What's new
By:
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.

2018 B1G Tournament

Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

gopher wes said:
We've discussed this in years past and I hate to beat it to death but I'm not sure what the B1G could have really promoted to gain more attendance. You've mentioned signs and banners around town and the arena. And I know you've also mentioned a booth set up at B1G arenas throughout the season. I'm sorry, I just don't think those things alone are going to make the average fan say "Hey, I think I'm going to the Big Ten Hockey Tournament!". Would it help a little? Maybe. But I don't think it would have been enough to keep it working in St Paul and Detroit IMO.

The thing that worked about the CCHA and WCHA conference tournaments was the proximity of the usual players in the tournament. For the WCHA you almost always had UND or Minnesota in it, that right there would give you the majority of your attendance. If you got both of those teams in, you're set. Add in a St Cloud, UMD, or Wisconsin and that's just a bonus. I assume the same was the case for the CCHA. If you get Michigan or Michigan St in, you're off to a great start. Throw in another Michigan team and you're probably golden with Columbus and South Bend not being outrageous drives. Both conferences had their outliers with Omaha back in the day of the CCHA, the Colorado schools for the WCHA, and both had an Alaska school. But again, with the proximity you had for the usual players, you didn't really have to promote anything.
Click to expand...

Beating the very dead horse, but we had UM, MSU, and OSU regardless. And fans around here are also happy to see your team play any of those. So at a bare minimum, it should have been really easy to replicate the low attendance CCHA tournaments. But the B1G didn't even try to make sure everyone knew, or promote anything. So when it came to the games, it was a tiny fraction of the worst CCHA tournaments. Should have been a pretty easy draw for some, but nobody even knew it was going on.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

Obviously the success of the CCHA & WCHA conference tournaments were the fact that it was so regional to most of the member schools. The Majority of the CCHA schools were in Michigan and 3 in Ohio so no big deal driving to Detroit. The odd men out were Nebraska-Omaha and poor Alaska-Fairbanks!
It was greatly appreciated how well the CCHA & WCHA conferences took care of and appreciated the fans because lets face it, without us why would there be sports teams?
Maybe because we were so well taken care of at those tournaments the starkly bare by comparison B1G Tournament left many frustrated and downright angry! With a conference spread out across half the country there's no way to have a central or single tournament location that wouldn't be a giant pain in the a*s for many fans to get to.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

So long as the Big 10 remains at 7 teams, I think the only logical way to run the tournament is as follows:

Two week format. The first week, #1 seed receives a bye, and the second week #1 hosts the championship weekend at their rink (semifinals and finals).

Week one sees 3-team group play, where #2 and #3 seeds each host (#2 hosts #4, #7; #3 hosts #5, #6).
The host team plays Fri and Sun, the other teams play the Sat game.
Group winners advance and play each other in the first semifinal game the following weekend.
The best 2nd place team out of the two groups goes on and plays the overall #1 seed in the 2nd semifinal the following weekend.
In the case of a tie between the two 2nd-place group finishers, there will be no tie-break. Instead, both will travel to the championship weekend and engage in a shootout prior to the semifinal game with the #1 overall seed. Winner of the shootout will advance to the semifinal game which will be played immediately following the commencement of the shootout (after warm-ups, of course).
 
Last edited:
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

<img src="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/sports/m-hockey/auto_original/10152182.jpeg?1519536663" alt="" style="width: 75%; height: auto;">
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

Instead of trying to figure out what the attendance issue was about everyone needs to realize that college hockey is a niche sport. The lack of attendance could also be partially blamed on the B1G for lack of PR. All in all it's a niche sport issue though.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

SteveO said:
<img src="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/sports/m-hockey/auto_original/10152182.jpeg?1519536663" alt="" style="width: 75%; height: auto;">
Click to expand...

First round is great.

But having one game a weekend for two weekends??? Hm. Sure, the crowd for the ONE game will likely be really good, but 3 games over two weeks?

I really think a final 4 for the B1G is best in the long run. Fans here come out to see Wisconsin and Minnesota play us, so given the right set up, I have little doubt that the Michigan crowds that came to CCHA tournaments would go to Detroit. Given how OSU and Notre Dame is playing, I'd give their crowd the same min to show up at the Pizzarena. Conversely, I've seen some of the games where Minnesota hosted Michigan, and see the same thing for them- so I'd expect the same from them at the X.

Without running the numbers, my theory is that Minnesota at the X and UM, MSU, OSU, and ND is more than enough of a baseline at each location to be better than what the B1G got for those 4 seasons.

In other words, yes, it's a niche sport, but we KNOW there's more than enough support for the WCHA and CCHA that we should have a fine final 4. But we will see how long this one game a weekend thing goes. I think it takes a lot of momentum out of a weekend.
 
alfablue said:
First round is great.

But having one game a weekend for two weekends??? Hm. Sure, the crowd for the ONE game will likely be really good, but 3 games over two weeks?

I really think a final 4 for the B1G is best in the long run. Fans here come out to see Wisconsin and Minnesota play us, so given the right set up, I have little doubt that the Michigan crowds that came to CCHA tournaments would go to Detroit. Given how OSU and Notre Dame is playing, I'd give their crowd the same min to show up at the Pizzarena. Conversely, I've seen some of the games where Minnesota hosted Michigan, and see the same thing for them- so I'd expect the same from them at the X.

Without running the numbers, my theory is that Minnesota at the X and UM, MSU, OSU, and ND is more than enough of a baseline at each location to be better than what the B1G got for those 4 seasons.

In other words, yes, it's a niche sport, but we KNOW there's more than enough support for the WCHA and CCHA that we should have a fine final 4. But we will see how long this one game a weekend thing goes. I think it takes a lot of momentum out of a weekend.
Click to expand...

Niche sport or not, the Big 10 made it crystal clear that growing the fan base is not a priority when it became apparent that BTN isn’t broadcasting a single first round tournament game this weekend. (The Gophers had to jump through hoops to even get their games on tv via a regional cable outlet) and the rest of us are screwed (or stuck paying extra for the BTN “plus” feed.) Sure some of us diehards will do that, but that sure doesn’t draw new hockey fans into the excitement of college hockey in the postseason who aren’t going to buy a premium service to watch games that BTN said would be a big part of their programming when the network started. They have a ton of alternate feeds that they use regularly in football season, so just because the conference pulled their NYC basketball tournament nonsense is no excuse for the entire first round of the league’s hockey tournament to be blacked out by their own cable network.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

klbaum1077 said:
I love the best of 3 first round. I think the 2nd round should be best of 3 if your going to use a 3 week format. You are putting your #1 seed at a disadvantage, they are not afforded a loss like the 3 first round winners got. I would prefer sending the final 4 teams to the #1 seeds place and do it in 1 weekend. This would allow you 1 more week of non league play and finish the conference season 1 week later.
Click to expand...

Wow, these are my thoughts exactly. Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you a Buckeye? The fact that we agree on something might mean things are coming to an end!
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

sunprairie said:
Niche sport or not, the Big 10 made it crystal clear that growing the fan base is not a priority when it became apparent that BTN isn’t broadcasting a single first round tournament game this weekend. (The Gophers had to jump through hoops to even get their games on tv via a regional cable outlet) and the rest of us are screwed (or stuck paying extra for the BTN “plus” feed.) Sure some of us diehards will do that, but that sure doesn’t draw new hockey fans into the excitement of college hockey in the postseason who aren’t going to buy a premium service to watch games that BTN said would be a big part of their programming when the network started. They have a ton of alternate feeds that they use regularly in football season, so just because the conference pulled their NYC basketball tournament nonsense is no excuse for the entire first round of the league’s hockey tournament to be blacked out by their own cable network.
Click to expand...

Remember that the B1G and the BTN are OUR schools. Which means that we should all contact our AD's to try to change it. It's not going to be easy, for sure. But, in theory, we can make a change. And we can point out that if they can increase the fan base, then the odds of more schools in the B1G adding hockey goes up. Simple numbers.

Basically, it's not as if we can all do nothing. We can at least try to contact our schools.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

It's interesting that because PSU just uses their in arena feed with radio announcers versus Student U, that they are on BTN2Go instead of Plus.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
It's interesting that because PSU just uses their in arena feed with radio announcers versus Student U, that they are on BTN2Go instead of Plus.
Click to expand...

That’s not actually why, I believe. The reason Minn vs. Penn State is available free on BTN2GO is because Minnesota is used to every game being broadcast and when BTN decided not to run the first round games, Minnesota jumped through hoops at the last minute to have their regional Fox Sports network cover it. And since Fox has a corporate connection with BTN, they added that feed to BTN2GO for free.
 
Last edited:
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

bluevox said:
Wow, these are my thoughts exactly. Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you a Buckeye? The fact that we agree on something might mean things are coming to an end!
Click to expand...
If we could add audio the song 'It's the End of the World as we Know it!" would be the proper choice. LOL!
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

Stauber1 said:
So long as the Big 10 remains at 7 teams, I think the only logical way to run the tournament is as follows:

Two week format. The first week, #1 seed receives a bye, and the second week #1 hosts the championship weekend at their rink (semifinals and finals).

Week one sees 3-team group play, where #2 and #3 seeds each host (#2 hosts #4, #7; #3 hosts #5, #6).
The host team plays Fri and Sun, the other teams play the Sat game.
Group winners advance and play each other in the first semifinal game the following weekend.
The best 2nd place team out of the two groups goes on and plays the overall #1 seed in the 2nd semifinal the following weekend.
In the case of a tie between the two 2nd-place group finishers, there will be no tie-break. Instead, both will travel to the championship weekend and engage in a shootout prior to the semifinal game with the #1 overall seed. Winner of the shootout will advance to the semifinal game which will be played immediately following the commencement of the shootout (after warm-ups, of course).
Click to expand...

I'm fully on board with this, but I think warm-ups should be incorporated into the shootout in the instance of a tie. Maybe something along the lines of having both teams shoot against the #1 seed goalie. Or a mascot showdown.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

sunprairie said:
That’s not actually why, I believe. The reason Minn vs. Penn State is available free on BTN2GO is because Minnesota is used to every game being broadcast and when BTN decided not to run the first round games, Minnesota jumped through hoops at the last minute to have their regional Fox Sports network cover it. And since Fox has a corporate connection with BTN, they added that feed to BTN2GO for free.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Earlier this year I had watched MSU at PSU on BTN2go which was just the video board feed with radio announcers and an overlaid scoreboard. Figured it was the same case.

It's annoying the women's basketball tournament is all on BTN2go but hockey is relegated to Plus.
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

Well, Ohio State could only score it's first 2 on the PP but I think Sparty got tired in the third and then OSU was more willing to go on the attack than they were early on.
6-2 final.
On a side note we were down to a single linesman for most of the game, one took a puck in the mouth 1st period and did not return!
 
Re: 2018 B1G Tournament

Well here we are, gameday round 2 and boy am I feeling the anxiety! I can just tell I'm going to be a bundle of nervous energy all day in anticipation. Plus the Lady Hockey Buckeyes are playing this afternoon in their first ever NCAA Tournament!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top