I don't think anybody knows just how this House settlement thing is going to play out. At face value, the rich will get richer, that is certain. Gotta belive there will be a cascade of legal challenges along the lines of anti trust. In the end, I would not be surprised if a revenue sharing system is cooked up like NBA or NFL. I feel like UNH has no choice but to opt in and hope to eventually get a piece of the big pie...
USCHO Fan Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.
UNH 2025 Offseason: Where in the World is MS7?
- Thread starter TheGrouchyCat
- Start date
ESL to Nanaimo
UNH hockey is facing and existential crisis. In light of the massive cuts coming from Concord to UNH, it seems unrealistic to expect UNH to be able to afford 26 scholarships year in and year out. The key issue is the future of HE programs that have uneven scholarship levels. NIL presents precisely the same problem. I think we all agree that UNH is unlikely to make NIL payments to players. At some point the max scholarship/NIL payment programs will form separate conferences from the others.
UNH will still be D1 in hockey but will compete in a conference with schools with similar resources. My guess is the max scholarship/NIL schools will be the following: BC, BU, UConn, UMass, ULowell, Providence, Maine, Northeastern and Merrimack. UNH and UVM will not be in that group.
The biggest question is Merrimack. ULowell scholarships will follow in lock step with UMass because both answer to the same master. NIL will be tough at UML but that will play out over time. The Mass state legislature will do something for that school. Merrimack is interesting. Hockey is its flagship sport and it's a private school. The scholarships will not be a huge issue for it - heck, it funds a scholarship football team. NIL will be tricky. A few wealthy donors may help out. Merrimack will at least try for a while.
Northeastern is a Beanpot school and is fully committed to hockey . New arena coming and well healed alumni base inside Rte 128. Same as BU obviously. Providence has hoop revenue and a proud strong alumni network and local non alumni that view Providence as its regional sports team.
UNH's problem is simple. The state is backing off higher education costs and the residents have a core belief that less is more (ie good coaching and a can do attitude can overcome lack of monetary investment). UVM is a program I'm not as familiar with so I'm going with what other people say.
Ten years from now my guess is you'll see Quinnipiac enter Hockey East with UNH and UVM leaving - perhaps Merrimack. A conference with UNH, UVM, Holy Cross, Bentley, Sacred Heart, Merrimack (?), and perhaps 3 NY schools (RIT, Niagara, Canisius) makes sense. What's interesting is if St Lawrence and RPI go looking for a new home.
UNH will still be D1 in hockey but will compete in a conference with schools with similar resources. My guess is the max scholarship/NIL schools will be the following: BC, BU, UConn, UMass, ULowell, Providence, Maine, Northeastern and Merrimack. UNH and UVM will not be in that group.
The biggest question is Merrimack. ULowell scholarships will follow in lock step with UMass because both answer to the same master. NIL will be tough at UML but that will play out over time. The Mass state legislature will do something for that school. Merrimack is interesting. Hockey is its flagship sport and it's a private school. The scholarships will not be a huge issue for it - heck, it funds a scholarship football team. NIL will be tricky. A few wealthy donors may help out. Merrimack will at least try for a while.
Northeastern is a Beanpot school and is fully committed to hockey . New arena coming and well healed alumni base inside Rte 128. Same as BU obviously. Providence has hoop revenue and a proud strong alumni network and local non alumni that view Providence as its regional sports team.
UNH's problem is simple. The state is backing off higher education costs and the residents have a core belief that less is more (ie good coaching and a can do attitude can overcome lack of monetary investment). UVM is a program I'm not as familiar with so I'm going with what other people say.
Ten years from now my guess is you'll see Quinnipiac enter Hockey East with UNH and UVM leaving - perhaps Merrimack. A conference with UNH, UVM, Holy Cross, Bentley, Sacred Heart, Merrimack (?), and perhaps 3 NY schools (RIT, Niagara, Canisius) makes sense. What's interesting is if St Lawrence and RPI go looking for a new home.
Last edited:
MilkUniversity
Roll 'Thers | Plymouth State
UNH, and the USNH as a whole, is at a pretty significant inflection point. UNH's position as the "flagship" has shielded it from some of the impacts of declining support for higher ed in the state, but with the incoming fiscal year and potential state cuts they are going to feel the heat. Plymouth, Keene, and formerly GSC have all had to adapt and reform due to budget challenges since before the pandemic (hell GSC doesn't even exist anymore), while UNH has been mostly shielded until the last couple of years.
I still don't fully understand the full implications and technicalities behind the House v. NCAA settlement, but athletics wise UNH needs to keep adapting. Whether from taking advantage of recruiting CHL players (which is already happening), changing the coaching staff (which is a whole other convo I can tell), leaning into more public-private partnerships to bolster funding, or whatever else, there needs to be a shift. I'm not nearly familiar with UNH athletics like most people here, but from what I've seen from the school/admin as a whole is a reluctance to change course or admit mistakes while sailing into headwinds.
Even if UNH can't hit the max NIL number, if UNH drops from Hockey East, it's a major capitulation for the school on top of a growing pile of challenges.
I still don't fully understand the full implications and technicalities behind the House v. NCAA settlement, but athletics wise UNH needs to keep adapting. Whether from taking advantage of recruiting CHL players (which is already happening), changing the coaching staff (which is a whole other convo I can tell), leaning into more public-private partnerships to bolster funding, or whatever else, there needs to be a shift. I'm not nearly familiar with UNH athletics like most people here, but from what I've seen from the school/admin as a whole is a reluctance to change course or admit mistakes while sailing into headwinds.
Even if UNH can't hit the max NIL number, if UNH drops from Hockey East, it's a major capitulation for the school on top of a growing pile of challenges.
I'm not completely sure of this but believe that transfers from Canadian juniors are ineligible for NIL money
I believe it has something to do with their visas. If that is the case with UNH making a significant investment in this area
providing just the scholarships could be enough
It tough for UNh to compete without any new obstacles
I believe it has something to do with their visas. If that is the case with UNH making a significant investment in this area
providing just the scholarships could be enough
It tough for UNh to compete without any new obstacles
MilkUniversity
Roll 'Thers | Plymouth State
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Oh, the fun we could have had with that tag ... SO disappointed ...
2013hockeyfan
Active member
Mike McMahon has discussed this in his newsletter. Sounds like they will be eligible for NIL in the narrow scenario in which the promotional activity is performed in Canada and the payer is Canadian. Don't expect that scenario will play out much for the kids at UNH but likely relevant for the Gavin McKenna types.
The restriction, if I remember correctly, arises from their being on student visas.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
You say "existential crisis" (a fave term of MA liberals), and I say "reckoning". The folks at UNH are likely gonna have to make some very difficult calls on what their revenue producing sports array will look like going forwards. Not sure this is the time to have a compliance person in charge of things, not that the last guy was a visionary either (despite his own delusional thoughts to the contrary, I'm sure), but I do feel a whole lot better about the looming situation now than I did 30 days ago, before TDL and JMS stepped out as the face of much broader private support for the upcoming $20M rink facilities renovations.
Maine, of course, is the bait to offer in this comparison. Similar school profile resources-wise, albeit with a proven winning D-1 coach, and also largely dependent upon governmental funding. There's no reason at this point to look at UNH and UMaine any differently. Except for the head coaching issue ...
Ultimately, the deeply-held belief that government funding cures all ailments does eventually come to the rescue here. The idea that Merrimack isn't in a pickle, and will have to make the very same difficult choices among its hockey, hoops and football programs as UNH and UMaine is utterly laughable ...
As someone with Northeastern alums dotted across my extended family, I never knew how painful it apparently is to be a Huskies' alum
The folks in Concord ae simply working hard to keep USNH spending in check, there's no doubt there will be a UNH and PSU and KSU etc. next year, and 10 years from now too. We just happen to be ahead of other neighboring states, who will eventually get hammered with a huge correction once academia's excesses (post-GI Bill to the current) are finally brought under control. When one part of the economy surges ahead at two or three times the rates of the rest of the economy, it's not sustainable (another fave term of MA libs). UNH can't complain, the last few decades have seen big capital improvements to the campus' facilities, and now it's time to tighten the belts a little, and let the State catch up a little financially. It's how NH manages to avoid crippling debt.
Actually, the realignment of schools in D-1 hockey wouldn't surprise me at all. Look at what's happened in the other sports ... it's almost overdue in hockey, but if (more likely when) this change arrives, I can guarantee you it will be a whole lot broader than the "UNH, UVM and maybe Merrimack" thing you claim is inevitable. I'll hold my hand up if I'm wrong, but there will likely be some huge surprises with the comings and goings within HEA ... or even if HEA survives? Folks on here long enough know that the WCHA no longer exists. Huge D-1 football conferences have been nuked. There are no guarantees for HEA either.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Marchy gets a Cup! Not to interrupt this excellent discussion about NIL...now does he return to Boston to retire as a Bruin? These are the things that keeps HR up at night haha.
Bummer we didn't have another UNH'er get their name on the Stanley maybe next season...Oilers..tough series. My Fla relatives are thrilled!
Bummer we didn't have another UNH'er get their name on the Stanley maybe next season...Oilers..tough series. My Fla relatives are thrilled!
tylerzx2002
Well-known member
If the Bruins couldn't extend him during the season, he probably did enough to drive his market value up that it probably prices them out. Would love to see him back in Boston, but gotta think there will be a lot of teams in the mix for him now.
2013hockeyfan
Active member
Pretty sure the NCAA has been trying to get rid of sport-specific conferences for some time now.
Oh, Buford! I'll be kind and just blame your error on your, ahem, Chromosome issues.... UMaine has Alfond. Similar to UND's relationship to the Engelstads and Penn State's relationship to Pegula, the love and loyalty of a billionaire or two changes EVERYTHING. A poor man with a dream has nothing in common with a poor man that has a dream and a billionaire benefactor to fund his dream. Alas, to compare the fortunes of UNH hockey to UMaine hockey is to reveal one's ignorance.
UNH currently has an admissions rate of 87%. Essentially, it rejects only convicted criminals, people that didn't attend high school and severely developmentally disabled people. I'm quite serious. 87% means the only people that get rejected are those that have no academic potential at all. It didn't used to be that way at all. For you to say "it's time to tighten the belts" clearly shows that you have absolutely no interest in the integrity or mission of UNH or the value of higher education in general.
You don't know what debt is and how it is often used to power advancement/investment
The GI Bill was an excess? I literally pray that your are not an UNH alum. If so, you singlehandedly devalue the entire insitution. You clearly don't understand the purpose of education. Do have any clue how much the US economy has be powered by the US Government funded research done at Universities since WW2? The US Government discovered in WW2 that US Universities were the perfect place to park research dollars to power innovation.
Last edited:
Darius
Go 'cats!
When did this start happening? Glad I was accepted before these restrictions were put in place. Whew.
edit: I did attend high school. Occasionally.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Talk about ignorance, jeezus ... there are levels of largesse and loyalty, potty ... when you mentioned Alfond in comparison to Pegula and Engelstad, I almost fell out of my chair, snorking at your utter cluelessness. The Ralph seats, what, 10,000-12,000 fans? State of the art everything?? Pegula, right around the capacity of The Whitt, slightly less, but more modern and nicer ... and then the dump that is Alfond Arena?!? Listen, I love the place, it's a charming dump, if I'm going to pick HEA favorites, it's neck-and-neck with the current Mathews/Boston Arena ... but both are dumps. And it's a smaller-than-UNH dump, too.
If the Alfond Family was SO dedicated to the future of the UMaine hockey program, and following your devotion to all things facility-wise ... one would think you would be demanding the Alfonds pony up some real dough, and just nuke the current place to build a new palace on campus nearby? Renovations for the current Alfond are sorely needed, for sure, but in the end, if you think the renovation of The Whitt is putting lipstick on pig, the renovation of Alfond is more like putting lipstick on a giant wildebeest. A funky cool wildebeest with history, mind you.
FWIW ... what do you make of it when you realize the revamped Alfond in Orono is still only going to be the second nicest Alfond Arena in the State of Maine? Answers on a card or in a letter. Moving on ...
There's two ways an admissions rate goes up ... and one of them is if you have fewer applications to fill the same number of seats, numb-nuts. You might have tapped into the sentiment of the current generation of high schoolers who actually question whether getting a marginal specialty degree that comes with six-figure debt is worth the wait, when they can apprentice in a trade, start making money right away (often helped by supporting HS programs), and work towards owning their own business by the time Billy & Sally Prep-School amass $200,000 in college loans to hit the streets to find out how much their Gender Studies Master's Degrees or PhD's can earn them on the real-life street. So, application numbers go down, and acceptance rates go up. Simples.
In the world of Reading Is Fundamental, I trust everyone on here without an agenda (basically, everyone except you) can read that I attributed the excesses to academia, NOT the GI Bill. But you're being intentionally obtuse to try to confuse the issue, and avoid the very basic question as to why the cost of higher ed has consistently outpaced the cost of living ever since the days post-WW2 when well-meaning legislators were trying to help out returning servicemen.
The answer, of course, is that every time government adds a subsidy to the cost of higher education, most of academia has learned to simply add the subsidy to the bottom line cost of the education, NOT to allow it to work as an offset of the existing cost structure. Hence, the word "subsidy". It's supposed to work to benefit the student, NOT the institutions. But the institutions largely have never gotten that memo. You can try to justify it any way you like, but excuses are still excuses, and subsidies were intended for students, not schools or endowments. So 2% becomes 4% or 5%, annualized with interest, and on top of billion-dollar endowments that largely aren't taxable, it's increasingly evident who the bad actors have been. HINT: it's not the students nor their teachers.
Sparkee
Blackbear
Don't forget that UMaine "has two, how 'bout you?"!
I notice you like to leave that out everytime. Well dingbat, you can run but you can't hide.
To be honest, I'm not sure how much you can even run now.
And before you get carried away... that trot for the men's room once a week while shopping at Joann's Fabric doesn't count as a run.
Last edited:
umhockey91
Well-known member
Oh Chuckie.....you think you know so much but know so little. Stay in your MAGA lane buddy.
If you think Alfond is still going to be a dump after $50 million in renovations....then you are hopelessly blind to modern day college athletics and what elite athletes are looking for. Whittemore Center's $20 million renovation is quaint.....should help keep you near the top of wherever UNH hockey ends up post-Hockey East.
"If the Alfond Family was SO dedicated to the future of the UMaine hockey program, and following your devotion to all things facility-wise ... one would think you would be demanding the Alfonds pony up some real dough".....lol. Well they gave $170 million to UMaine Athletics.....I know it's not UNH money but it's nothing to sneeze at....and then it was up to the UMaine Athletic dept. to channel those funds where they saw fit.....they prioritized hockey and hoops.....but also spread the wealth across the entire athletic campus with new softball, field hockey, soccer and track facilities. I know size matters so much to MAGAs like you but most Maine fans wanted to keep the intimate setting and focus on athlete related facilities and comforts...and they have certainly done that. When the new UMaine Athletic Campus is finished in a few years.....it will leave UNH....and many other New England schools.....in the dust. Good luck getting your conservative state government to support UNH in the future....personally I think it seems a bit bleak for you guys,
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
We're talking about facilities and resources in the present and for the future, buddy. Context. Please do try to keep track.
If/when we have a discussion about postseason titles, your point would be relevant. FWIW I gave you the coaching (resources).
Until then ... sit down, shut up, listen closely, and have a cookie. OR contribute on-topic, instead of being a total douche.
P.S. - we'll have the "running" discussion later. Right now, too busy playing two games/week and running 2-3 practices/week, probably twice your age, junior ...
Sparkee
Blackbear
You will never have this discussion. You avoid it like the plague. It really does get to you, and that jingle too…
“We’ve got two, how ‘bout you?”