Saddle Up! Lock and Load!
Well, as we all know, the one thing that might herald the arrival of the Dreaded BTHC happened last week, and now everybody is reading the tea leaves about what happens next. There's a lot of people at some of the schools that would clearly be reduced to being college hockey mid-majors overnight if the Big Ten Schools become their own conference. A lot of people fear it will be a subtraction by addition, as there's a few schools that could throw in the towel if the Big Ten schools don't make yearly visits to their arena's.
Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Ferris State, Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State-Mankato, Bemidji State, St. Cloud State, Nebraska-Omaha, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, Alabama-Huntsville, Colorado College, Denver, North Dakota, Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Miami and Notre Dame are all not going to be not in the BTHC. These schools are all nervous about their future. Well, I'm here to tell you, its time to stop crying about what's going to happen, and to start doing something to plan for it.
The time is now to start raising a ruckus among your schools administration and athletic departments. Send them emails and letters asking them about what they are doing, and what you can do to help. And not just the head Athletic Director, but all of his underlings, and his or hers personal secretary as well. Get in touch with the hockey booster club and ask them what they know, and how much they've been giving to the school. Ask them if they've been asking the same questions we've all been asking here. And at the smaller schools who's athletic departments are pretty much funded by the hockey team, get in touch with the basketball, football, and other athletic boosters as well. They should be nervous about a possible lack of funds coming into the athletic department as well. Don't forget about the local advertisers in your schools community as well. Make noise up the local political food chain as well.
Give what you can to the athletic departments. Most of these schools should already have athletic endowments that go towards the hockey programs, and if not, well, that's something you should be asking the Boosters about. If its just 20 bucks, its 20 bucks. The interest from that 20 bucks will always be there, and ideally, a lot more people from your school will be pitching in their 20 bucks as well, adding all up.
Don't forget who you guys are! Each and every one of the schools listed above here can probably rattle off a few times they've gone into one of the Big Ten School's barn, and whipped them down one end of the ice and up another. Buy some more school swag, and encourage more of your students and fans to do the same. The days of some kid at your school being able to walk into the student section wearing the colors of the BT school need to be OVER!!! I'm not saying get physically violent with them, but ideally, be a bit more militant about wearing your school colors. Ideally, things should be so that their friends see them outside of the arena and they tell em that they're not going in there with them if they're wearing that hat, shirt or jersey that they got from Wal-Mart.
And lastly, this is for those that can, and for those that want to see these schools continue on. You need to go to the games at their barns. It may be for some of you that have moved away from your school to go to your schools games at the BT schools, but your school doesn't get anything from having your butt there. They need your butt there to buy seats and eating from the concessions, and buying 50-50 tickets from the volleyball, swimming or track teams. Drag as many people as you can to those games. If you're lucky enough to still live near your school and can afford it, get season tickets and try to always get an extra ticket, so that you can drag that extra friend along with you.
If you're a fan of say one of the bigger schools go ahead and get more people to road trip to the games at some of the smaller schools. Get in touch with the booster club and even the student fan group of your school as well, see if somebody can put together a bus or organize a few vans to caravan out to some of the other schools. I've road tripped out to a few hockey schools myself in a big passenger van before; North Dakota, Bentley, Mercyhurst, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Duluth, and I'm going to tell you, if you can't have fun on a weekend road trip, then you're just an old stick in the mud. Some of my best college memories where made while in a back seat of a van with a bunch of friends all around me, or while going into the local bar there with our colors on and talking a little smack with the locals. It great fun for any sports fan. Spend money at those games, at the bar, and let the locals know why you're there.
Its not going to be easy now with these BTHC barbarians gathering outside of the gates of the respective conferences to tear out the Big Ten schools. Its likely to happen, but its not going to happen for a while yet. And maybe if enough fuss is made, the BTHC can be held off for perhaps another generation. The longer the BTHC takes to form, the better off the smaller schools should be, as long as they take great care in building up their own personal war-chests to get them to the point where they can continue to sustain themselves without needing to have Big Ten Schools come to their barns. If everybody that's currently in NCAA D1 college hockey continues to field a program, then whatever conferences that form out of the aftermath of the BTHC will thrive, and just might have room to let in a few more schools as well.
All of these schools are now pretty much in the same boat. The fight to save your programs from a long slow death starts now. Doing at least something now beats sitting around and watching the slow death happen. Just one of the schools dropping hurts everybody else. Now is the time to man a post if you want to save your school's hockey program. I for one, would rather see y'all go down swinging, than going out with a whimper. I'm just one crazy sports nut who just wishes his school could add hockey, but if there's no viable conference for my school to join, then its never going to happen for me. There's not much I myself can really do, but I sure as hell wanna do at least something. All I wanna know here is, who else is ready to do Something?
Well, as we all know, the one thing that might herald the arrival of the Dreaded BTHC happened last week, and now everybody is reading the tea leaves about what happens next. There's a lot of people at some of the schools that would clearly be reduced to being college hockey mid-majors overnight if the Big Ten Schools become their own conference. A lot of people fear it will be a subtraction by addition, as there's a few schools that could throw in the towel if the Big Ten schools don't make yearly visits to their arena's.
Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Ferris State, Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State-Mankato, Bemidji State, St. Cloud State, Nebraska-Omaha, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, Alabama-Huntsville, Colorado College, Denver, North Dakota, Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Miami and Notre Dame are all not going to be not in the BTHC. These schools are all nervous about their future. Well, I'm here to tell you, its time to stop crying about what's going to happen, and to start doing something to plan for it.
The time is now to start raising a ruckus among your schools administration and athletic departments. Send them emails and letters asking them about what they are doing, and what you can do to help. And not just the head Athletic Director, but all of his underlings, and his or hers personal secretary as well. Get in touch with the hockey booster club and ask them what they know, and how much they've been giving to the school. Ask them if they've been asking the same questions we've all been asking here. And at the smaller schools who's athletic departments are pretty much funded by the hockey team, get in touch with the basketball, football, and other athletic boosters as well. They should be nervous about a possible lack of funds coming into the athletic department as well. Don't forget about the local advertisers in your schools community as well. Make noise up the local political food chain as well.
Give what you can to the athletic departments. Most of these schools should already have athletic endowments that go towards the hockey programs, and if not, well, that's something you should be asking the Boosters about. If its just 20 bucks, its 20 bucks. The interest from that 20 bucks will always be there, and ideally, a lot more people from your school will be pitching in their 20 bucks as well, adding all up.
Don't forget who you guys are! Each and every one of the schools listed above here can probably rattle off a few times they've gone into one of the Big Ten School's barn, and whipped them down one end of the ice and up another. Buy some more school swag, and encourage more of your students and fans to do the same. The days of some kid at your school being able to walk into the student section wearing the colors of the BT school need to be OVER!!! I'm not saying get physically violent with them, but ideally, be a bit more militant about wearing your school colors. Ideally, things should be so that their friends see them outside of the arena and they tell em that they're not going in there with them if they're wearing that hat, shirt or jersey that they got from Wal-Mart.
And lastly, this is for those that can, and for those that want to see these schools continue on. You need to go to the games at their barns. It may be for some of you that have moved away from your school to go to your schools games at the BT schools, but your school doesn't get anything from having your butt there. They need your butt there to buy seats and eating from the concessions, and buying 50-50 tickets from the volleyball, swimming or track teams. Drag as many people as you can to those games. If you're lucky enough to still live near your school and can afford it, get season tickets and try to always get an extra ticket, so that you can drag that extra friend along with you.
If you're a fan of say one of the bigger schools go ahead and get more people to road trip to the games at some of the smaller schools. Get in touch with the booster club and even the student fan group of your school as well, see if somebody can put together a bus or organize a few vans to caravan out to some of the other schools. I've road tripped out to a few hockey schools myself in a big passenger van before; North Dakota, Bentley, Mercyhurst, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Duluth, and I'm going to tell you, if you can't have fun on a weekend road trip, then you're just an old stick in the mud. Some of my best college memories where made while in a back seat of a van with a bunch of friends all around me, or while going into the local bar there with our colors on and talking a little smack with the locals. It great fun for any sports fan. Spend money at those games, at the bar, and let the locals know why you're there.
Its not going to be easy now with these BTHC barbarians gathering outside of the gates of the respective conferences to tear out the Big Ten schools. Its likely to happen, but its not going to happen for a while yet. And maybe if enough fuss is made, the BTHC can be held off for perhaps another generation. The longer the BTHC takes to form, the better off the smaller schools should be, as long as they take great care in building up their own personal war-chests to get them to the point where they can continue to sustain themselves without needing to have Big Ten Schools come to their barns. If everybody that's currently in NCAA D1 college hockey continues to field a program, then whatever conferences that form out of the aftermath of the BTHC will thrive, and just might have room to let in a few more schools as well.
All of these schools are now pretty much in the same boat. The fight to save your programs from a long slow death starts now. Doing at least something now beats sitting around and watching the slow death happen. Just one of the schools dropping hurts everybody else. Now is the time to man a post if you want to save your school's hockey program. I for one, would rather see y'all go down swinging, than going out with a whimper. I'm just one crazy sports nut who just wishes his school could add hockey, but if there's no viable conference for my school to join, then its never going to happen for me. There's not much I myself can really do, but I sure as hell wanna do at least something. All I wanna know here is, who else is ready to do Something?
