I’ve been on ice skates once, as a 4th grader who had sprained his ankle twice in the prior year. Needless to say, I refused to let my father let go of me that day on a frozen Mill River in Fairfield, and that pair of Caldor skates lay useless in my parent’s basement forever.

My floor hockey career ended as a sophomore in high school when I jumped in front of Kevin Arrix, a sophomore on the New Canaan varsity, to block a shot and ended up with something like 30 stitches above my right eye. (Kevin apologizes to this day, even though I take the blame)

But you don’t have to own a stick or know how to skate to understand that FCIAC teams cannot compete at the CIAC Division I level.

Why? Because the FCIAC’s Division I teams play everyone in in the league once, then participate in the FCIAC’s winnerless holiday tournament, and only schedule four out of conference games each.

This is great for Division II teams like Fairfield and Trinity Catholic, both of which were in the Frozen Four, and will benefit emerging Division III programs like St. Joseph.

But let’s break it down here: Fairfield Prep finished the regular season 9-10-1 and won the CIAC Division I championship as the 11 seed. Notre Dame-Fairfield was the runner up, the 9 seed, and had an 11-8-1 regular season. Prep didn’t play any games outside of D-I, Notre Dame played two games against D-II opponents.

What did FCIAC finalists Darien and New Canaan do? Darien played 11 of 20 regular season contests against D-I foes, New Canaan played 10. Darien played two D-II teams in the FCIAC playoffs, New Canaan beat one.

Needless to say, playing lesser opponents during the regular season doesn’t help when it comes to the CIAC D-I tournament, where FCIAC teams went 0-4 in the first round.

Now look at Trinity Catholic and Fairfield. Trinity Catholic had nine D-I games, including two in the FCIAC playoffs. Fairfield also skated against nine, including one in the playoffs and East Haven, the D-I’s top seed, in the regular season. They were clearly ready for trips to Ingalls Rink.

So what’s the FCIAC to do if it wants to get better? Or, better yet, keep its best players from running off to Prep schools? Here’s three ideas:

1. Take a lesson from the SWC and break the FCIAC down to D-I and D-II/III. The D-I teams will play each other, and the D-II/III teams play in their realm. Then make each school go out of conference to find opponents. This was a rare year for Notre Dame, which actually played against a pair of SWC D-II opponents. Fairfield Prep doesn’t touch anyone of the SCC’s second-tier schools.
2. Abandon the FCIAC holiday tournament, which doesn’t really seem to serve a purpose but to fill the schedule for two more games. Find some out-of-state foes like Prep and Notre Dame do when they get in prestigious tournaments. Heck, some D-II schools, I think Sheehan was one, played a tournament in Quebec.
3. Consider an end to the postseason FCIAC championship tournament. Not even separate D-I and D-II/III tournaments. You’re adding up to three extra games before the CIAC tournament. And, you have to cram your required (up to) 20 regular seasons into one less week to get ready for FCIACs. Maybe that’s a good thing if you’re playing similar foes. But maybe it’s also wearing FCIAC teams down.

Will all this help the FCIAC improve as a hockey conference? Yes. The D-II/III teams can fill their schedules with D-Is who want to play, or stay in their division. And the FCIACs D-Is can be freed up to take on teams like Tri-Town, Simsbury, Conard, and Glastonbury more often.