ECAC Commissioner Phil Buttafuoco and Assistant Commissioner Steve Hagwell held a conference call with all 12 ECAC athletic directors Monday morning to discuss the implications of Vermont’s announcement to cancel the rest of its 1999-2000 season. Some decisions were reached as to how the University’s announcement affects the ECAC, as follows:
The 15 canceled games of Vermont will count as no-contests and will be removed from opponents’ schedules.
The seven ECAC league games that were played by Vermont previously will count in the standings. The new ECAC standings will be ranked on a winning-percentage basis rather than by league points. Vermont has been placed 12th by the league.
All statistics earned by Vermont players in their seven league games will count in the statistics, as will all ECAC statistics played against Vermont. The league leaders will be ranked on a per-game basis rather than by cumulative total.
The league has adjusted the schedule to accommodate Dartmouth, Vermont’s travel partner, to avoid Dartmouth playing two consecutive games in one weekend. The changes are as follows:
* Saturday, January 29, Clarkson at Dartmouth is moved to Sunday, January 30 at 12:30pm
* Friday, February 4, Dartmouth at Union is moved to Thursday, February 3 at 7:00pm
* Saturday, February 19, Dartmouth at Princeton is moved to Sunday, February 20 at 2:00pm
* Saturday, February 26, Cornell at Dartmouth is moved to Sunday, February 27 at 2:00pm
* Saturday, March 4, Dartmouth at St. Lawrence is moved to Sunday, March 5 at 2:00pm
The ECAC has asked non-league institutions, specifically Hockey East, the MAAC and Army, if they have open dates on which to schedule games against ECAC teams affected by any canceled games.
The playoff structure will remain unchanged.
The February 25 NESN/Empire television game between Cornell and Vermont will be replaced by a to-be-determined game.
