It's War

It's only November. It's only the second week of the league season.

But if you think this is going to be anything but a playoff atmosphere this weekend in Schenectady and Troy... you're kidding yourselves. The RPI-Union pairing was roundly mocked by RPI fans for 15 years when referred to as a "rivalry" by Union fans, and rightly so. There's no "rivalry" between a hammer and a nail. But in the last several years, Union has finally improved to the point of being a worthy opponent. That happened to coincide with the decline of the RPI program during the last decade. But now both teams are on the rise. Both are nationally ranked this weekend. The "rivalry" finally fits.

And, objectively, the rivalry with Union is probably bigger right now than the traditional rivalry with Clarkson, and it's for the same reason: RPI and Clarkson have not played together on a high level in some time.

We saw how evenly matched these teams are two weeks ago in Lake Placid - and like that confrontation, choosing winners is a fool's errand (and choosing a split the easy back door).

Who's gonna run this town tonight? Let's take this bull by the horns. Pump it up.