Utica College: The gang's all here.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

If I’m the UU AD, I’m thinking carefully about what a worse record does to my nice attendance figures. I’m thinking about all the added costs of other sports going D-II compared to whatever benefit I get from hockey being D-I.

As an outsider I’m curious if whatever calls that got reported with AHA were ever truly serious to begin with. Maybe some D-III ADs just go out there and do due diligence on reclassification just to know what their options are, even if they know it’s too much to actually go through with. Maybe AHA are just doing due diligence as a bargaining chip so RMU and LIU (or Navy or NE-10 schools for all we know) don’t go around thinking that anything is a given, or sort of like how some companies get a quote from a second vendor just to be sure.

Or maybe it’s all serious and they have some plan to make it all work (reclassification, donors, begging for an exception, et al). So many of us don’t know what we don’t know about what’s behind the curtain.

[JSicedog]

If I’m the UU AD, I’m thinking carefully about what a worse record does to my nice attendance figures. I’m thinking about all the added costs of other sports going D-II compared to whatever benefit I get from hockey being D-I.

As an outsider I’m curious if whatever calls that got reported with AHA were ever truly serious to begin with. Maybe some D-III ADs just go out there and do due diligence on reclassification just to know what their options are, even if they know it’s too much to actually go through with. Maybe AHA are just doing due diligence as a bargaining chip so RMU and LIU (or Navy or NE-10 schools for all we know) don’t go around thinking that anything is a given, or sort of like how some companies get a quote from a second vendor just to be sure.

Or maybe it’s all serious and they have some plan to make it all work (reclassification, donors, begging for an exception, et al). So many of us don’t know what we don’t know about what’s behind the curtain.

Other athletes have already been told they are moving up to D2. Its serious

[Transplanted Tiger Fan]

Other athletes have already been told they are moving up to D2. Its serious

Do you think there may be an exodus of existing Utica players searching for more-promising options, since a good-chunk of them might get replaced with "DII or DI caliber" recruits if this move happens? Could be bad for Utica... could be very bad for existing players.

[JSicedog]

Do you think there may be an exodus of existing Utica players searching for more-promising options, since a good-chunk of them might get replaced with "DII or DI caliber" recruits if this move happens? Could be bad for Utica... could be very bad for existing players.

Maybe but if you look at their roster, by the time 2023-2024 rolls around, their core is graduated. From what I've heard their top 6 scorers are all returning for one last crack at it and they only lose 2-3 players to graduation this year. After next season you are looking at potentially losing 16 to graduation. It will be a new team any way you look at it.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Okay, I was curious since nothing I’d seen so far looking online (and admittedly, I’m not looking hard) had mentioned reclassification of the entire department.

[Puckstopper467]

I think if you get an official announcement, you could see a few strong 20 year old's leaving juniors come into Utica next year

[Hockeyguy1424]

Teddy bear toss game next year vs Oswego
Dec. 3. Was announced on Utica Twitter

[Russell Jaslow]

Maybe but if you look at their roster, by the time 2023-2024 rolls around, their core is graduated. From what I've heard their top 6 scorers are all returning for one last crack at it and they only lose 2-3 players to graduation this year. After next season you are looking at potentially losing 16 to graduation. It will be a new team any way you look at it.

Here's an ironic twist. Next year the championship weekend is at a campus site. It certainly is not far fetched that Utica could be the top seeded team left amongst the final four (assuming they don't choke it up again, LOL). Which means they would get to host the phrozen phour, assuming they put in the application. Their last year in D3 could be hosting the championship. Which they will do as a neutral site in 2026, but by then they may not be D3. Another irony.

[Russell Jaslow]

Okay, I was curious since nothing I’d seen so far looking online (and admittedly, I’m not looking hard) had mentioned reclassification of the entire department.

It's the only way they can do it.

[Hockeyguy1424]

https://romesentinel.com/stories/wha...-hockey,131666

[Fishman'81]

Do you think there may be an exodus of existing Utica players searching for more-promising options, since a good-chunk of them might get replaced with "DII or DI caliber" recruits if this move happens? Could be bad for Utica... could be very bad for existing players.

There is no "way up" for the players on this team if it goes D-!... Lateral moves, at best.

This roster is stacked in terms of D-3, but there's a distinct ceiling re: D-1, and pretty-much no one in D-3 would make a splash in D-1. (That's why the D-1 washouts, who shined the pine there, excel at the D-3 level.)

The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of going D-1. I don't see any advantage there for UU no matter how you slice it.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

It's the only way they can do it.

That’s why I was so befuddled that none of the stories I saw mentioned it.

Today, CHN snuck in some details in their story about Robert Morris being (almost) reinstated to Atlantic Hockey:

The university is raising its entire athletic department to Division II. In hockey, there is no championship at the Division II level, so schools in Division II can choose to compete for the Division I championship. Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Lake Superior State and others fit into this category.

The other non-hockey sports at Utica are close to being accepted into a D-II conference, but is waiting to see whether the hockey program gets accepted into a conference. Otherwise the move to D-II would leave the hockey team with nowhere to go.

The full Division II body is expected to vote on Utica's acceptance at the NCAA Convention next February. Utica's hockey team is also hoping, like Robert Morris, to begin play in Division I in 2023-24.

So… there’s that. Irony of ironies would be if Utica’s D-II transition will be to the NE-10, with all those other schools that already play D-II hockey and don’t play up. (Although Stonehill is in that article as well)

[Russell Jaslow]

So… there’s that. Irony of ironies would be if Utica’s D-II transition will be to the NE-10, with all those other schools that already play D-II hockey and don’t play up. (Although Stonehill is in that article as well)

And then aren't eligible for the D3 tournament. I would laugh till I die.

But on a more serious note, let's talk about the NE-10 conference. The women's equivalent of that conference is the NEWHA which has Sacred Heart, St. Anselm's, St. Michael's, Franklin Pierce, Post, and LIU. So four of those teams are in the NE-10 on the men's side.

The NEWHA is moving up as a conference into D1 and will be getting an AQ in the D1 tournament very shortly. So, the precedence is there for many of those schools to consider doing the same with the NE-10. Especially if Atlantic Hockey turns down Utica, and they have to go to the NE-10. That could make five schools willing to consider moving the whole conference up to D1.

Now, let's talk AHA. Right now, they have 10 teams. RMU is most likely going to be allowed back in. They would rather not have an odd number. But, I do know that there are still strong rumors that Navy will eventually start a program, and they would only do so if they join the same conference as the other academies (plus those other academies want Navy to be in their conference). So, does AHA hold a spot open for Navy and not let Utica in? Or, do they look towards making the conference 14 members, and allow RMU, Utica, LIU, and hold a sport for Navy? And does a conference even want to be as large as 14 members, and instead there is a split and reshuffling of conferences ... yet again?

There is a possibility based on the above that Utica has either found themselves with perfect timing or in no-man's land with finding a place to play.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Getting off topic, but the general rumor (as I understand it, literally none of this is in any sort of legitimate report, and only some of it has been mentioned by reporters on USCHO or CHN podcasts) is that the westernmost AHA schools might be interested in a breakaway conference. Maybe providing UAH with a home, maybe not.

[JSicedog]

And then aren't eligible for the D3 tournament. I would laugh till I die.

But on a more serious note, let's talk about the NE-10 conference. The women's equivalent of that conference is the NEWHA which has Sacred Heart, St. Anselm's, St. Michael's, Franklin Pierce, Post, and LIU. So four of those teams are in the NE-10 on the men's side.

The NEWHA is moving up as a conference into D1 and will be getting an AQ in the D1 tournament very shortly. So, the precedence is there for many of those schools to consider doing the same with the NE-10. Especially if Atlantic Hockey turns down Utica, and they have to go to the NE-10. That could make five schools willing to consider moving the whole conference up to D1.

Now, let's talk AHA. Right now, they have 10 teams. RMU is most likely going to be allowed back in. They would rather not have an odd number. But, I do know that there are still strong rumors that Navy will eventually start a program, and they would only do so if they join the same conference as the other academies (plus those other academies want Navy to be in their conference). So, does AHA hold a spot open for Navy and not let Utica in? Or, do they look towards making the conference 14 members, and allow RMU, Utica, LIU, and hold a sport for Navy? And does a conference even want to be as large as 14 members, and instead there is a split and reshuffling of conferences ... yet again?

There is a possibility based on the above that Utica has either found themselves with perfect timing or in no-man's land with finding a place to play.

It specifically says they wouldn't move their entire department up to D2 unless the hockey team was accepted to the AHA. Otherwise they would stay put .