WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

[John J. MacInnes]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

Would it be possible that Notre Dame would play Lake State and Michigan Tech in the same weekend? I have a hard time seeing the Irish making two trips to the UP for one game in each trip.

Lake State used to play a "home-and-Joe" weekend with a Saturday game at JLA. To accommodate that, they played the home game in the Soo on Thursday. It was typically against a lower peninsula team that wouldn't have as many travel issues. MSU and Michigan were usually the prime opponents, because the Joe wanted them.

I could see the same tactic used by Tech & LSSU for the ND-USNTDP swap. Thanksgiving would complicate it a bit, but you could do it like this:

Friday 27 Nov: ND @ LSSU, USNTDP @ Tech
Sunday 29 Nov: USNTDP @ LSSU, ND @ Tech

[LSSULaker889294]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

I wonder if WCHA league officials are doing up any alternative schedules if coronavirus possibly delays the start of the season?

[MTUHuskies]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

I wonder if WCHA league officials are doing up any alternative schedules if coronavirus possibly delays the start of the season?

According to this article they declined to comment.

https://www.uscho.com/2020/04/...e-s...on-in-2020-21/

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[MTUHuskies]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

Fixed the link.

https://www.uscho.com/2020/04/21/men...on-in-2020-21/

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[LSSULaker889294]

According to this article they declined to comment.

https://www.uscho.com/2020/04/...e-s...on-in-2020-21/

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The WCHA did decide to comment. From the article:

"The WCHA has been conducting league meetings this week. According to the WCHA, scheduling was discussed, and the implementation of a plan going forward will await instructions from the NCAA."

[Jimjamesak]

The WCHA did decide to comment. From the article:

"The WCHA has been conducting league meetings this week. According to the WCHA, scheduling was discussed, and the implementation of a plan going forward will await instructions from the NCAA."

It’s a late edit, the writer said this today in reply to a post of mine in another thread:

The league gave us a response today. This has been added to the story:

The WCHA has been conducting league meetings this week. According to the WCHA, scheduling was discussed, and the implementation of a plan going forward will await instructions from the NCAA.

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

I'm sure that they have at least one alternative, if not a number of them. I'm also sure that they're not going to say beans about it right now. It gains you nothing.

GFM

[Alaska Hockey]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

I'm sure that they have at least one alternative, if not a number of them. I'm also sure that they're not going to say beans about it right now. It gains you nothing.

GFM

A lot of differnt scenarios. .............from............. Who's left with bus fuel........ to............... How bad can we screw the Alaska teams one last time.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

A lot of differnt scenarios. How bad can we screw the Alaska teams one last time.

The initial option for the shortened season that I had seen circulated was that all the games played in AK would be dropped from the schedule. Other games that were originally scheduled in the first couple months of the season would then be moved into those open weekends. So far eight of the member teams had signed off on this option from what I heard.

[aparch]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

Governors Cup to become a best of 21 series?

[fairbanks hockey puck]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

Oil worth next to nothing..state of Alaska budget in more trouble again...Could the Universities in Alaska suspend athletics for this season or just eliminate them altogether?? Suspend hockey and concentrate on an independent schedule in 2021-22...Nothing would surprise me at this point...we ain't gonna have no $$$

[MavsFan]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

Oil worth next to nothing..state of Alaska budget in more trouble again...Could the Universities in Alaska suspend athletics for this season or just eliminate them altogether?? Suspend hockey and concentrate on an independent schedule in 2021-22...Nothing would surprise me at this point...we ain't gonna have no $$$

Last I heard, oil was worth less than nothing. You had to pay to get someone to take it off your hands, because it's costing more to store it than it is selling for.

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

The simplest solution is a 20-game conference schedule where you play your "rival" school four times and each of the other eight schools just twice —*four home stays, four road trips.

So the pairs are:

ALH - BGS
UAA - UAF
BMD - MNS
FSU - LSS
MTU - NMU

[Yes, those are the 3-char shortcodes from my Python script for calculating Elo rankings from 1999 and doing forward predictions. No, it's not done.]

So as an example, UAH could play H&H with BGS and then travel to UAA, BMD, FSU, and MTU while hosting UAF, MNS, LSS, and NMU. The full list is left as an exercise for the interested student.

That's just ten weekends. If non-conference play goes out the window for this year —*all 2020-21 contracts rolled to the next year, and so on going through the end of the run of contracts — that's something that you can do in under three months. Everyone gets a bye after their Alaska trips, and each Alaska school gets a bye after their worse trip (UAF after UAH and UAA after LSS). No one plays more than two straight weekends at home and more than two straight weekends on the road.

I'd plot the whole thing out but it's 0117 and I should get in bed soon.

Also: is any school other than UAH not the clear primary tenant in their building? I think UAA, UAF, BGS, BMD, FSU, LSS, MTU, and NMU are all tenants on campus or university-owned rinks. So it's UAH and Mankato?

GFM

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

The simplest solution *all 2020-21 contracts rolled to the next year
GFM

The only hitch I see is that some teams may already have all of their 2021-22 non-conference slots filled but I'm sure each team could find a way to work things out down the road so that is a minor issue.

[davyd83]

The simplest solution is a 20-game conference schedule where you play your "rival" school four times and each of the other eight schools just twice —*four home stays, four road trips.

So the pairs are:

ALH - BGS
UAA - UAF
BMD - MNS
FSU - LSS
MTU - NMU

[Yes, those are the 3-char shortcodes from my Python script for calculating Elo rankings from 1999 and doing forward predictions. No, it's not done.]

So as an example, UAH could play H&H with BGS and then travel to UAA, BMD, FSU, and MTU while hosting UAF, MNS, LSS, and NMU. The full list is left as an exercise for the interested student.

That's just ten weekends. If non-conference play goes out the window for this year —*all 2020-21 contracts rolled to the next year, and so on going through the end of the run of contracts — that's something that you can do in under three months. Everyone gets a bye after their Alaska trips, and each Alaska school gets a bye after their worse trip (UAF after UAH and UAA after LSS). No one plays more than two straight weekends at home and more than two straight weekends on the road.

I'd plot the whole thing out but it's 0117 and I should get in bed soon.

Also: is any school other than UAH not the clear primary tenant in their building? I think UAA, UAF, BGS, BMD, FSU, LSS, MTU, and NMU are all tenants on campus or university-owned rinks. So it's UAH and Mankato?

GFM

Fairbanks & Bemidji are off campus, municipally owned venues. NMU shares their campus arena with BBall.