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Arizona State Moving To D1

Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

Isn't Nike a big sponsor of international hockey? (the IIHF/IOC?) I thought I read that they're wanting to push the Bauer brand (realizing how much of a disaster the Nike branding was for hockey) back into the spotlight to compete against Adidas / Reebok's The Hockey Company brand (CCM/Koho). *

The NHL jersey contract expires after the 2016-17, so Nike could make a big push in the jersey market by using Oregon to promote their jerseys as "not as terrible as the 'Swift' jersey debacle."

Also, Reebok has already changed their branding of the AHL Reebok Edge jerseys to CCM, and they are slowly switching the CHL teams over to CCM branding on all the Reebok Edge jerseys.



*Jesus H Christ on a cracker is there a monopoly on big athletic companies.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

I think overall it's good for college hockey to expand, but.... if we add teams to the total faster than we add players to the pool, it will not be good for anyone, especially if the monetary changes happening in football extend to hockey.
If they are going to bring in 4 or 5 new pac ten teams with unlimited funds, there has to be a larger pool of players, especially from the west coast, that can fill the rosters up. As it is, many teams from the east are recruiting in B.C. I would expect the ability to get top recruits out of there to get much harder for everyone 15 years from now.
I think the guys at college hockey inc better be very careful as to how this happens if they want to preserve the character of things long term.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

Really Genius? Go to Heisenbergs recruiting site ( probably never heard of it, just google it). Look over the entire list and then give me your examples of brilliant recruiting. Good luck, all of these players could end up any where and will have exactly the same impact. Recruiting prowess............I'd throw darts.

Well rb, not the most intelligent post I've ever seen. A lot of people think you are barking up the wrong tree. Maybe you ought to re think. And if I was ASU, i'd try to win a few games against some non D1 teams first, like maybe get an exhibition against St. Norbert, or Adrian. That might get you a better feel as to what it is like in D1. Finding home, D1, independent games, might be harder than you think, even if it is warm. Ask Huntsville.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

My choice for ASU would be the NCHC

Personally, I don't see 5 other Pac 12 schools jumping on the Division I Hockey bandwagon. And certainly not with the unexpected speed that ASU did. And no "Big 10" school seem anxious to jump into Div. I hockey

What if the B1g, wanting to expand its 6 team hockey conference(too many open dates) went after Pac 12 schools as associate members similar to Johns Hopkins in lacrosse.
  • Power 5 Conference
  • Most of PAC 12 AAU members-(ASU, Utah, OSU and WSU are not )
  • Expand footprint$ of both conferences
Heresy? Maybe not.
 
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Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

What if the B1g, wanting to expand its 6 team hockey conference(too many open dates) went after Pac 12 schools as associate members similar to Johns Hopkins in lacrosse.
  • Power 5 Conference
  • Most of PAC 12 AAU members-(ASU, Utah, OSU and WSU are not )
  • Expand footprint$ of both conferences
Heresy? Maybe not.

I guess I should know better than to have strong expectations, but the Johns Hopkins addition didn't surprise me nearly as much as an ASU addition would. JHU got the Big Ten 6 teams in their lacrosse league, a team that is very relevant in college lacrosse, and a school with a great academic reputation. Also, they're D-III for other sports anyway.
 
ASU may have some conference mates joining them.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson tells us other Pac-12 schools are also looking at joining the Division I ranks. Mentions Stanford & Oregon.</p>— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChadGraff/status/536180525812441088">November 22, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

If Stanford or Oregon have a big donation in the works they will get a D1 team. PSU and ASU did it.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

My choice for ASU would be the NCHC

Personally, I don't see 5 other Pac 12 schools jumping on the Division I Hockey bandwagon. And certainly not with the unexpected speed that ASU did. And no "Big 10" school seem anxious to jump into Div. I hockey

What if the B1g, wanting to expand its 6 team hockey conference(too many open dates) went after Pac 12 schools as associate members similar to Johns Hopkins in lacrosse.
  • Power 5 Conference
  • Most of PAC 12 AAU members-(ASU, Utah, OSU and WSU are not )
  • Expand footprint$ of both conferences
Heresy? Maybe not.

I have said this before, in other threads, but I will repeat it.

I think the Big 10 IS going to go to 8 teams at some point. Nebraska will probably be one of those teams and I could even envision a situation where the league might even subsidize another school to help get an 8th team kickstarted, if necessary. It could be to the conference's overall financial benefit for it to do so and it will certainly help the existing hockey schools in scheduling and make for a more credible league, too.

Nebraska has two key parts of the puzzle already in place. The facilities (both a place to play AND a separate practice facility--one just completed and the other currently under construction--right next door to each other, too) as well the money. They already have Title IX issues at NU so that is the one place they would still have to get their ducks in a row.

The big (pardon the pun) question to me has been, who else in the conference is the best situated to do this, as well? This has been pontificated upon in a number of threads over the past 3 years or so with no real consensus on the topic. Northwestern, Illinois, and Iowa always seem to get mentioned the most.

I don't see the Big 10 adding ANY outside-the-conference schools as hockey affiliates under any set of circumstances. Frankly I think it would be humiliating, image-defeating, and financially unnecessary to go down that path for the conference. You are talking about a conference with mostly very large (and old) schools (4 of the top 10 largest in the country are in the Big 10) that have a lot of money and pride to go along with that. It would lessen the brand to do something like this in a major sport.

Take Nebraska, for example. It has the 2nd smallest enrollment of the 14 member schools yet even it's fundraising arm, the NU Foundation, sits on a warchest of over a billion dollars and that puts Nebraska in the lower 1/3 of the league in that regard.

Potential quote from Jim Delany on the topic:

"Help? HELP? We don't need no stinking help!".
 
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Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

There is no shortage of potential big donors in the Pac12. What it really will take is some organizing in terms of multiple schools doing it at the same time. Never made much sense for one school to start a program in a relative vacuum but now that ASU has broken the seal, it would not be surprising to see others jump on board. There is pretty good support for college club hockey out here in the west. I think recruiting would be strong once the programs were up and running. You don't think these kids from the cold weather areas wouldn't like to be on the beach after practice with hot coeds all around versus freezing their buts off in some cold backwater town? Socal is overrun by expat Canadians and M*******s!
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

And if the presence of hot women mattered, Michigan Tech would be... well, okay, maybe this isn't the best season to be making that joke.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

And if the presence of hot women mattered, Michigan Tech would be... well, okay, maybe this isn't the best season to be making that joke.

I guess we will see. The weather/hot chick theory has never been tested. Now it can be. UAH is an outlier and not really a destination so not much of a draw under my theory. If you are looking at Arizona and California, those are destination spots. Certainly someplace like North Dakota with a strong history as a great program can hold its own against other similar programs. But for many, there is not much difference between ND and Minn or Wisconsin or St Cloud (I know everyone will jump on me for this) as far as weather/girls/hockey etc. But I think (and admittedly its just my own speculation) that recruits will be attracted to a Pac12 type conference. What's the downside once the teams are established? My point is that these places can get up to speed and be competitive fairly quickly. There is a reason that NHL players come to the Ducks/Kings/Coyotes and then live here once they retire. Most of them don't move back to North Dakota or Winnipeg or wherever. Of course, I could be completely wrong but I am happy that ASU is going to give it a run and we can watch what happens.
 
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