Octagonal Hockey

The Pentagonal Hockey League is a nice polite group of white-shoed teams from five Ivy schools. For the last couple of years, Pentagonal teams have ventured into the Arena to play B.U., B.C., and Northeastern, and although the latter teams may not be nearly so polite, they are equally adept; the games are always close, any team can win, and the Boston ones frequently do.

In fact, with the exception of Princeton, Harvard and its Pentagonal mates--Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale--have usually played two hard, close games with the three Boston schools. The games, however, do not count in the standings. The Boston schools are good enough to play, but not proper enough to join the League, and because of this, local coaches have squawked, interest has dropped, and gate receipts have lagged.

Arguing against the enlarged league; Ivy officials declare that they should no more bring the three Boston schools into the hockey league than into a football league. They fail to note, however, that while almost everyone has a football team, there are few hockey teams, and that the current league would be a natural one from a competitive standpoint. The officials feel, however, that with lower academic requirements, the three schools can maintain an athletic standard which the Ivy League cannot meet. But a consistent policy here would find the Pentagonals either enlarging the Hockey League or taking their skates home and not playing the Boston schools at all.

Princeton has a more reasonable excuse; it would have to travel over 250 miles for four away games in the Boston area, besides going to games at Providence and Hanover. But the league could go on a one game basis, with the first of a two tame series counting for the standings with all teams but Princeton. It could also follow the example of the Western NCAA. There, if two teams can't meet twice, the points from the one game are doubled for the standings. Thus, a victory in the Princeton-B.U. game would give the winner four instead of two points.

The proposal for the octagonal league was vetoed twice, once by Princeton. Since then, Boston officials have been trying to start the league, while Ivy officials have sat back and waited for the three to climb the Ivy. But representatives of the three schools said over the weekend that they would be glad to petition for entry into the Pentagonal League.

The ridiculous thing about the Pentagonal stand is that a five team league is just no league at all. First place counts, and once a team clinches it, or drops out of the running, interest dies. In an eight team league, however, second place would count too--and any spot in the first division would be an attraction to a late season crowd. Professional sports have proven that the eight team league is the most sound financially, and in a costly sport such as college hockey, dollars make sense.