Is that the goal at Brown? I'm not sure how easy that would be to accomplish these days. It's been more than a decade since Brown could be described as prominent, with only one season over .500 during that time. How has the landscape changed since then? Programs like Harvard and Princeton have remained relatively consistent, Harvard as a contender, and Princeton as a good, solid team but not much more. Cornell has surged to go from the bottom to a rival of Harvard. Dartmouth has dropped from being a contender to more Princeton-like. Meanwhile, Clarkson and Quinnipiac have made great strides as non Ivy League teams in the ECAC, and while the power has shifted around in Hockey East, there has definitely been improvement at the bottom of the league. It has always seemed to me like Dartmouth is better supported than Brown is. If Brown increased its level of support to be more akin to Dartmouth, would the Bears be prominent, or would they be more likely to wind up in the middle of the ECAC? Is Brown even interested in investing enough in the program to make it a contender?
The good news about the Brown hire is that given the new coach is a program insider, one would think he has friends in the athletic department who may be receptive to improvements. One of the greatest roadblocks to turning around any program is apathy toward that program within its athletic department.