Men's hockey: Shorter schedule for OUA rumoured

A column posted today by the North Bay Nugget notes that "next year’s OUA (men's hockey) schedule might be reduced — more on that to come."

One could read into this as some recession-induced belt-tightening. Reducing the current 28-game schedule to 24, which is what it was in the '90s (it was bumped up to 26 in 1995-96, then bumped up again a few seasons later) would probably save bottom line-minded athletic departments a couple thousand bucks. It will create some scheduling challenges, since Nipissing is due to become the league's 19th team.

By the way, has anyone ever imagined what the OUA alignment would be without the three Quebec schools, who could play in the Atlantic conference?
East — Carleton, Ottawa, Ontario Tech, Queen's, RMC, Ryerson, Toronto, York
West — Brock, Guelph, Lakehead, Laurier, Nipissing, Waterloo, Western, Windsor
Everyone could play a home-and-home within the division, play eight inter-division games and have an extra home-and-home with their rival to make out a 24-game season.

Related:
Lakers-Skyhawks deal definitely no loss (Ken Pagan, North Bay Nugget)
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1 comment:

  1. Just a small clarification. The OUA schedule length has been as follows:

    87-88 to 88-89 - 26 games (UQTR, Concordia, McGill and Ottawa joined the conference in 87 and the sched was extended from 24 games)

    89-90 to 92-93 - 22 games
    93-94 to 94-95 - 24 games
    95-96 to 99-00 - 26 games
    00-01 to 05-06 - 24 games
    06-07 to present-28 games

    The current 28 game sched is only in its 3rd year and was originally extended to allow crossover games between Far West and Far East teams. This only lasted one season due to Carleton and UOIT joining in 07-08. This is the only period in the league's history the sched has been this long...so going back to 24 games would be more in line with the league's history

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