Utica College: The gang's all here.

[bakdraft21]

The question -to me- is the attendance vis-a-vis the local interest. The figures are a bit skewed. A whole lot of RS games feature 800+ empty corporate seats. Hard to see those seats being purchased if Utica is getting hammered regularly by the likes of Canisius, never mind being destroyed by the (say) BU's of the world who might go for the payday and the easy W.

Then, one must consider the sure-fire increase in ticket prices. Right now, a UU season pass averages something like $4-5 per game. The average D-1 ticket is what, $27.99 or so, good seats going for 2-3X more? In light of that, all the families who currently consider Utica hockey a cheap night out might well consider going elsewhere.

Not really seeing the upside here. Perhaps UU could turn into a Bentley, but who TF cares about being a Bentley?

A shot at a D-3 NC, however humble, is a lot more fun than just taking up space in D-1.

Man has a point

[Fishman'81]

Utica would have some sort of wait period as a re-classifying school, this new league (which is basically a scheduling alliance without an autobid for a few years anyways) would at least get them guaranteed games while the rest of D-I plays its conference schedule. Play there 2-3 years, dominate, keep your attendance up, and you're well positioned for AHA or wherever.

Sometimes you need to take intermediate steps before reaching your end goal.

The question -to me- is the attendance vis-a-vis the local interest. The figures are a bit skewed. A whole lot of RS games feature 800+ empty corporate seats. Hard to see those seats being purchased if Utica is getting hammered regularly by the likes of Canisius, never mind being destroyed by the (say) BU's of the world who might go for the payday and the easy W.

Then, one must consider the sure-fire increase in ticket prices. Right now, a UU season pass averages something like $4-5 per game. The average D-1 ticket is what, $27.99 or so, good seats going for 2-3X more? In light of that, all the families who currently consider Utica hockey a cheap night out might well consider going elsewhere.

Not really seeing the upside here. Perhaps UU could turn into a Bentley, but who TF cares about being a Bentley?

A shot at a D-3 NC, however humble, is a lot more fun than just taking up space in D-1.

[JSicedog]

Paging Dr. fishman……

[Hockeyguy1424]

No announcement yet, word on and around campus has been it’s coming. At this point I or we have no control over what does or doesn’t happen. I’m excited to go watch some hockey and have a couple cold ones.

[Fishman'81]

I think they are going DII overall, which gives ice hockey access to compete for the D1 championships since DII teams in sports without a DII NCAA Championship can compete for the D1.

How in the world will Utica earn a bid to the D-1 tournament any time soon..?

That's my issue.

Utica bit off more than it can chew, if you ask me.

[bakdraft21]

Roster is posted on University website

WOW 7 d1 transfers,I guess getting ready to move up???

[Hockeyguy1424]

Roster is posted on University website

[UCBadger]

Sports news from Utica University......https://www.utica.edu/college-commun...varsity-sports

[Hockeyguy1424]

New face on campus, Jakob Breault transfer from Alaska Fairbanks

[AMC]

That is a good point: assuming that their attendance trends as it has, Utica is far better suited for the AHA than a league that is basically the AHA 20 years ago in its MAAC configuration.

Utica would have some sort of wait period as a re-classifying school, this new league (which is basically a scheduling alliance without an autobid for a few years anyways) would at least get them guaranteed games while the rest of D-I plays its conference schedule. Play there 2-3 years, dominate, keep your attendance up, and you're well positioned for AHA or wherever.

Sometimes you need to take intermediate steps before reaching your end goal.

[Ed Trefzger]

How do you figure they fix it? Follow the same course they are on, where other conferences look at AHA games as layups?

They have been moving in the right direction by adding scholarships to a full 18 and by improving home arenas to get more non-conference home games. The era of other conferences looking at games as layups has passed unless the non-AHA coach is an idiot. Atlantic Hockey had a winning record against ECAC last season and had wins over Penn State, Ohio State, Boston College, Notre Dame and others ... St. Lawrence, Princeton, UVM, Ferris State, Miami, Colorado College, Brown ... etc.

An indication of what a team would be like moving into a new conference would be St. Thomas last season, which went 3-22-1.

[JSicedog]

Perhaps the biggest goal in AHA right now is improving the PWR within the league and that’s driven by the out of conference record. The league is not interested in doing anything that’s going to drive it down. Attendance is not really a factor. The league champion over the last four years hasn’t exactly been setting attendance records.

How do you figure they fix it? Follow the same course they are on, where other conferences look at AHA games as layups?

[Ed Trefzger]

That is a good point: assuming that their attendance trends as it has, Utica is far better suited for the AHA than a league that is basically the AHA 20 years ago in its MAAC configuration.

Perhaps the biggest goal in AHA right now is improving the PWR within the league and that’s driven by the out of conference record. The league is not interested in doing anything that’s going to drive it down. Attendance is not really a factor. The league champion over the last four years hasn’t exactly been setting attendance records.

[Russell Jaslow]

You suck at math, too. Months > 15 days.

Of course you know I’m just pounding on you while I can. It's too much fun.

BTW, great achievement for your daughter. And a wonderful experience visiting Israel.

[bakdraft21]

Come on bakdraft. We've been talking about this for months about the loophole in D1 hockey and how a D2 team can play D1 hockey. Pay attention...

Ok I have been in Isreal for 15 days watching the daughter Captain and win the Gold medal for Team USA in U16 Volleyball,apology accepted :-)))Then off to LIB for a week..........Plus really Fish has all of this covered and ya'll know It's all RIT's fault anyway....