Wisconsin is putting on some pretty neat luncheons with special guest speakers this year. I heard Jim Delany today at one of these new Badger Fund luncheons.
Delany is an interesting and, I gathered just from the few minutes he spoke and answered questions, shrewd dude. I didn't know he was a North Carolina alum (undergrad and law), but should have figured it out as my son told me that Delany talked to one of his law school classes in Chapel Hill.
He was asked directly if he envisioned a Big Ten Hockey conference once PSU was up and running. His answer came in two parts. First, he essentially said: "PSU will take a couple of years to get geared up. They are starting in 2012-13, I think, so maybe by 2015-16, they will be ready. But once they are ready, I am quite certain we will have a Big Ten hockey conference."
Wow, I thought, that is really definitive. A Big Ten Hockey conference! Yay!
Delany paused for a few seconds and then said essentially this: "Now, we haven't worked out or even thought too much about the details of how that would work. We don't know if it would be a stand-alone conference or if it would exist within the two other conferences out there now. "
That last statement was even more of a WOW. So there could be a Big Ten championship, but the relationships with the other two leagues would continue? Assuming you want home and home series, that means, of course, that essentially every OOC game for the UW would be against a Big Ten opponent.
Now that might be interesting.
Delany is an interesting and, I gathered just from the few minutes he spoke and answered questions, shrewd dude. I didn't know he was a North Carolina alum (undergrad and law), but should have figured it out as my son told me that Delany talked to one of his law school classes in Chapel Hill.
He was asked directly if he envisioned a Big Ten Hockey conference once PSU was up and running. His answer came in two parts. First, he essentially said: "PSU will take a couple of years to get geared up. They are starting in 2012-13, I think, so maybe by 2015-16, they will be ready. But once they are ready, I am quite certain we will have a Big Ten hockey conference."
Wow, I thought, that is really definitive. A Big Ten Hockey conference! Yay!
Delany paused for a few seconds and then said essentially this: "Now, we haven't worked out or even thought too much about the details of how that would work. We don't know if it would be a stand-alone conference or if it would exist within the two other conferences out there now. "
That last statement was even more of a WOW. So there could be a Big Ten championship, but the relationships with the other two leagues would continue? Assuming you want home and home series, that means, of course, that essentially every OOC game for the UW would be against a Big Ten opponent.
Now that might be interesting.