Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Yeah, but he and his staff have gone out and gotten the best players and coached them up to be championship caliber. It's not like they can just draw a 60 mile radius of Madison to get recruits. The roster is literally made of players from coast-to-coast (California to upstate New York & British Columbia to Quebec).
I do understand that there aren't a ton of options for the top recruits and there is no flight risk to junior hockey/NHL. However, I just don't think it's automatic that Wisconsin will be a women's hockey super-power whomever is in charge.

Credit where credit due. MJ and his staff have done an excellent job.

Let's not pretend it could/would (automatically) translate to the men's game though.

[Badger Booster]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Let's not pretend it could/would (automatically) translate to the men's game though.

We are in agreement there. That's why in the women's thread that I debated those who said the job was Coach Johnson's if he wanted it.

[Bradz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

I think I'll wait till 2017-2018 to see where my socks end up! As far as "Who would that be?" I don't write the checks, but by 2017-2018 if I was and there isn't a turn around I wouldn't be writing BA a check!

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Well, with the addition of Notre Dame, I suppose that we're right where Barry wanted us to be back in 2009 (remember when he was saying we should leave the WCHA for the CCHA or independence back then?).

In fact, this is probably even better than Barry's CCHA plan... he gets almost all of the bowl division D-I football schools (other than BC, UConn and the MAC schools) AND he doesn't have to play UP schools, Alaska schools, "other" Minnesota schools, etc.

[BuB]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Well, with the addition of Notre Dame, I suppose that we're right where Barry wanted us to be back in 2009 (remember when he was saying we should leave the WCHA for the CCHA or independence back then?).

In fact, this is probably even better than Barry's CCHA plan... he gets almost all of the bowl division D-I football schools (other than BC, UConn and the MAC schools) AND he doesn't have to play UP schools, Alaska schools, "other" Minnesota schools, etc.

And the addition of ND begs the question, who will be school #8? With 7, someone is always playing a NC series each week.

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

And the addition of ND begs the question, who will be school #8? With 7, someone is always playing a NC series each week.

It is all but a certainty it will be ASU in '17-'18.

[UWisco]

It is all but a certainty it will be ASU in '17-'18.

Posick said something about Omaha on Twitter.

[Almington]

Posick said something about Omaha on Twitter.

Rather have ASU. I can't imagine that NU would be ok with that either. Might as well add UMD too.

[RedFreak]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

It is all but a certainty it will be ASU in '17-'18.

Wow, talk about tradition.

[GBBadger14]

I could see Omaha or Miami, with ASU going to the NCHC. I think I'd prefer Miami. At least keep things in the Big Ten footprint.

[badger79]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Haven't posted here in a long time, my heart has kind of been ripped to shreds the last couple years. The Eaves firing made me sit up a bit and the Notre Dame news has brought me out of hibernation. The Big Ten had to do something, and this might be a little kick in the pants.

ASU being the eighth team would actually make some sense to me. Arizona has a ton of transplants from the Upper Midwest, or all the retirees from Minnesota/Wisconsin who spend their winters there. They could actually get some solid crowds down there, just like when the Packers or Vikings play in the desert.

Or, maybe Iowa or Illinois is ready to make the jump. Illinois is throwing cash at Lovie Smith for football. Who knows? Maybe they're finally ready to pretend they care about athletics.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Adding UND to the B6 puts even more pressure on the UW program to improve. It also takes away 4 n/c games, which is a-ok as long as they replace the Alaska's and Ferris St.s of the world and keep scheduling DU, the sue, Tech and some quality eastern teams on a regular basis.

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Back when the Big Ten was getting ready to expand from eleven to twelve and then to fourteen, one part of the consideration was (believe it or not) a school's membership - or lack thereof - in the "Association of American Universities". The Big Ten is (or was) the only conference in the country whose members were all also members of the Association. Not even the Ivy League could boast such a thing. And when Rutgers and Maryland were added, there were indeed already members of the AAU.

(Shorty after their joining the Big Ten, U of Nebraska lost their AAU membership over some dispute concerning their Med School being too far "off campus" or some such. So at the moment, only 13 or the 14 are current members.)

So I was going to point out that neither Ariz State nor Nebraska-Omaha are AAU members. Then I was going to say "maybe the Big Ten won't be as strict with 'affiliated members' as they are with full members...". But when I was checking the list of AAU members to see if ASU was there, I saw that Notre Dame is also (surpisingly) not a member.

So I guess that they are in fact not as strict with "affiliated members".

(This also means I have to update a favorite 'bar' trivia question: it now goes "name the SIXteen schools that compete for Big Ten sports championships". Answer is the regular fourteen, now Notre Dame, and ... Johns Hopkins, affiliated member for lacrosse)

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

The use of the word "sports" makes that bit of trivia tricky. The University of Chicago still participates in the academic Big Ten, so a weaselly fellow might say that there are 17 schools competing for Big Ten titles.

[MadCityRich]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Personally I think it's a bull**** move. We snub traditions like the old WCHA (ND, CC, DU UMD, etc), start the BTHC for BTN, then add these guys? **** 'em.

"Show me the money."