And my friendthe Quinipiac fan wants them invited, but neither RPI not QU are getting an ivite. simple as that. As far as an unbalanced schedule, that might happen anyway with 12 teams, depending on how things play out there might be 2 divisions with 3 divisional games and 2 against the other division. Not sure that has really been figured out yet. I also think the XL center plan is still evolving in the long term. In some respects UCONN is different from the Boston schools (by the way Matthews at Northeastern is on about 4500-4600 (I've seen both numbers quoted) and the UMasses in that it has a statewide fanbase which I suspect they hope to tap for hockey, too, which is why they are thinking XL long term, not for every game of course but for some every season. Let's face it. this is an athletic department which managed to make womens basketball a big deal--something nobody else has done to the same extent and maybe only Tennessee has even approached, and it is working to do the same with baseball (they play at New Britain Stadium next week and have games at Norwich as well) And not by appealing to the student body. I think they are looking at hockey in a similar way. If it doesn't work they can move all the games back to Frietas 2.0. As far as the 11 team season, I don't know for sure, but I think it has gone so far that that won't be a deal killer at this point. Whether anyone else could make the move more quickly given the timeline, notice periods and all that, I'm not totally certain. I guess it comes down to whether UCONN can be in a position to play at that level even marginally come 2013. One last point on the arena size: Vermont has been in Hockey East only since 2005-06, and gutterson is 4000 seats, so it isn't like this has been a huge issue with repect to new members. My guess is they'll say close enough.
