Atlantic Conference Showdown: Air Force Helps to Gain NCAA Respect for Conference

Credit Larry Clouse Photography

After winning the Atlantic Conference Championship with a tight 2-1 victory over the Robert Morris University Colonials and earning their bid to the NCAA tournament, not many people were expecting them to do anything but roll over and be quickly knocked out. These low expectations for teams coming out of the Atlantic Conference are not all together unwarranted as it is full of small school teams with fewer scholarships to offer and thus less appeal for players, but this year the Atlantic began to turn some heads.

Credit Colorado Springs Gazette

This resurgence of the Conference was highlighted by Air Force's breakout season, which started off with a bang when they defeated Boston College, who was ranked 5th in the nation at the time, 2-1 in just their first game of the season. Throughout the season Air Force was ranked in the top 20 nationwide on two separate occasions and would eventually lead to NCAA tournament berth. This tournament bid that is automatically given to the winner of the Atlantic Conference has been, aside from RIT's magical ride to the frozen four in 2010, primarily taken as a joke to their opponents as they are usually an easy first round win for larger schools.

Credit Detroit Free Press

This year was different as Air force beat Western Michigan in a convincing 5-4 first round victory before losing a closely fought game against Harvard, ranked 2nd in the nation, the following night. Air Force's play throughout the season and into the playoffs marks a noticeable increase in competitiveness within the Atlantic Conference that will be sure to continue in the coming years. The Commissioner of the Conference has taken steps to make sure this will continue to be the case by increasing the number of scholarships allowable per team to the NCAA maximum 18 which will hopefully help to pull more talent from the vast youth pools looking to play NCAA Division 1 hockey. I believe that in the coming years these actions will help to make the Atlantic Conference competitive with its large schooled counterparts.

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