sweater to fill. It does not mean that he will not achieve that goal. His past indicates that he likes challenges and often rises to meet them. There is no reason to doubt that he will do the same this time.

If Willcox finds the opportunities and the ability to make the Cornell hockey community believe in itself and its greatness even more than it does currently, he will prove that he is more deserving to wear Schafer's number than any statistical comparison ever could bear out. We wish him much luck in the pursuit of such proof.

The main news that captured the attention of the ECAC Hockey community Thursday morning was the announcement from Colgate Athletics that 'Gate hoped to raise $37 million to construct a new ice hockey arena to replace Starr Rink. The Colgate community is expected to raise the $37 million through private donations without contribution from general University funds. The envisioned facility would be 97,000 square feet. The release neglects to mention if the $37 million would fund the creation of better training facilities, and mentions only locker rooms and showers explicitly.

The situation should sound familiar to those who have been among the Lynah Faithful for more than about seven years. Cornell was at a similar juncture with Lynah Rink not too long ago. So, for the newer members of the Faithful or those who want to look back on the choices that our collective fanbase made, I thought it appropriate to analyze why in the great debate between building or renovating, we chose to renovate. I conclude with what I believe that choice reveals about the self-conceived identity of the ECAC.

The conversations that occurred around 2004 about whether Cornell should renovate or build a hockey rink began and ended, as is the case with most things surrounding Cornell hockey, with tradition. The conversation began when historic rival and former ECAC foe Boston University began constructing Agganis Arena in 2003 that would serve to replace Walter Brown Arena. Brown Arena was the site of many famous BU-Cornell clashes and was where BU alumni Dave Silk, Jack O'Callahan, Mike Eruzione, and Jim Craig of the 1980 Team USA roster played during their tenures at BU.

It was a keep-up-with-the-Joneses mentality that drove Cornell to consider building a new rink to replace historic Lynah Rink, but what the process triggered was delving into what mattered to Cornell hockey as an institution. Cornell considered what was needed for the program and what the fanbase wanted. Opinions of the Faithful, as is expected from a group infamous for its vociferousness, were not in short supply.

The renovate-or-rebuild debate focused upon how Cornell could gain the resources needed to compete with other large and historic NCAA Division I programs, and Canadian major junior programs for recruits. Was a new barn needed? The argument was not one-sided but the voices of the renovate crowd overwhelmed the few calling for a modernized facility that would forsake Lynah much like the Terriers men's ice hockey team forsook Brown Arena and began anew in Agganis.

Many who favored renovation trusted Schafer's discretion. He was instrumental in giving Lynah its current feel and look. Fans who experienced Lynah Rink before the completion of renovations agree generally that the altered Lynah still maintained the hallowed confines of the historic arena and preserved the envirnoment that made Lynah Rink both loved and loathed.

The renovations and modernizations that were envisioned and realized between 2004 and 2007 were revolutionary and respectful of tradition. A quick summary of the changes makes the renovation seem entirely transformative, but the essence of the Lynah experience that had developed since the first over-capacity crowd in 1962 remained the same. Lynah Rink before the renovations had standing-room only seating. The rink had concourses within the current walls that circumnavigated the U-shape of the inner arena within the current concourses outside of the arena proper. The end of the rink near Section A had no walkway or seating that traversed the gap between the southern and northern ends of the U.

The renovations included the addition of the current atrium to Lynah Rink, the walkway with premium seating that bridges Section A to Section O, box seating that extended to the outer walls of the former arena, more seating benches, an external cooridor that serves now as the concourses, new locker rooms, study rooms, and enhanced training facilities. These new training facilites included the addition over the renovation period of the skating treadmill of CSTV fame, warm-up and cool-down facilities and tubs, and the fitness room that now looks out on Campus Road among others. Over the objections of some new locker rooms were added for both the men's and women's program that were at a level that required that the tunnel for the Big Red onto the ice requires the players to navigate a set of stairs.

The desire to keep Lynah as much like its original incarnation while augmenting appeal to recruits and capacity resulted in the balance being struck between closing the final end of the U-shaped interior to make a complete bowl and leaving the interior arena as it was entirely. The compromise was the red walkway that holds several premium seats above the opposing goaltender. This allowed Lynah to look and feel remarkably similar to how it would have in its purely original form, but added signfiicant seating.

The project to renovate Lynah Rink was funded entirely from private donations of alumni and fans. The University was reluctant to invest extensively in renovating Lynah Rink after it had invested $1.0 million within the decade to modernize elements of the Rink including the cooling system below the ice surface. The final total of the 2006 renovations amounted to $7.3 million. These alterations modernized the facilites, increased the competitiveness of Cornell hockey in attracting recruits, and added 464 additional seats. These great strides were achieved with a relatively modest amount of money compared to some investments made in the college hockey world recently.

Penn State will join the ranks of NCAA Division I programs this Fall. It will play its first season at the NCAA Division I level in the previous home of its successful ACHA club hockey program. Penn State's Ice Pavilion holds 1,350. The facilites are unable to be modernized or expanded like Lynah was able. Furthermore, the historical incentives according to many, are far less than those that weighed upon the calculations of Cornell during its build-or-renovate debate. In many ways, Penn State is attempting to celebrate the history of its ACHA programs while still beginning anew. Pegula Ice Arena will be the new home of Penn State hockey beginning in the 2013-14 season. Pegula Ice Arena will contain state-of-the-art training facilities and two sheets of ice. The central arena will be a complete bowl that can seat 6,000. Terry and Kim Pegula alone donated the $102 million that will fund the construction of the Arena and transition of Penn State's programs to NCAA Division I. $88 million of that donation is to fund the construction of the building.

The Rochester Institute of Technology announced that it thinks that it has outgrown the confines of Ritter Arena and will seek to build an expanded hockey arena in the near future. Initial projections had the rink's completion in 2013-14, but with the slower pace in starting as compared to that of construction of the Pegula Ice Arena, many, including WAFT, think that the project should not be rushed and should be expected to be completed for the 2014-15 season. The RIT Tigers bursted onto the national hockey scene in 2010 with a Frozen Four appearance just five years after the program transitioned to NCAA Division I. Ritter Arena before and since this rise is filled beyond capacity commonly. The facilities at Ritter were not deisgned for long-term use and have begun to deteriorate to a level that needs repair. The Polisseni Foundation and B. Thomas Golisano donated a combined $4.5 million. This gift resulted in the naming of the future facility after Polisseni. The expected value of the facility that does not claim to nor shows in architectural renderings increased training facilities is $30 million. RIT expects to raise only half of that value from private donations with the Institute expected to contribute the remainder. The $30 million is what the expected cost of the arena proper without any additional training facilities to lure recruits. The renderings of the Polisseni Center are beautiful, but it leaves one wondering how much can an internal venue do, no matter how noteworthy, if there is not an associated proportional increase in a program's ability to develop its student-athletes in the athletic realm? Colgate seems bound to take the same tack as RIT and for less clear reasons.

Current Michigan State head coach Tom Anastos emphasizes often that programs must put their rivalries or disagreements aside to do what is best for their conferences, their student-athletes, and college hockey. It is with this mindset that I will conclude with an appeal to 'Gate and its fans to reconsider its plans to replace Starr Rink with a $37-million facility. Putting the we-are-or-we-aren't-rivals banter between Cornell and Colgate aside, I would like to implore 'Gate students, fans, and alumni to demand that the administration that makes decisions that will affect them for generations consider heeding the lessons of Cornell's choice to renovate historic Lynah Rink rather than replace it.

The choice to preserve Lynah Rink for future generations while making Cornell more competitive for college recruits struck the correct balance. The interior does not look identical to what it did with the original 1957 plan for Lynah Rink, but it is the same atmosphere. I knew as I sat behind Cornell's net late in the third period during the 2010 regular-season clash against Yale that would decide who earned the first seed in the 2010 ECAC Tournament that Scrivens occupied the same crease that Kennedy, Hayward, Eliot, LeNeveu, and Dryden had occupied during their times on East Hill. Last season, I took a friend from graduate school who is an alumnus of a university with its own respectable hockey tradition, Michigan, to watch the clash between Cornell and archrival Harvard. He spent the majority of the beginning of the game in awe that he was standing where just a few decades before members of the Lynah Faithful had stood to watch hockey legends Ken Dryden and Joe Nieuwendyk on the ice in Lynah. Andy Iles knows that he neither serves only in the same position as nor draws artistic inspiration for his helmet from Ken Dryden because for all intents and purposes he defends the same pipes. It is this continuity between the past and present that blurs lines and fosters a deep connection with history when one enters Lynah. Why would Colgate or its administrators elect to deprive its fans of the same sense of tradition and belonging?

I know not Colgate hockey history well enough to draw the perfect analogies to their rich hockey history, but I know that as a program that alleges to have great reverence for its history that 'Gate fans, students, and alumni will find much that they desire to preserve in Starr Rink. Colgate hockey began in 1915. Colgate, much like Cornell and most members of the ECAC, has great respect for its heritage as one of the oldest programs in college hockey.

Colgate's situation is more akin to Cornell's situation before renovations than the situations of either Penn State or RIT. Colgate has a longer history in its building than either program. Colgate has none of the size constraints that plague Penn State and RIT as they confront or anticipate crowds that are beyond capacity on a regular basis. Colgate University is a respectable liberal arts institution of 2,837 students. Part of its attractiveness and charm is in its size. However, its size must temper expectations that it can fill a rink much larger than Starr. The draw of fans, students, and alumni to Colgate hockey games is not so great that Starr cannot contain all those interested in watching 'Gate hockey comfortably. It is not a venue that faces sell-out crowds typically. Starr Rink has a capacity of 2,600. A university as rich with diversity as Colgate is cannot expect that it needs a hockey arena that is much larger than the one it has that can accommodate 92% of its student body because, as alien as it sounds to many reader, not all students are interested in college hockey.

WAFT encourages Colgate to reinvest in its hockey programs, but it should not be at the expense of history. Starr is not beyond repair and its capacity is not too small for the crowds that it encounters typically. The University and 'Gate hockey community should invest in improving training facilities. It will be cheaper and at a lesser cost than the current plan.

Colgate's proposal for an arena to replace Starr is notoriously lacking any provision that includes improvement in training facilities. Modernization of facilities through renovation should be celebrated. The fans of all ECAC teams should celebrate improving the facilities at Colgate because it increases the profile of the league and its attractiveness to recruits. However, the proposal released does not include such modernization and deprives our league of a part of its history.

Our league is proud of the history of its programs as the oldest in college hockey. We should not allow one of our historic venues to disappear without question or criticism. Colgate's current proposal does little to improve its hockey program or increase its stature while sacrificing history, one of its most salient selling points. If Colgate can lure a player of such talent and character as Austin Smith to don the maroon sweater and play at Starr, should its administration truly be worried about its ability to attract top recruits to its barn? Our league prides itself on recruits of character and ethic. If a superficial new building will draw recruits instead of laudable history, do those recruits deserve to represent the institutions that are members of our proud league?

I assert that the answer is no.

Some fans from other programs or ECAC fanbases will use this opportunity to mock Starr Rink, the enivornment therein, or their experiences there. These comments might be acceptable or pithy in intraleague banter before contentious games, but I think they are ill-advised when the question before the 'Gate hockey community is one that strikes at the question of what is the indentity of the ECAC?

Our history defines our league. Colgate hockey and Starr Rink is a crucial part of that collective history. Our league is home to seven of the ten most historic hockey barns. The ECAC is the only league with more than two representatives on such a list. Unsurprisingly, Starr Rink joins Meehan Auditorium, Hobey Baker Rink, Houston Field House, Appleton Arena, Ingalls Rink, and Lynah Rink on the list. The loss of such a venue would be costly to college hockey in general and 'Gate hockey in particular.

It matters not what others think of Starr Rink or even what it looks like to loyal Colgate fans, students, and alumni. What matters is how the Colgate community, especially those members most invested in Colgate hockey culture, feels about historic Starr Rink and its ability to unite past, present, and future generations of the 'Gate community. I hope that Colgate will err on the side of preserving its history for the sakes of college hockey and the Colgate hockey community.

I had the privilege of interacting with a family of four at the 2012 ECAC Championships in Atlantic City, NJ. The family was Colgate fans. I believe that both the mother and father were Colgate alumni who, judging by their comments and a hat that the father wore, attended their alma mater during the Raiders's first ECAC Championship and run to the national championship game in 1990. They had traveled down from Central New York to New Jersey with their children to watch their beloved Raiders play for another ECAC Championship. I could tell immediatly that love for Colgate hockey and Colgate University had transcended generation and emerged in the passions of both little boys.

This made me look to the future when I hope to take my chlidren to Lynah Rink and tell them of the dazzling feats of not only Nieuwendyk and Dryden, but Gallagher, Greening, Scrivens, Whitney, D'Agostino, and Iles among many others who all put their skills on display in those hallowed walls. It is a privilege as a Cornellian and member of the Lynah Faithful to be able to share these memories and experiences across generations. It unites us all. This deep, personal, and passionate institutional history is what sets college hockey apart from most other sports.

I am indebted to those who were vocal and in positions of authority who made the correct decision to preserve Lynah rather than replace it. As an alumnus and fan, I will ensure that if the history at Lynah is threatened, I act to preserve it as those before me had. I hope that leaders and members of the community at Colgate make the same choice in the near future so that generations of the family that I met in Atlantic City can share and make memories at Starr as I will do the same with my family at Lynah.

The prospect that the ECAC announcement that was rumored to occur on Tuesday would be streamed or televised were fairly bleak considering the league's inability to secure a network to broadcast the league's marquee event. However, around midnight last night (12:00 am Tuesday), the ECAC page added a splash image as its intro to the men's ice hockey page. The image, for those who are unfamiliar with the Lake Placid facilities, is that of the outside of the Olympic Center facility that is attached to the much more famous Herb Brooks Arena.

The formal ECAC announcement came at around 11:10 am on Tuesday. The ECAC formalized that the league had come to a three-year agreement with Lake Placid under which the ECAC would crown its champions for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 seasons in Herb Brooks Arena. ECAC Commmissioner Steve Hagwell sung the praises of the bond between the ECAC and Lake Placid, and stated that "Lake Placid has a special bond with ECAC Hockey."

Considering the news, I thought that it was befitting to take a more extended look at where the ECAC will host its championships and where Cornell will seek additional ECAC Championships in the near future. I feel that the pros and cons, and hopes and fears have been discussed extensively. If you missed WAFT's take, it's here. Thank You Terry, a blog that focuses upon Penn State hockey and one of the best blogs dedicated to college hockey (TYT is a blog that college hockey fans should read if they are not already), mentioned and complimented WAFT's analysis in a much-appreciated shoutout to this new blog in his Three Stars. Adam Wodon offered similarly extensive analysis back in April. Needless to say, Wodon and WAFT are solidly in the pro-Lake Placid camp. That is firmly established. So, this post continues with the different angle of looking at what members of the Faithful can look forward to when Cornell seeks its fourteenth ECAC title in 2014 (wishful thinking, I know).

The most striking element in the above pictures is the intimacy of the Arena. I'm very much of the opinion that what distinguishes college hockey from professional-level hockey is the physical and personal connection between the fans, teams, and the players. That is why even sold-out college hockey events at NHL arenas strike me as somewhat off. They do not feel like college hockey events. Red Hot Hockey is a superb event that I hope continues into the future and I plan to attend the clash between the Wolverines and Big Red in November, but the ill-defined sterility of pro arenas remove certain elements of the college hockey experience. I leave each of those great events lacking the sense of belonging that games at college hockey barns provide even though ~14,000 Cornell fans reliably make The Garden much louder than any Rangers game. Admittedly, the connection to the building between fans is lost at any neutral site, but the aesthetic feel and the size of Herb Brooks Arena makes the viewing experience more akin to the experience offered at other college hockey rinks and Lynah than the experience afforded fans if the event were held in an NHL arena. I think this is an often overlooked aspect of college hockey that the Herb Brooks Arena does not sacrifice while TD Garden, Joe Louis Arena, and Xcel Energy Center do.

An odd fixation of some is the desire that the host of their league championship repaints the ice to commemorate the championship series. Albany did no such thing in 2010. Atlantic City, in its characteristic and respectable devotion to promoting the ECAC Championships in AC, did. The primary issue with AC was not what laid beneath the ice, but the ice itself. The scheduling of events at Boardwalk Hall forced AC to produce and maintain ice at the beautiful facility far too late to have hockey-worthy ice. Lake Placid will present no such challenges with a figure skating- and hockey-devoted arena. The benefit with Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena is that I think that if the above insignia appears instead of the ECAC logo, few fans would be irked because Lake Placid is as much of or, perhaps, more of a marketable brand than what the ECAC is currently.

The ECAC appeared not to make any revelatory statements about the main concerns of many fans including television coverage or hotel policies in Lake Placid according to early reports from the conference. WAFT will keep you appraised of any information as it arises. Adam Wodon asked the questions that matter most to fans. In summary, his article has Commissioner Hagwell stating that "more and more networks say, '[y]ou produce the games and we'll air it.' So I don't see any obstacles in terms of production, because we can hire a crew." Director of Events at the Olympic Center Jim Goff added that several production companies are based in Lake Placid and have experience producing broadcasts that are syndicated internationally.

The league made it clear that the 2013 ECAC Championships is the last that will be held in Atlantic City in the near future and that 2014 will mark the return of the ECAC Championships to Lake Placid. WAFT is excited about this announcement, its potential to help the league, and looks forward to joining members of the Lynah Faithful in the most historic arena in United States hockey history. Let's hope that Lake Placid has a few miracles in store for the ECAC and Cornell this time around.

The ECAC community was intrigued yesterday with the early announcement from Ken Schott that the ECAC had decided that its league championships would be held in Lake Placid, NY once again. The reports were echoed in releases from College Hockey News and USCHO.com. The consensus appears from most college hockey media that the ECAC entertained bids from Providence, Albany, and Lake Placid, but concluded that a return to the North Country for its weekend league championships series had more to offer. Reactions have been mixed. Here's what WAFT thinks the Cornell perspective should be.

The Venue
Herb Brooks Arena would host the ECAC Semifinals and Finals for the 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 seasons. The capacity of the Arena is 7,700. The capacity pales in comparison to the capacities of Boardwalk Hall (10,500) and the Times Union Center (14,236) where the championship tournament has been held since it left Lake Placid in 2002. This is where perspective is important. The 2012 ECAC Championship game between Harvard and Union drew at most 4,131 in Atlantic City. The 2010 ECAC Championship game between Union and Cornell drew 6,505 in Albany. Both attendance values fit comfortably within the capacity that Herb Brooks Arena provides. The draw of the ECAC is not one that can presently demand that its league championship game be held in a venue like Madison Square Garden, especially when attendance values tend to plummet when Cornell and the Lynah Faithful are not involved. That is a reality. The ECAC may have begun in March 2012 to dispel rumors that it represents a sub-par brand of hockey with Union's Frozen Four appearance and Cornell's upset of Michigan, but it has not overcome its established history as a small draw. Concerns about the arena size are unfounded because the ECAC has not proven that it can fill an arena the size of Herb Brooks Arena. Furthermore, even if the ECAC begins to fill Herb Brooks Arena in the near future, a full medium-sized arena presents a better and more marketable image than the same volume crowd in a larger venue like Boardwalk Hall or the Times Union Center. The attendance capacity should be of little concern to ECAC fans generally and the Lynah Faithful in particular.

The recurring issue that has emerged and one that has been rumored to be an issue of contention among the few ECAC programs that did not approve of the move to Lake Placid is the fact that Herb Brooks Arena has an Olympic-sized ice sheet. Historically, the ECAC justified that playing on an Olympic-sized sheet was advantageous to the league members going on in the season because under previous iterations of the NCAA tournament venues with Olympic-sized sheets were included or even preferred for selection for NCAA tournament game sites. The change of the NCAA tournament structure to its current form eliminated this advantage. The NCAA selection committee now chooses venues that have NHL-sized ice sheets exclusively. The fact that the surface at Herb Brooks Arena is one different than those played on earlier in the season causes each program to adapt its game to a larger ice surface without any identifiable benefit in return.

Some who are more familiar with Herb Brooks Arena than I have stated that the locker room facilities are below the current standard level of facilities at the NCAA Division I level. I cannot speak to the accuracy of these statements, but the negatives with the venue seem to be limited to the ice surface and possibly the locker rooms. However, it must be noted that the Team USA U20 Development Program has been using the facility during the week before and weekend of this leak, and there have been no discernible complaints about the facilities even during the summer months. It appears that any shortcomings in locker room facilities in any respect during the ECAC's previous tenancy in Lake Placid have been addressed. The lingering issue is the ice surface size.

The Host
Some fans familiar with the ECAC's previous era in Lake Placid from 1994 to 2002 remember that the resort community was one that clung to its arcane hotel cancellation policies that made it difficult for fans who booked hotels before their teams advanced out of the first-round or quarterfinals of the ECAC Tournament to cancel their reservations at all or without severe penalty if the fans's team did not survive to the ECAC Championships. I was neither a Cornell hockey fan nor an alumnus during this era, so I cannot speak to how the hotel industry in Lake Placid functioned before the ECAC played its last tournament game in the resort town in 2002. However, a cursory inspection of most hotel sites with cancellation guidelines and policies indicates that hotels in Lake Placid, like many in the industry, have abandoned these practices and do not cling to the criticized practices any longer. The practices, platforms, and presence of hotels on online fora have changed markedly with the development of Web 2.0, an advent that has occurred since 2002, and it seems unreasonable to conclude that Lake Placid is behind the times until proven otherwise. It appears that the hotels in Lake Placid will not present such challenges to traveling members of the Lynah Faithful.

The relation between setting and television coverage has been discussed. The 2011 ECAC Championship Final between Cornell and Yale was broadcast on the hard-to-find CBS Sports Network. The 2012 ECAC Championship Final was covered on no major television-based platform. RPI TV did an amazing job with its coverage. It was higher quality than most college hockey games broadcast all season from any network. However, the ECAC needs national television coverage to build upon its recent national successes. While the Michigans and Notre Dames of the college hockey world can point to their coverage on the Big Ten Network and NBC Sports, the ECAC and Cornell cannot boast of any similar deals. Even for their championship series. Last season's coverage from RPI TV if syndicated to a national or regional network would have been an ideal situation. It would have demonstrated the accomplishments of a member school while celebrating the athletic programs of those competing. No matter the means, the ECAC must use the brand that is Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena to gain coverage of the ECAC Championship Final, if not the entire Championships series.

The now-defunct Empire Sports Network broadcasted the ECAC Championships when they were hosted in Lake Placid. Geographic seclusion would seem precluded as an argument against broadcasting from Lake Placid considering the success of doing such for the same tournament a decade ago. The MSG Network acquired the regional presence of the Empire Sports Network. MSG has high viewership in Upstate New York and broadcasts regionally specific programming through the year (Sabres coverage in Upstate New York, Rangers and Islanders coverage in Downstate New York). Its geographic footprint could broadcast it to the former market of the Empire Sports Network or decide to include the Downstate New York region as well where many alumni of ECAC institutions live and work. MSG claims that it enjoys covering college hockey and has respectable viewership numbers when it broadcasts the biannual BU-Cornell Red Hot Hockey games. This could be another event that it carries, even if it chooses to syndicate RPI TV's spectacular coverage or places it on a peripheral MSG Network station. The history of the Empire Sports Network in broadcasting the ECACs from Lake Placid, the greatest density of ECAC fans, the MSG Network market, and the branding of Herb Brooks Arena seems to support the conclusion that Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena should increase the likelihood that the finest teams of the ECAC face off against one another in the ECAC Championship Final in prime time.

The natural splendor of the host of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games scarcely can be overstated. The resort town sits in the shadow of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack Mountain Range. Many who can remember the ECAC Championships in Lake Placid remark about how the community focuses upon hosting an event of the caliber of the ECAC Championships. It is unfair to claim that Atlantic City neither focused upon nor catered to the ECAC Championships. The City was very welcoming and promotions were distributed widely within and without AC. However, there is an air about the ECAC Championships playing in New York State (the home of half of the ECAC member schools) and the winter feel of the Adirondacks in mid-March that makes Lake Placid feel more the appropriate setting for the ECAC Championships than Atlantic City. What sets Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena above the other interested communities and venues is history.

The Aura
No American hockey fan needs explanation as to the significance of 1980, Lake Placid, and Herb Brooks. The players, including Cornell sophomore forward Cole Bardreau, at the Team USA U20 Development Camp during this leaked announcement, remark how amazing it feels to play on such a historic stage with such rich history. It was the ice on which an image was taken that inspired the only cover of Sports Illustrated that ran without caption. It is where a player from BU began the unthinkable and put the United States ahead of the Soviet Union, and endeared himself to many of the Lynah Faithful as shown with their thunderous applause at each Red Hot Hockey that Mike Eruzione attends.

Many worry that the appeal and emotion of the 1980 Olympic game between the Soviet Union and the United States is lost on the current generation of players and fans who were born well after the miracle. I am such a fan and I can attest that it is not. There is palpable excitement about watching a game in Herb Brooks Arena. Most of the 2010 Team USA hockey roster could not remember the 1980 miracle, but it rang no less significantly for them. Ours is the generation of Miracle, the film, not the event, but the ethos, legend, and investment is not lost on us. Herb Brooks and the 1980 team are more legend than men, and for this, perhaps we venerate Lake Placid, the coach, and the team more than even the generation who witnessed it because they have become truly larger than life.

It is for these reasons that Lake Placid will help recruiting, especially in the United States. It is a historic site. It is hallowed ground for American hockey. American athletes will thirst for the opportunity to hoist an earned and respected championship cup above their heads in the same arena where Jim Craig draped an American flag around his shoulders. Cornell's roster has become noticeably more American in recent years and this will help maintain Cornell's recruitment of American players to play on East Hill.

Some worry that the effect upon recruitment is overwrought for a league that recruits heavily in Canada. This oversimplifies realities. Objectively, Canadian hockey players know that a defeat of the Goliath that was Soviet hockey is significant and respectable. They need look only to their own defeat of the Soviet Union in the Summit Series to realize the importance for Canadian hockey culture. This misses noticeably the personal connection that many American players feel with the history at Herb Brooks Arena. Cornell stands advantaged in this respect.

Lake Placid hosted the ECAC Championships nine times. Cornell was 6-4-0 at Lake Placid over that span including winning the ECAC Championship twice under Schafer. However, those statistics are not the most salient point for a program that values its history so highly. It was in Lake Placid that John Hughes, Brian Cropper, and Ned Harkness completed the unprecedented and still unequaled feat of completing an NCAA Division I season undefeated and untied with a 6-4 win over Clarkson in 1970. Cornell players and Cornell recruited players of all national origins should feel a connection to the achievement of that goal in Lake Placid. Lake Placid is where the greatest miracle in United States hockey occurred and where Cornell hockey achieved a level of play to a level that no other program has attained.

The ECAC will make Lake Placid its home while Cornell will be home in Lake Placid already.