The States: Where We Wish Texas Would Secede Already

[Handyman]

Wouldn't it have happened anyway once Pedo State elevated? Or are you saying a third conference would have given MN, WI, OSU, MSU, and NoDak and say 3 small fry a comfortable enough gig that they would never have formed a BTHC?

What I mean is that a third league would have allowed for enough shuffling that every team could have kept their rivalries and propping up the smaller schools but it would have been less of a burden on the Big Ten Schools. Plus likeminded schools could have been in a conference together. Also it opens slots for expansion.

The problem is there was no realignment proposal that worked well. As Jim mentions the Alaska problem was still there. If they made a "Far West" conference there would not have been a big enough school to help them in conference unless NoDak joined. (CC and Denver are names but fans never show up there and they dont travel) The West is just super spread out and it causes lots and lots of problems. In reality the only way to make it work is to get all the conferences to like 8 teams tops to open OOC games up so you can still play each other. In the WCHA teams already werent playing home and away every year because of the bloating so the only thing lost would be the conference points.

There was an interesting idea of having 3-4 new conferences and making it really regional. It had its problems too though. There just isnt enough teams that can make hockey work financially (without playing helmet schools) to have any solution that solves everything.

Scooby,

Divisions wouldn't have worked. Every time it was brought up on GPL it was shot down for a million reasons. How do you divide them fairly and how do deal with the fact that it really doesn't solve the major problem? (balanced schedules) How do you preserve all of the rivalries? Even the pod system that some touted (the best of the proposals) had issues. There is just not enough games in the season to make it all work. Divisions would have been a short term answer that would have lead to the exact same scenario sooner or later.

The WCHA was propped up by the fact that they had massive regional appeal (with hundreds of top end propects in their back yard yearly) and Big Ten squads that brought in lots of fans and money. It was like the Big XII when Texas and Oklahoma are both awesome. The problem is that is only sustainable for so long. Sooner or later other teams need to be elite as well and be able to make it on their own merits financially or as soon as the Big Dogs falter the league as a whole falters. Denver won Titles and dominated...but they weren't going to sell out the Final Five to help make the WCHA's budget. (let alone their own) The Final Five needed Gopher fans going to Saint Paul and buying up the ticket packages...its why NoDakers always claimed bias ;^) The league was dependent...though not as badly as the CCHA was.

 

[Kepler]

Denver and CC are a problem. AF is the natural third but now where do you go? UNO gives you 4. At that point you may as well invite UAA, UAF. Now 6. I dunno if it's viable. I think it's pretty interesting. Call it the Great West (6)

5 MN schools plus NoDak is another 6. If The Whole Idea was to save MN-WI then you add WI for 7 and then I vote you add the 3 UP teams, which belong together. That's a 10. WCHA (10)

The congeries of "true" midwesterners is thus: NotDam, WMU, FSU, MSU, UM, BGSU, Miami, OSU. CCHA (8)

Do you think that (1) makes people happy and (2) holds?

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Speaking of North Dakota, I see two men’s players knelt during the national anthem.

if I wasn’t so busy I’d stroll over to ss.com to read that reaction

 

[RaceBoarder]

Denver and CC are a problem. AF is the natural third but now where do you go? UNO gives you 4. At that point you may as well invite UAA, UAF. Now 6. I dunno if it's viable. I think it's pretty interesting. Call it the Great West (6)

5 MN schools plus NoDak is another 6. If The Whole Idea was to save MN-WI then you add WI for 7 and then I vote you add the 3 UP teams, which belong together. That's a 10. WCHA (10)

The congeries of "true" midwesterners is thus: NotDam, WMU, FSU, MSU, UM, BGSU, Miami, OSU. CCHA (8)

Do you think that (1) makes people happy and (2) holds?

Now add St. Thomas for 2022. That's the problem...

 

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Consider the revenue implications for 3-4 years running of a Nacho Frozen Faceoff consisting of Miami, Western, CC, and Omaha. <shudder>

 

[Handyman]

Denver and CC are a problem. AF is the natural third but now where do you go? UNO gives you 4. At that point you may as well invite UAA, UAF. Now 6. I dunno if it's viable. I think it's pretty interesting. Call it the Great West (6)

5 MN schools plus NoDak is another 6. If The Whole Idea was to save MN-WI then you add WI for 7 and then I vote you add the 3 UP teams, which belong together. That's a 10. WCHA (10)

The congeries of "true" midwesterners is thus: NotDam, WMU, FSU, MSU, UM, BGSU, Miami, OSU. CCHA (8)

Do you think that (1) makes people happy and (2) holds?

That was the type of proposal most of us got behind (at least the first one with part of the second one) but it had holes. Probably the most likely to have happened though.

Problem is UM wanted to play the other Big Ten Schools. Minnesota had a yearly game with MSU and UM but they wanted more.

 

[aparch]

This is only partially true.

First there was no "trigger" or "provision". The Big Ten said to make a conference you needed six teams. If six teams existed they wanted you to form the conference but you didn't HAVE to. That is why there was a vote about it.
...
Once Pedo State moved their team up and the CCHA denied them entry (IIRC) Barry moved to have the BTHC become a thing.
...

Correct to the first part, and that's not how I remember it to the second.

If I recall, the WCHA and CCHA both expressed interest in having Penn State join their league. I *believe* the CCHA assumed an Ivy League / ECAC situation would have taken place, but the B1G had already discussed the breakout the summer before the official announcement. The fact that the B1G schools would be playing B1G conference games meant more to the brand.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Cretin-Durham Hall, it's a liberal Catholic sports high school. They put out Joe Mauer, too.

And is a pretty safe pipeline for Notre Dame from Minnesota. FUckers.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Hockey is bigger here than most places...but honestly it would be at best 3rd in line and honestly as much as it annoys people if we had a decent college basketball or NBA team they would probably beat hockey as well.

I'd be curious what would happen in the bizarroworld hypothetical if the the Wild were in the Stanley Cup Finals and it was up against the Vikings, how low in the playoff structure would you need to go for football to even drop to 2x the ratings of the SCF? NFC Championship? Division? Wild Card? Vikings-Packers MNF?

 

[Handyman]

I'd be curious what would happen in the bizarroworld hypothetical if the the Wild were in the Stanley Cup Finals and it was up against the Vikings, how low in the playoff structure would you need to go for football to even drop to 2x the ratings of the SCF? NFC Championship? Division? Wild Card? Vikings-Packers MNF?

All of those for sure would beat the SCF. Part of it would depend on how the Vikes are as a team and when/where the game was. If it was the North Stars I would bet a Vikes preseason game would outdraw them in the SCF.

aparch,

The WCHA was not going to let Pedo State in...they literally had no room for them. I remember people lamenting the loss of the CHA as it would have been a place for Pedo to go for a while to allow for a natural shift instead of the Big Ten middle finger. I thought I had read at the time they asked the CCHA but the CCHA said no but I fully admit I could and probably am wrong. (plus I know UAH had a similar situation so I might be conflating the two)

The whole thing sucked. Hockey needed to embrace its regional ties but doing so would have hurt a lot of schools. The BTHC was a brand with a lot of money so for the members it made sense but for the fans it was awful. Dont get me wrong I dont really care since I only worry about my team not who they play but I am in the minority. Plus, lots of people have these rose colored memories of the WCHA and forget how awful it was playing a lot of those teams. When UMD was terrible the games were tough to watch. Same with UAA and Tech. It was a very weird conglomeration of teams and styles and the drop off between the top and bottom was steep sometimes.

 

[Kepler]

Now add St. Thomas for 2022. That's the problem...

What is a "St. Thomas"?

LIU's gonna be fun, too.

 

[Kepler]

I have another suggestion for solving the small state problem. Combine all the small states, regardless of geography, into Tinytopia. Bear with me.

In 100k:

WY  6
VT  6
DC  7
AK  7
ND  8
SD  9
DE 10
RI 11
MT 11

TT 75

At 7.5M Tinytopia would be the 14th largest state -- between WA and AZ, and would have 12 EV.

It combines 5 current red states (15 EV) and 4 blue (13 EV), so it would be a purple state and thus a focus of attention (and pork)!

Mandate that House districts can't be non-contiguous. So for example a district could be formed out of parts of old ND and SD, or WY and MT, but not AK and HI or DE and RI.

 

[St. Clown]

What is a "St. Thomas"?

LIU's gonna be fun, too.

It’s a mostly St. Paul-based university that’s been, more or less, kicked out of D-III and moved up to D-I FCS. The question has to have been asked by somebody who cares, but not me, if their hockey team will or can survive. The boot up was all related to their football team, as I understand it from catching the odd scrap of news here and there.

I do have to say, though, that the ice rink they share with St. Thomas Academy has some of the nicest ice in town that’s not Minnesota Mining’s Mariucci.

 

[Slap Shot]

Speaking of North Dakota, I see two men’s players knelt during the national anthem.

if I wasn’t so busy I’d stroll over to ss.com to read that reaction

284 replies since Tue night CST and as you can guess most are dragging their knuckles.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Speaking of North Dakota, I see two men’s players knelt during the national anthem.

if I wasn’t so busy I’d stroll over to ss.com to read that reaction

SiouxSports dot com, the Parler of the college hockey world.

 

[SJHovey]

284 replies since Tue night CST and as you can guess most are dragging their knuckles.

Only 284? There were 600 comments in the Minneapolis newspaper. Between this and all of the comments in the Covid thread, I tend to suspect you guys are still obsessing over us.

 

[Handyman]

Only 284? There were 600 comments in the Minneapolis newspaper. Between this and all of the comments in the Covid thread, I tend to suspect you guys are still obsessing over us.

Well there is only 284 people left in NoDak since everyone is sick and dying at this point.

 

[SJHovey]

Well there is only 284 people left in NoDak since everyone is sick and dying at this point.

I'm not going to get worried until we have fewer people than trees. At that point I'll just have to drive over and turn out the lights.

 

[Slap Shot]

Only 284? There were 600 comments in the Minneapolis newspaper. Between this and all of the comments in the Covid thread, I tend to suspect you guys are still obsessing over us.

Cuz the foot traffic is the same...

 

[Handyman]

I'm not going to get worried until we have fewer people than trees. At that point I'll just have to drive over and turn out the lights.

Its getting close! I would suggest stocking up on the timers people use for their Christmas lights...or get a whole lot of Amazon Echos and smart plugs!!