St. John Fisher to Add Men's and Women's Ice Hockey

[Russell Jaslow]

https://sjfathletics.com/news/2024/1...key-teams.aspx

[Lord_Zubin]

what makes this really interesting is with Geneseo and Brockport joining the empire 8 next year the empire 8 now has enough teams to form their own conference with an autobid that's also really strong(Naz, Fisher, Utica, Elmira, Geneseo, Brockport) and all those schools are very close to each other. Taking Elmira out of the NEHC would leave Hobart on an island for that conference. Would the statesmen consider joining the UCHC/empire 8 conference?

[Russell Jaslow]

what makes this really interesting is with Geneseo and Brockport joining the empire 8 next year the empire 8 now has enough teams to form their own conference with an autobid that's also really strong(Naz, Fisher, Utica, Elmira, Geneseo, Brockport) and all those schools are very close to each other. Taking Elmira out of the NEHC would leave Hobart on an island for that conference. Would the statesmen consider joining the UCHC/empire 8 conference?

NEHC is going to blow up in 2025 when teams are forced to leave and go "back" to their all sports conference for hockey as other new programs are coming on board at that time. This will leave the three NEHC NYS teams on an island, but you bring up a possible solution for Elmira. I don't see Hobart leaving the Liberty League overall just because of hockey, but certainly they could join E8 as an affiliate member just for hockey. Skidmore is an interesting question, as I believe they are going to want to stay with a NE conference if they can find one. Then of course, you have the "leftover" teams in the UCHC.

So, a lot of moving pieces happening all at the same time. (And one of them is not Utica going D1, because they are not...)

[PrezdeJohnson09]

NEHC is going to blow up in 2025 when teams are forced to leave and go "back" to their all sports conference for hockey as other new programs are coming on board at that time. This will leave the three NEHC NYS teams on an island, but you bring up a possible solution for Elmira. I don't see Hobart leaving the Liberty League overall just because of hockey, but certainly they could join E8 as an affiliate member just for hockey. Skidmore is an interesting question, as I believe they are going to want to stay with a NE conference if they can find one. Then of course, you have the "leftover" teams in the UCHC.

So, a lot of moving pieces happening all at the same time. (And one of them is not Utica going D1, because they are not...)

Now we're down to 1 at-large bid if Empire 8 hockey does form and the NEHC is able to sustain enough members to stay afloat.

We've also got to be getting close to having 14 teams for the tournament with the all the additions coming on too though.

[Scott_TG]

Unless Brockport and Geneseo launch women's teams (which will be enraging as it could have solved the need to engage Canton in the first place if they had women's teams all along) the launch of Empire 8 men's hockey causing the collapse of the NEHC and UCHC will have a negative impact on their women's programs unless those conferences continue to exist for just the women

This does give us 4 teams who go by the Cardinals in DIII, would love to see Moff replace the current teams and make it a true Cardinal Classic...the SOS would probably be a wash with the teams they currently bring in...

[geneseo]

Unless Brockport and Geneseo launch women's teams (which will be enraging as it could have solved the need to engage Canton in the first place if they had women's teams all along) the launch of Empire 8 men's hockey causing the collapse of the NEHC and UCHC will have a negative impact on their women's programs unless those conferences continue to exist for just the women

This does give us 4 teams who go by the Cardinals in DIII, would love to see Moff replace the current teams and make it a true Cardinal Classic...the SOS would probably be a wash with the teams they currently bring in...

Geneseo is not adding women's ice hockey any time soon.

[Lord_Zubin]

Unless Brockport and Geneseo launch women's teams (which will be enraging as it could have solved the need to engage Canton in the first place if they had women's teams all along) the launch of Empire 8 men's hockey causing the collapse of the NEHC and UCHC will have a negative impact on their women's programs unless those conferences continue to exist for just the women

This does give us 4 teams who go by the Cardinals in DIII, would love to see Moff replace the current teams and make it a true Cardinal Classic...the SOS would probably be a wash with the teams they currently bring in...

Those conferences could exist just for the girls the newhl was a women's only conference that hosted the suny schools for like 7 years and it worked very well. The UCHC could very well follow that path. It's also important that wherever Hobart goes William Smith goes as well for the women's sides since they're basically the same school.

[Lord_Zubin]

NEHC is going to blow up in 2025 when teams are forced to leave and go "back" to their all sports conference for hockey as other new programs are coming on board at that time. This will leave the three NEHC NYS teams on an island, but you bring up a possible solution for Elmira. I don't see Hobart leaving the Liberty League overall just because of hockey, but certainly they could join E8 as an affiliate member just for hockey. Skidmore is an interesting question, as I believe they are going to want to stay with a NE conference if they can find one. Then of course, you have the "leftover" teams in the UCHC.

So, a lot of moving pieces happening all at the same time. (And one of them is not Utica going D1, because they are not...)

That's what I meant originally Hobart as an affiliate my bad for the confusion. As for the left over teams i could see the UCHC/empire 8 keeping Chatham 1 4.5hr drive a year isn't that bad compared to what those schools are doing now while trying to get Hobart to bring the total teams to 8. While Uticas d1 aspirations are well documented on this website, we haven't talked about Elmira not lasting for much longer recently. With the upcoming enrollment crisis that's starting around 2025-2026 ish, it's well documented that small private liberal arts college in the NE get hit the hardest by this stuff. They're finances aren't gonna matter if no one enrolls in ur school. As for manhattenville they'd work both in the MAC or the NEHC as most Mac schools are within 2.5-3 hours of them and the furthest NEHC after realignment is norwich which is at 4 hours

[Russell Jaslow]

This does give us 4 teams who go by the Cardinals in DIII, would love to see Moff replace the current teams and make it a true Cardinal Classic...the SOS would probably be a wash with the teams they currently bring in...

I always wanted to see an all nickname tournament. Without crossing divisions (since that would be unrealistic), there are three you can put together right now, one in D1 and two in D3.

HUSKIES: UConn, Northeastern, St. Cloud, Michigan Tech

FALCONS: Albertus Magnus, Fitchburg, Concordia (WI), River Falls

KNIGHTS [if you ignore the adjective part of the nickname]: Geneseo, St. Norbert, Arcadia, Neumann -- there is also St. Michael's as a D2 school

And soon the Cardinals.

[Bill-R-]

Rumor has it the Plattsburgh State Assistant Coach Reid Lesswing will be named the men's coach.

[bakdraft21]

WOW many d3 teams........is it time for a D4. ???

[spwood]

WOW many d3 teams........is it time for a D4. ???

With more than 400 programs playing D-III bouncy ball, I don't think there's much danger of a Div-IV. We need to get to a 64 team tournament first!!!

[Russell Jaslow]

WOW many d3 teams........is it time for a D4. ???

D3 is a philosophy. Not a limit.

[bakdraft21]

D3 is a philosophy. Not a limit.

but man the hockey is getting watered down for sure........how about d3b ;-)))

[HeeHee]

but man the hockey is getting watered down for sure........how about d3b ;-)))

I've never really understood these kinds of statements... the quality of hockey talent produced outside of Canada, mainly in the US but also elsewhere, has increased dramatically in the last twenty years or so, mainly due to the increased number of players in general.