Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

[CHFAN222]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

If there is a post-big 10 WCHA breakaway group (CC, DU, ND) , I would expect them to look for addtional schools with established, quality programs - Miami and Notre Dame would likely be the first targets. Then maybe UNO, and UMD. They probably want a smaller numer of schools 6 or maybe 8 so they can maintain non-conference rivalries. I don't see them going after club teams at this point.

If Oklahoma, Iowa State, or any other BCS school started a team and needed a conference they would take them in a heart beat. Hell even if a none BCS school like Boise St or BYU started a team they would take them. Boise because of name recognition from their football team and BYU because of the following they have. BYU is trying to be to Mormons what Notre Dame was/is to Catholics. Plus in a state like Colorado which has a large Mormon population a visit from BYU would draw in a lot of fans.

[Star2City]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

Rhode Island would also likely only move up if there was a slot open, which there isn't really at this point (unless HE wants to make an 11 team conference). Of course, if Navy were to upgrade, it would inevitably want to join Atlantic Hockey, which could cause a shift in the 3 conferences in the Northeast.

Just a wild pitch: Navy joins Atlantic Hockey, Ivy League forms a separate conference (probably would be more likely if UPenn moved up as well), ECAC and Atlantic Hockey reshuffle, and Rhode Island either joins one of those conferences or squeezes into Hockey East

In a recent Liberty University student newspaper, an article asked why Liberty doesn't have varsity hockey.

The answers seems to be: (a) Title IX and (b) no other teams within their competitive region of 350 miles.

Was the 350 mile limit arbitrarily chosen? The Robert Morris campus is almost exactly 350 miles from the Liberty campus, while Princeton is just over 350 miles. Navy would be 210 miles, while Penn would be 320, and State College would be 315. (Huntsville is 525 miles.)

It's possible that a Navy hockey program could spark Liberty to reevaluate hockey.

[komey1]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

We have already invested millions into hockey as flagship sports, and the Colorado teams are already budgeted to fly to 95% of away games anyway. The attendence bump we'd see from more name brand schools in our barns would offset the extra cost, as well as being more attractive to TV and to recruits.

But what about Miami and (to a lesser extent) Notre Dame? They would have a considerable jump in travel costs. Would that be enough for them, as opposed to taking lesser, but pretty good, teams such as Niagara and RIT where travel costs are much less. I don't know if any loss in attendance by wanting to get those kind of teams in their conference if they were to keep a CCHA alive.

[mookie1995]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

In a recent Liberty University student newspaper, an article asked why Liberty doesn't have varsity hockey.

The answers seems to be: (a) Title IX and (b) no other teams within their competitive region of 350 miles.

Was the 350 mile limit arbitrarily chosen? The Robert Morris campus is almost exactly 350 miles from the Liberty campus, while Princeton is just over 350 miles. Navy would be 210 miles, while Penn would be 320, and State College would be 315. (Huntsville is 525 miles.)

It's possible that a Navy hockey program could spark Liberty to reevaluate hockey.

reads like you answered your question why 350 was used....... if any number lower was picked, they wouldn't be able to say "no" teams

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

If Oklahoma, Iowa State, or any other BCS school started a team and needed a conference they would take them in a heart beat. Hell even if a none BCS school like Boise St or BYU started a team they would take them. Boise because of name recognition from their football team and BYU because of the following they have. BYU is trying to be to Mormons what Notre Dame was/is to Catholics. Plus in a state like Colorado which has a large Mormon population a visit from BYU would draw in a lot of fans.

Only 2% of Colorado is Mormon...there isn't that much of a Mormon population here.

[Star2City]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

reads like you answered your question why 350 was used....... if any number lower was picked, they wouldn't be able to say "no" teams

By the same token, the Liberty AD seems acutely aware of the mileage to Robert Morris and Princeton. He's definitely put some thought into the situation - which is more than can be said for most school AD's when discussing hockey.

[mookie1995]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

Only 2% of Colorado is Mormon...there isn't that much of a Mormon population here.

you just wait until Utah invades!!!!

[Star2City]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

I'm confused, why exactly would UND, CC, and Denver be forced out if the WCHA gets back to 12 teams?

As long as UW and UM find it acceptable to be in the same conference - athletically and academically - as UND and Denver as well as other WCHA schools, UND and Denver are not going to object to any perceived shortcomings of other WCHA institutions.

Once UW and UM leave for the BTHC, the rules of conference alignment that most of the rest of college athletics follow but that hockey and the WCHA had blissfully ignored (conference members are generally bound by similar academics, endowments, academic achievement, alumni size) will rear it's ugly head. For example, UND would never choose to be in the same conference as Minot State or MSU-Moorhead, as that type association would diminish UND's standing in two key markets: Fargo and Minot. UND has in the past associated with UMD, SCSU, UNO, and MSU-Mankato in other sports, but never with Minot State and MSU-Moorhead, which are considered lesser institutions academically. If Minnesota had sponsored Moorhead, UND would have agreed. Taking Minnesota and Wisconsin out of the WCHA equation creates a whole new complexity of conference politics. A WCHA with UND and Minot St/Moorhead would be the football equivalent of Notre Dame joining the MAC and being the equal of Ball State and Toledo - which would never be tolerated by Notre Dame.

Once the Big Ten schools leave the WCHA and CCHA, hockey conference alignments - at least in the west - will no longer be immune to the rules governing college conference alignments in general.

[uaafanblog]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

Minot State is one year ahead of Lindenwood in their NAIA to Division II transition. MSU-Moorhead would likely add a team now if they could get in a league. If McLeod adds those two, that would practically force UND, Denver, and CC out of the league, but those three could be gone anyway to an anti-BTHC.

The now accepted common parlance for "anti-BTHC" is BHHC -- Butt Hurt Hockey Conference

[Puck Swami]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

If Oklahoma, Iowa State, or any other BCS school started a team and needed a conference they would take them in a heart beat. Hell even if a none BCS school like Boise St or BYU started a team they would take them. Boise because of name recognition from their football team and BYU because of the following they have.

None of these schools have announced intentions to have D-I hockey. Until they do, it's kind of useless to plan conference scenarios that include them..

[scsutommyboy]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

But what about Miami and (to a lesser extent) Notre Dame? They would have a considerable jump in travel costs. Would that be enough for them, as opposed to taking lesser, but pretty good, teams such as Niagara and RIT where travel costs are much less. I don't know if any loss in attendance by wanting to get those kind of teams in their conference if they were to keep a CCHA alive.

Also Swami is assuming DU is a draw for a team like ND. I have a feeling ND fans could careless about a no name school like DU......

[Koho]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

None of these schools have announced intentions to have D-I hockey. Until they do, it's kind of useless to plan conference scenarios that include them..

With your intelligence and years of experience posting here, you still question the use of wild speculation on the boards? Without wild speculation, insults and non-hockey banter, many of the threads wouldn't exist. And those that remained would be pretty short and wouldn't surface until Thursday or Friday....

So I will speculate that Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, Hawaii and Georgia will form the "Hurricane Alley Hockey Conference" within 5 years.

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

Also Swami is assuming DU is a draw for a team like ND. I have a feeling ND fans could careless about a no name school like DU......

As opposed to being in a conference with big name schools like....??

I will agree with you in the sense that Notre Dame would be a bigger draw for DU than vice versa.

If there would be an anti-BTHC, it would make sense that those schools with the most $$ invested in it would group together. In that regard, I think a conference of DU, CC, North Dakota, Notre Dame, Miami and Duluth would make the most sense. You could make a case for SCSU to replace Duluth in that sixth spot, or maybe even be a 7th team (which logic would think an 8th team would then be involved...UNO?).

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

With your intelligence and years of experience posting here, you still question the use of wild speculation on the boards? Without wild speculation, insults and non-hockey banter, many of the threads wouldn't exist. And those that remained would be pretty short and wouldn't surface until Thursday or Friday....

So I will speculate that Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, Hawaii and Georgia will form the "Hurricane Alley Hockey Conference" within 5 years.

I suppose Oregon in "Hurricane Alley" makes as much sense as TCU in the "Big East"

[dggoddard]

Re: Wall Street Journal Article About College Hockey

As opposed to being in a conference with big name schools like....??

I will agree with you in the sense that Notre Dame would be a bigger draw for DU than vice versa.

If there would be an anti-BTHC, it would make sense that those schools with the most $$ invested in it would group together. In that regard, I think a conference of DU, CC, North Dakota, Notre Dame, Miami and Duluth would make the most sense. You could make a case for SCSU to replace Duluth in that sixth spot, or maybe even be a 7th team (which logic would think an 8th team would then be involved...UNO?).

Duluth's appeal is its name recognition, history and new arena.

The future growth of Notre Dame hockey is tied to the building their new Arena.

Part of Notre Dame's mission in sports has always been to travel around the country and build awareness of the school and the religion.