It Was Only a Matter of Time...

...until the mobius strip that is the NCAA caught up with me and forced me to make a correction.

That time is now.

In an earlier release, which no longer exists, the NCAA specified that this year's DIII Championships would be hosted in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Saturday and Sunday March 20 and 21, which was somewhat noteworthy as it would have been a one day shift from the Friday/Saturday setup of last season. However, a July 16 NCAA release specifies this isn't necessarily the case and that the dates remain TBD. Included in the release is the following passage:

Plattsburgh State University of New York and the Olympic Regional Development Authority will host the 2010 championship at Herb Brooks Arena in The Olympic Center. The event will be conducted March 19-20 or March 20-21, depending on the television broadcast schedule.

Aside from contradicting the earlier release and causing headaches for those of us already making flight plans (so we thought), this sort of flexibility is a good thing. Most likely it would be CBS Sports handling the video coverage again, and as CBS has offered online video feeds as well as cable broadcasts in the past, why not wait to pick the date that works best as far as television in concerned?

Division III needs all the press it can get, be it for the coaches and players who more than deserve it, the institutions themselves, or the fans who have been there all along. Because of that, a slight delay in terms of nailing down a couple dates in order to accommodate an entity like CBS makes perfect sense, even if that information proved a bit tricky to track down.

The recent release also sheds a bit more light on this year's Championships, as well as the 2011 Championships which, yes, are still scheduled to be hosted in Minneapolis.

Full release is as follows, and available here.

INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee has selected championship sites for 2010 and 2011. Lake Placid, N.Y., will host the 2010 NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship, and Minneapolis, Minn., will serve as the championship host in 2011.

Plattsburgh State University of New York and the Olympic Regional Development Authority will host the 2010 championship at Herb Brooks Arena in The Olympic Center. The event will be conducted March 19-20 or March 20-21, depending on the television broadcast schedule. It will mark the third straight year the championship has been held in Lake Placid.

“The committee is pleased to be returning this championship to Lake Placid,” said Bruce Delventhal, chair of the NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee and director of athletics at Plattsburgh State University of New York. “This championship has experienced tremendous growth in the last two years and we look forward to a third straight year of continued success.”

The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association will serve as host at Ridder Arena in 2011. The championship will take place either March 18-19 or March 19-20.

“After the three years in Lake Placid, the committee believes Minneapolis and Ridder Arena will be a great place to take this championship,” said Delventhal. “The Twin Cities is a hockey hot bed and we feel the tournament will not only build upon its recent success, but also be very well-received in the community.”