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Should be interesting. Will be a long season for FL, but I like the extra games.

Great post OG. I had heard about this and that D3 and D2 trying the same thing at the "A" level, too.

These are innovative moves to getting kids at the same playing level...good games.

I guess D@ voted it down.

Voted what down? An easy way to schedule more games? This is a great way to schedule more games and reduce costs associated with scheduling 15-20 games independent of the District schedule.

I agree. Not sure why they voted no.

I can see for the district playoffs since only having 4 or 5 teams at a level is really stupid, but what would the regular season positives be? Just curious?

It's hard to schedule 45-55 games if District play doesn't provide them. Often when teams schedule away from the District they have to find their own opponents, find available ice and pay for it from team funds and schedule and pay refs. Bantam games need 1.5 hours of ice which is difficult to come by after association practice and game schedules are set. In addition, adding things to the schedule and calendar is difficult for some busy families that like things set or junior may miss. Travel can be an issue on school nights and aligning with a neighboring District makes that easier than any other option. Having a 55 game schedule set before the team ever takes the ice is a huge advantage that saves tremendous amount of time, stress and money. It's why leagues like the VFW were born. One quick meeting and 18 more games, with ice and refs scheduled and paid, done.

I hope all those reasons were discussed because I can't think of any reasons not to do it.

Actually, I like the idea of heading back to the District for playoffs as that is your District after all. The players deserve a shot at those playoff games.

Bo I think all the reasons observer mentioned,plus dropping the games vs single A teams from same assc. [that was one point I liked] I still don't understand playing the 1-15 kids vs 16-30. And yes I know we have beat this into the ground.

Thanks guys, I get it now. They're understanding that "small programs can now move up to play at a new A level" and saying "AA and A are both the same" during the season was a............ JOKE!

My guess is the teams who opted "down" from AA to A still want to play with the AA teams during the regular season and those associations probably voted against it. Some may argue against travel etc...

AA teams in D2 are Stillwater, FL, WBL and Roseville.
A teams are MV and Tartan (both who opt down to A), Mahtomedi, NSP, Highland.

Think about Highland and Mahtomedi both wanting to play some AA competition during the regular season like Tartan and MV would.

It is too bad it didn't happen, would have made for some great competition. They maybe could have worked around it by guaranteeing the teams that wanted to play some AA games at least one game vs. their traditional league AA competition along with the single A league.

Not sure why or who voted for what but heard the vote was 5 to 4 against.

Trout wrote:My guess is the teams who opted "down" from AA to A still want to play with the AA teams during the regular season and those associations probably voted against it. Some may argue against travel etc...

AA teams in D2 are Stillwater, FL, WBL and Roseville.
A teams are MV and Tartan (both who opt down to A), Mahtomedi, NSP, Highland.

Think about Highland and Mahtomedi both wanting to play some AA competition during the regular season like Tartan and MV would.

It is too bad it didn't happen, would have made for some great competition. They maybe could have worked around it by guaranteeing the teams that wanted to play some AA games at least one game vs. their traditional league AA competition along with the single A league.

Not sure why or who voted for what but heard the vote was 5 to 4 against.

Will be an epic district playoff battle between the four AA teams left in district 2..

Yea-can't wait.