The deed has been done.

At 11:45 a.m. Sunday, fulfilling the bet that I made with assistant sports editor Tom Boggie over where Union would finish in the ECAC Hockey standings (he correctly picked fourth, I chose ninth), I began the process of shaving my goatee and sideburns. My son watched, and he was giddy. Less than 10 minutes later, it was gone.

I don’t miss the sideburns that much. But I feel naked without my goatee.

Since there was never a timetable established as to how long I had to stay clean shaven, I will begin growing a new goatee on Monday.

One last item. In Saturday’s Union-Brown postgame blog, I commented how I thought the Dutchmen clinching its first-ever ECACH tournament bye was an incredible accomplishment for a school that doesn’t give out athletic scholarships.

A comment by bigredfan on my blog said none of the Ivy League schools offer athletic scholarships to their players as well. This is true. What I should have also said is that it is easier for an Ivy League school to recruit players because of the institutions’ name recognition. That is something Union would love to have, but doesn’t.