Will 2010 Be The New 2003?

Last season, we played 7 regular season out-of-conference games against teams ranked an average of 27th in the final RPI.

Next year, we're scheduled to play 7 out-of-conference games against teams ranked an average of 16th in the final RPI -- an improvement of 9 places. (For reference, Cornell was 11th.)

How does this happen? Next year, we're only playing one game against Niagara (42nd), and won't face Colgate (38th) again in Florida. We won't play St. Could (22nd) or UMass (28th).

We add games against BU (1st), UNH (10th), Colorado College (21st), and either Princeton (13th) or Maine (33rd). We keep the two games against North Dakota (9th).

Obviously, some opponents are going to get better or worse, but mostly better. This past season was an anomaly for Maine hockey, and Colorado College will likely recover a bit, too.

Flipping through some schedules from previous years, I'm reminded of the 2002-2003 schedule, which was the last time Cornell reached the Frozen Four. That year, we ended up playing two against Ohio State (13th), two against BU (6th), two against Western Michigan (NR), and one against Maine (9th). (Rankings in parentheses from the final poll).

One possible explanation for this year's schedule is that Coach Schafer, as he did prior to the 2003 season, knew he had a very good team and wanted to get them some tough games to prepare them for a strong stretch run. That year, Cornell went 5-2-0 out-of-conference, only losing in Florida when All-America goaltender Dave Leneveu missed the tournament to play for Canada in international competition. A similar record this coming year will position us well for a high seed in the NCAAs.

However, the strong schedule comes at a price. I worry about the two Colgate games scheduled for Tuesdays. We'll have one tough November, with games against Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Colgate, and defending national champion BU all within 22 days! And the game against Colgate in Hamilton is scheduled for a Tuesday in February, which immediately conjures visions of being stuck in a blizzard on a week night driving through the middle of nowhere on the way back to Ithaca.

It's only July, but it seems like last season is long behind us already.