It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

[Flashy Man]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

This might be useful.

[bluevox]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

"BTHC (8 teams)"

It is called the Big Ten, to have anything other than 10 teams in it would be stupid.........

[Red Cloud]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

With the creation of the B1GHC, the only teams that seem likely to consider movement would be the Alaska teams. Which conference they would end up in would probably depend on the financials but together in the same conference seems extremely likely in the near future.

Please explain to me why they are currently in different conferences.

Gallery, let him answer, please. I know some of you out there are clued in but this is a teachable moment.

[Khryx]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

With the creation of the B1GHC, the only teams that seem likely to consider movement would be the Alaska teams. Which conference they would end up in would probably depend on the financials but together in the same conference seems extremely likely in the near future.

Other schools that may consider movement would be schools like Robert Morris, Michigan Tech, Niagra, RIT, etc. Basically any school that MIGHT see some sort of financial benefit (due to travel or revenue) or added success by moving to a different conference (Tech would probably fair better in the CCHA). I realize that Michigan Tech is pretty well entrenched in the WCHA but they have jumped to the CCHA before...

Due to travel expenses, I don't think the CCHA teams will flee to other conferences unless all or nearly all of them decide to do so at once. It seems more likely that teams like Robert Morris would join the conference.

I still have no clue what will happen with UAH. The CCHA may have turned them away before because of the B1GHC potentially looming and wanting to wait to see what would happen.

[tdzro]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

Northeastern should be in the Northeast.

And Minnesota can only play in one conference.

[kingdobbs]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

You do realize this is the same Big East that has the highest rated tournament and 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament? I think if the Big East loses Notre Dame, they'll be ok you know, considering Notre Dame does not play Big East football.

The Big East cares about one thing: Basketball. That's the whole purpose of it.

No, I was apparently avoiding the entire Big East Tournament and NCAA Selection Show by hiding under a rock, with my fingers in my ears and going LALALALALALALALALALA so that I would not hear anything having to do with basketball.

What the Big East, as a conference, cares about is irrelevant. It's what the teams care about.

If the choice is between an open invite for Big Ten football money*, and sticking with Seton Hall and Providence...every single Big East football school is going to take the former. Even the ones that suck at hoops.

And if the Big East loses Notre Dame, it's going to be because the league has lost other people too. If Notre Dame really wanted to leave its comfy seat, they would've done so already. The only way Notre Dame is moving is if that seat is no longer comfortable. That means a dead, dying, or about to be scavenged for scrap Big East.

*Cause at this point, that's the only reason any team will be moving.

[ClOuD 9]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

Give UConn to Hockey East so they have every state school with Hockey (the lone without is Rhode Island). Give Northeastern to Atlantic Hockey (on the condition that Atlantic Hockey get rid of their dumb scholarship rule). NU can still play in the Beanpot. Dont worry about it.

UConn's Women's hockey program currently plays in Hockey East and I wouldn't be surprised to see them someday hop leagues should their athletic department begin providing the program with additional resources. Dropping Northeastern would never happen, they were a founding member and their women's program plays in Hockey East.

Isn't UML also one of the founding members?

No, the founding members were BC, BU, Northeastern, Providence, and UNH - Maine waited to defect and Lowell was then invited before the league started play (from memory).

[Jimjamesak]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

They're a basketball heavy school in a basketball heavy conference with a football team, however. It's that last part that would make all the difference in the world, because Big Ten football money is bigger money than Big East basketball money.

IF an invite came, UConn would have to be profoundly stupid in the head not to take it, especially because in all likelihood any move the Big Whatever will make to go to 16* is gonna dynamite the Big East (i.e. Notre Dame). It makes no sense to stay in the carcass of the Big East in that situation.

*Apart from, of course, the laser-guided nuclear missile to the rest of college football that would be grabbing Oklahoma, Texas, Mizzou and A&M.

You do realize this is the same Big East that has the highest rated tournament and 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament? I think if the Big East loses Notre Dame, they'll be ok you know, considering Notre Dame does not play Big East football.

The Big East cares about one thing: Basketball. That's the whole purpose of it.

[kingdobbs]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

You do realize that UConn is a basketball heavy school in a basketball heavy conference right? They aren't leaving the Big East moneymaker anytime soon, certainly not for a hockey they care nothing about.

They're a basketball heavy school in a basketball heavy conference with a football team, however. It's that last part that would make all the difference in the world, because Big Ten football money is bigger money than Big East basketball money.

IF an invite came, UConn would have to be profoundly stupid in the head not to take it, especially because in all likelihood any move the Big Whatever will make to go to 16* is gonna dynamite the Big East (i.e. Notre Dame). It makes no sense to stay in the carcass of the Big East in that situation.

*Apart from, of course, the laser-guided nuclear missile to the rest of college football that would be grabbing Oklahoma, Texas, Mizzou and A&M.

[Red Cloud]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

This thread makes Baby Jesus cry.

[UML]

Northeastern should be in the Northeast.

shuffle and redeal

5 conferences broken down into ten divisions.

west-
air force, alaska, alaska-anchorage, army, colorado, denver

north midwest -
bemidji, minnesota, minn-duluth,, minn-state, north dakota, st cloud

michigan -
ferris state, lake superior, michigan tech, north mich, west mich

big ten -
michigan, mich state, minnesota, ohio state, penn state, wisconsin

central -
alabama-huntsville, bowling green, miami, nebraska, notre dame, robert morris

empire -
clarkson, niagara, rit, rpi, st lawrence, union

ivy -
brown, cornell, dartmouth, harvard, princeton, yale

north east -
bentley, maine, merrimack, unh, umass-lowell, vermont

massachusetts -
aic, bc, bu, holy cross, umass, northeastern

east -
canisius, colgate, connecticut, mercyhurst, qunnipiac, sacred heart

just grouped teams geographically best i could. kept ivies together, big ten together. easy pairings and travel partners in empire. kept army with air force. each team will play a lot of local teams, but can schedule ooc for old rivals. you guys might flip a few of the teams around, feel free.

pair up the divisions for conferences (west/north midwest, michigan/big ten, central/empire, ivy/northeast, mass/east). play each team in division 2-3 times, each in conference 1-2, and then choose ooc past that.

each conference has a tourney, with the top four teams from each division making it in. number 1 in division a vs number 4 from division b and so on. conference winners get autobids, everything else is power rankings.

[tdzro]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

So let's decide if a Big 10 Conference is viable with only 6 teams. Would they play each other 4 times Home/Away weekends? If so that fills 20 games/10 weekends on the schedule and is very balanced. The season ending tourney would encompass 2 weekends, the Top 2 seeds are auto bid to the semis and the other 4 teams play the weekend before, so if you took the schedule back from the 1st week of the NCAA, the 1st week of conference play would start the week before xmas, allowing the GLI to continue during the Xmas break week. Now, what to do with the other 6 weekends where the CCHA currently plays today (Oct-early Dec). Could these teams find enough openings on other teams schedules to make up for all of those games? I like that perhaps other teams could be added from other conferences that normally are not scheduled (more mini-tourneys? Hockey showcases?). So the question just beckons, could they make up those other 6-10 games each year. I think so. Also, 5 of these teams are traditionally decent, so the conference will be fine with ratings, etc.

The thing I love about this arrangement is that we may see many of these games on the Big 10 network and being that I moved from Michigan to Florida, this will help quench my appetite for UM hockey. Hence another reason why this works.

Now can Penn St get a team together?

Let's look to see if any other Big 10 teams would join:
Illinois? Who knows.
Iowa? Doubt it.
Northwestern? Why are they still in the Big 10?
Purdue? Doubt it.
Indiana? Heck they aren't even a basketball school anymore.
Nebraska? Hmmm, if UNO has a team is that really a Big 10 team or something else? I really don't understand the UN-L and UN-O relationship here...

So, it stands to reason that no other Big 10 teams join in except if the money is enticing enough they may, which will be good for the NCAA hockey in general, more scholarships, more players, more money (I think). I think I like the move, although a 6 team conference just sounds drab. But who really cares about the conference that much, the NCAA tourney is the focus. Maybe if UNO and UND joined up, then that would be best. Play a hockey showcase with Miami, BGSU, Ferris, Western, etc.

[bigmrg74]

You do realize that pilots are only a small percentage of graduates from the school right?

Yeah, but they're still all about the airplane.

As soon as I win that Mega-Millions jackpot tomorrow, expect an announcement from GVSU about looking into adding hockey and looking to join a conference with the rest of it's GLIAC bretheran.

[CHFAN222]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

There's a number of schools that will add NCAA DI hockey, if given a conference opportunity:

Lindenwood, Minot St, Minn St-Moorhead, British Columbia (mid-April NCAA anouncement)

Others that could/would, under the right circumstances :

Navy, Rhode Island, Liberty, possibly Grand Valley State

As well as some dream additions:

Buffalo, Syracuse, DePaul, Iowa St, Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford, Washington, Oregon (with Nike $'s), Utah (with the advent of new Pac10, Big 12, Texas, and likely Oklahoma networks, the need for additional programming is acute.)

WCHA adds UBC and loses MTU, creating the potential for more West Coast additions.

Notre Dame, Miami, Bowling Green, and W Michigan secede from CCHA and add Robert Morris, UAH, Lindenwood, and Niagara to form new conference

CCHA adds MTU, plus Grand Valley St, MSU-Moorhead, and Minot State to create regional northern tier league

AHA adds Liberty, Navy, and Rhode Island


Just don't see Notre Dame and Miami staying with Upper Peninsula schools. While UAH, Robert Morris, Lindenwood, and Niagara are not exactly well known names, they at least offer media coverage in relatively large metro areas. Notre Dame has probably been working the phones with schools Big East schools like DePaul, Pitt, Syracuse, UConn to upgrade, and maybe even Iowa State and Texas, etc., but the probability of those happening is likely remote.

The best bet for BCS schools to upgrade is to have a school that is planning on replacing or upgrading its arena.

This could be tough since the economy is still struggling and credit may be tough so I am not sure about which schools will still be doing this.

U Neb Lincoln opted to not add ice capabilities to its new basketball arena so they are most likely not going to add a team.
NC State could add a team at the drop of a hat but most likely won't.
Seton Hall could add one as well since they play Mens bball at the Prudential center and their club team plays there as well.
Washington?
USF is another school that could add one easily and would make more sense than NC state.

[Star2City]

Re: It's Realignment time, it's realignment time! Make it work

Cut #1
Bold = BCS school

BTHC     WCHA    CCHA    HEA      AHA     Empire  Ivy        Unassigned

UMn      UND     FSU     BC       SHU     CCT     Harvard    UAH
UW       SCSU    WMU     BU       BNT     SLU     Dartmouth
UMi      MTU     LSSU    NE       HC      UC      Yale
MSU      tUMD    NMU     Prov     AIC     RPI     Princeton
tOSU     DU      MIA     UML      Army    CLG     Cornell
PSU      CC      BGSU    MMK      UFA     RIT     Brown
         UAA     UAF     UNH      UConn   CAN
         UM-Man  NDU     Mass     QPAC    NIA
         UNO     RMU     UVM
         BSU     Mercy   Maine

Untouched conferences: WCHA, HEA, Ivy
Added to conferences: CCHA
Changed: AHA
New: Empire

Rip it apart, but have something constructive to argue with. Don't say "It will never happen", because the status quo won't stand once the BTHC hits the ice running. Come up with something...

There's a number of schools that will add NCAA DI hockey, if given a conference opportunity:

Lindenwood, Minot St, Minn St-Moorhead, British Columbia (mid-April NCAA anouncement)

Others that could/would, under the right circumstances :

Navy, Rhode Island, Liberty, possibly Grand Valley State

As well as some dream additions:

Buffalo, Syracuse, DePaul, Iowa St, Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford, Washington, Oregon (with Nike $'s), Utah (with the advent of new Pac10, Big 12, Texas, and likely Oklahoma networks, the need for additional programming is acute.)

WCHA adds UBC and loses MTU, creating the potential for more West Coast additions.

Notre Dame, Miami, Bowling Green, and W Michigan secede from CCHA and add Robert Morris, UAH, Lindenwood, and Niagara to form new conference

CCHA adds MTU, plus Grand Valley St, MSU-Moorhead, and Minot State to create regional northern tier league

AHA adds Liberty, Navy, and Rhode Island


Just don't see Notre Dame and Miami staying with Upper Peninsula schools. While UAH, Robert Morris, Lindenwood, and Niagara are not exactly well known names, they at least offer media coverage in relatively large metro areas. Notre Dame has probably been working the phones with schools Big East schools like DePaul, Pitt, Syracuse, UConn to upgrade, and maybe even Iowa State and Texas, etc., but the probability of those happening is likely remote.