Big Ten Hockey Conference

[mookie1995]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

By Greg Garcia Email
Collegian Staff Writer

It was a tough weekend for Penn State fans.

Many tuned in Saturday night to see the Nittany Lions football team lose to the defending national champions in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Meanwhile, others hoped to see the No. 1-ranked women's volleyball team continue its dominance by winning its 110th consecutive match, but instead watched the Lions lose in three sets.

But Penn State fans might be in for a pleasant surprise: The initial rumors are now beginning to sound more realistic as each day passes -- Happy Valley may soon become hockey town.

After months of speculation and years of anticipation, Penn State is reportedly ready to add Division I men's varsity hockey, according to Inside College Hockey. An announcement might be made as early as Friday, according to the report.

Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley declined to comment on these reports when reached by phone Monday.

Currently, the Icers play as an ACHA Division I club team, but are not recognized as a Division I program by the NCAA.

Penn State would instantly become the second-largest university, in terms of enrollment, in the country to offer men's hockey, trailing only Ohio State. The Lions would become the 59th Division I men's hockey program.

Last month, The Altoona Mirror reported Penn State is planning on building a new rink that would replace its current home -- the Penn State Ice Pavilion. The Pavilion holds 1,350 fans while the new arena would accommodate 6,000 to 8,000 people.

Brittany Schlecter, who is an intern for ticket sales of the Hockey Management Association, said the move to NCAA hockey would be well deserved.

"Once the hockey team gets the recognition they deserve, I think some things will change," Schlecter (senior-psychology) said. "They are an elite program and I cannot imagine them not continuing to sell out games. The fans and community love ice hockey players."

Penn State seems to be an ideal fit for D-I hockey. Penn State would join Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin as the sixth member of the Big Ten conference -- the minimum number of teams needed in a conference to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Big Ten has long coveted hockey because of its successful television network, and adding Penn State would only likely help the cause.

Happy Valley is not the only place that is excited to hear about the potential jump. It seems hockey fans in East Lansing, Mich. have heard about the blueprint and are ready to see what comes of it.

"I know that if Penn State moves to Division I, it would mean a lot for hockey," Michigan State student Dan Rudnik (junior-statistics) said. "Right now all the Division I teams are ether in the Northeast or Midwest and if Penn State makes the jump, I think a lot of other schools would potentially follow. I saw the Spartans win a national championship in 2007 and it was pretty big."

 

[joecct]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

Some of them are lucky if they can spell "Joe".

Huh?

And if you haven't repped Handy for his comment on realignment, please do. It was spot on.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

Fair enough. But who wanted SCSU, MSU-M, BSU in the conference? Minnesota.

Now that the conference is completely waterlogged, MN & WI plan on riding off into the sunset. But personally, I'm for offering Minnesota and Wisconsin any sort of a deal to keep them in the WCHA.

I hadn't realized MN unilaterally made decisions for the whole of the conference. I had always thought they had some crazy democratic approach for determining such things.
hmm. Maybe all those whiny SCSU fans have been right all along.

 

[Slap Shot]

For Minnesota its all about selling the season tickets.

Selling tickets isn't a problem - bodies in the seats are, and PSU and OSU don't offer anything more than UND and other MN Div I schools to fans wanting to see them play.

As for the Alaska exception, if conferences go smaller that option becomes less attactive to big schools that will have a plethora of NC games in which to host games.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

You have to remember the BTN has very little access to Gopher hockey games because of the FSN deal.

actually, the BTN gets first dibs at pretty much everything from my understanding. FSN just picks up the scraps (which just happens to be nearly everything)

so this is a case of the BTN not wanting to put the games.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

Selling tickets isn't a problem - bodies in the seats are, and PSU and OSU don't offer anything more than UND and other MN Div I schools to fans wanting to see them play.

As for the Alaska exception, if conferences go smaller that option becomes less attactive to big schools that will have a plethora of NC games in which to host games.

I'd argue that UND and UMD offer far more than OSU or PSU coming IMO maroosh.

 

[blockski]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

actually, the BTN gets first dibs at pretty much everything from my understanding. FSN just picks up the scraps (which just happens to be nearly everything)

so this is a case of the BTN not wanting to put the games.

Not true. They will get first dibs, but in the meantime there have been plenty of existing contracts that need to be honored as well as some competing interests from the WCHA and CCHA.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

Not true. They will get first dibs, but in the meantime there have been plenty of existing contracts that need to be honored as well as some competing interests from the WCHA and CCHA.

Again, from my understanding, that is in at least minnesota's deal. BTN can pick and choose and FSN gets the rest.

 

[Slap Shot]

I'd argue that UND and UMD offer far more than OSU or PSU coming IMO maroosh.

That's what I said, or are you saying I didn't go far enough?

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

That's what I said, or are you saying I didn't go far enough?

Not far enough. (I knew that was going to cause confusion as soon as I re-read it. Sorry about that.)

 

[MichFan]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

Every single year, somebody is going to finish at the bottom of the BTHC, and they will almost certainly have a losing record.

Absolutely true. Ohio State and Penn State will develop a huge rivalry to see who doesn't finish last. Still, to ADs who care about money, losing but filling a rink against recognizable teams is better than winning but having tons of empty seats against Ferris State, Lake State, etc., which is why I think that the BTHC is likely coming.

You seriously underestimate the amount of bad blood felt towards the domers in the Big Ten offices and among Big Ten administrations. There isn't a chance in hades that the Big Ten would invite ND's hockey program in without the domers coming into the conference as a full and equal member.

Absolutely agreed that Notre Dame wouldn't be accepted as a single affiliate to a BTHC. But see below.

After this the other western powers will be scrambling, and I see them forming a conference that would look like:

North Dakota
Denver
Colorado College
St. Cloud State
Nebraska-Omaha
Notre Dame
Miami
Minnesota-Duluth

That was more or less my first thought, too. But suppose Miami and Notre Dame choose to join up with Hockey East instead? Notre Dame is already in an eastern conference for other sports and gets an immediate rivalry with BC. BU, BC, Maine, and NH are at least as attractive as NoDak, CC, and DU. The east has more expansion possibilities, too. Suppose UConn upgrades its program and comes over from AH, and Syracuse goes D1 and joins, then Hockey East begins to look like the Big East.

Everyone is assuming the b11 wants a hockey conference. All indications are they don't give a crap about hockey.

That used to be true. What has changed everything is the Big Ten Network. Delaney was quoted about 10 years ago as saying that he wouldn't force a BTHC if a sixth school went D1, but that was before he had TV slots to fill. College hockey will draw more eyeballs than most of what's on the BTN in the winter. I think that Delaney wants it, and what he wants, he usually gets.

The best thing that the rest of the schools could do is to have no one schedule non-conference games against the big 10 teams.

Interesting idea, but it won't happen. Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue didn't drop their annual football games against Notre Dame after Notre Dame declined the invitation to the Big Ten because they make too much money. The schools that lose Michigan, Minnesota et al. from their conference schedule aren't going to boycott; they'll be competing with each other to keep the Big Ten teams on their non-conference schedule so they still get money. Do you really think that a boycott could last indefinitely?

There could also be political ramifications in Minnesota and Michigan where four Minnesota schools and five Michigan schools would be adversely affected.

I won't speak for Minnesota, but nobody in the Michigan legislature will care. College hockey is purely an on-campus cult thing here. The general public barely notices except when Michigan or Michigan State makes the Frozen Four.

I could be very wrong, but I can't see the formation of a BTHC with no non-BT teams in the mix. 6 teams even with the name brand just doesn't seem to carry much imho and would make for a crappy pre-NCAA post-season.

I agree, which is why I tend to think there will be concurrent conferences, at least to begin.

Let's not forget that there's a precedent for this. The Big Ten awarded an annual championship back when Michigan and Mich St were still in the WCHA. It would be awkward with the teams split across the CCHA and WCHA, but...I think that I've said it before here...assuming no other Big Ten schools are serious about going D1, I could see something along the lines of the old WCHA forming with the Big Ten as a sub-championship...say, Michigan, Mich St, Ohio St, Wisconsin, Minn, Penn St, NoDak, Notre Dame, CC, DU, maybe Miami, UMD.

I will bet almost everything that they will join the CCHA.

Although I think that the BTHC is the more likely possibility, I still think that Penn St in the CCHA is also a realistic possibility. Why do you think that the CCHA didn't take UAH? They probably knew that Penn St was serious about upgrading and wanted to save the 12th slot. Even taking into account Lucia's quote that Penn St wouldn't join without games against Big Ten teams...the CCHA gives them games against their three principal Big Ten rivals, plus Notre Dame. That should be comfortable for them, even if they don't get Wisconsin or Minnesota every year. With the Big Ten division realignment, their football team won't be getting games against every Big Ten team every year, either.

 

[4four4]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

I'm not in any way saying he's lying, I think they would still play Duluth and St. Cloud, but of COURSE he's gonna say that, he's not gonna go, "If we up and leave, you'll never see us again." Plus, doesn't say they'll TRAVEL to St. Cloud or Duluth, just that they'll play them.

If this does happen the Gophers will NOT travel to many places. IMO, most of the non-conference games will be played at home and they probably play one or two series against a couple of schools from the state of Minnesota once every three years or something like that.

If the Gophers leave for the Big Ten what gives them any incentive to play UND in Grand Forks? Just for old times sake? Fat chance.

 

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

If the Gophers leave for the Big Ten what gives them any incentive to play UND in Grand Forks?

A fat chunk of the gate proceeds? Half (or a third, or however much the split would be) of 11,640 tickets is a heck of a big draw. In fact, even if Minnesota went BTHC, I'd guess they'd do a home-and-home with UND every season for the rivalry as well as for the money.

 

[dggoddard]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

A fat chunk of the gate proceeds? Half (or a third, or however much the split would be) of 11,640 tickets is a heck of a big draw. In fact, even if Minnesota went BTHC, I'd guess they'd do a home-and-home with UND every season for the rivalry as well as for the money.

This isn't college football, the NFL or the American League. Visiting teams aren't given much if anything for nonconference games.

Since teams like Michigan and Minnesota usually sell out all their nonconference games, they make more money playing at home and have very little incentive to play nonconference games on the road.

Even if Minnesota does visit UND, SCSU, UMD, MSU-M and Bemidji occasionally, nonconference games will lack the intensity, excitement and importance of games that count in the standings.

 

[brianvf]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

If this does happen the Gophers will NOT travel to many places.

So how would that be different than the current setup?

 

[The Rube]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

I hadn't realized MN unilaterally made decisions for the whole of the conference. I had always thought they had some crazy democratic approach for determining such things.
hmm. Maybe all those whiny SCSU fans have been right all along.

MN has a heavy hand, as does UND and WI. Follow the dollar.

And the cries of the anti-BTHC crowd usually has nothing to do with a dominant conference, it has to do with the "smaller" (heavy heavy heavy on the quotes) colleges surviving. And that is the same opinion I have.

 

[MavsFan]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

Yeah, but UMTC isn't going to making trips up to Duluth, Bemidji, Mankato, and St. Cloud if they don't have to. Thats why I say the Minnesota legistlature ties the Gophers funding to them making apperances at those arenas for one game a year. And if some other school in Minnesota starts up hockey once the BTHC is formed, the Gophers would have to visit them every other year.

There is no way the legislature in this state would do anything that benefits MnSCU schools at the expense of UMTC. And as has been stated, a non-conference pity game will not maintain the "major conference" image that is needed to interest people in Mankato.

 

[CARDS_rule_the_Burgh]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

"I know that if Penn State moves to Division I, it would mean a lot for hockey," Michigan State student Dan Rudnik (junior-statistics) said. "Right now all the Division I teams are ether in the Northeast or Midwest and if Penn State makes the jump, I think a lot of other schools would potentially follow. I saw the Spartans win a national championship in 2007 and it was pretty big."

UAH says hello. By this logic, we should already have a ton of college hockey schools in the south because of UAH...

 

[brianvf]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

UND sportswriter Brad Schlossman offers up his opinion:

http://undhockey.areavoices.com/2010/09/15/how-appealing-is-big-ten-hockey/

 

[kingdobbs]

Re: Big Ten Hockey Conference

UAH says hello. By this logic, we should already have a ton of college hockey schools in the south because of UAH...

But the schools that presumably would be making the jump to follow PSU would not be islands unto themselves like UAH. They would be right in the "core footprint" of college hockey.

Also, don't underestimate the power of having a strong athletic brand already. Penn State is a name, and it gets the attention of lots of schools who would think Penn State is an "institution like us".