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Binghamton University announcement

All the other America East teams are in Hockey East. Don’t know if that means anything and they would seem like an odd addition to Hockey East but who knows?
 
If true, Binghamton and Utica would be a good fit for the ECAC, without disrupting the travel partners. RPI-Union, Harvard-Dartmouth, Yale-Brown, Q-Princeton, SLU-Clarkson, Cornell-Colgate, Bingo-Utica. Maybe. Or split off into an ECACNY and an ECACNE (including Cornell in NE because of the Ivies).
 
moose97 said:
There's a moratorium on single sport conferences, so, not likely
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Well, I’d say two things:

1. The Northeast 10 would not be a single sport conference and that conference would include a plurality of NE-10 schools.

2. The moratorium doesn’t stop them from joining together, scheduling games, having a conference tournament, or calling themselves whatever they want. It just means they are ineligible for an automatic bid.
 
AMC said:
2. The moratorium doesn’t stop them from joining together, scheduling games, having a conference tournament, or calling themselves whatever they want. It just means they are ineligible for an automatic bid.
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Not technically, but it has kept the current independents from doing just that. Per Eric Largent, they stopped discussions once they realized they couldn't be a true conference.
 
dhammond said:
https://www.wicz.com/story/48706920...otential-start-date-in-20242025-academic-year

Is a new conference in the works with Binghamton, Utica, LIU, and the 6 D2 schools?
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Taking a walk down this hypothetical situation - I am not sure outside of Saint Anselm those D2 schools are in a position to fully embrace even the bottom end of D1 resources. SNHU could afford it, if their President wasn't so busy traveling the globe he would see the value in it. But I won't hold my breath.
 
moose97 said:
Not technically, but it has kept the current independents from doing just that. Per Eric Largent, they stopped discussions once they realized they couldn't be a true conference.
Click to expand...

Right now, one of the challenges for a lot of the new independents is getting games scheduled - Binghamton will run into this issue as a lot of schedules are set three to four years in advance. If seven or eight teams get together and build out a 20-25 game "conference" schedule, these schools only need to find a certain level of non-league games to get started.

Anybody can get together and form a single-sport league in any sport across divisions I, II and III - there are no rules against it, except for the fact that the NCAA's moratorium prevents earning an automatic qualifying bid at the present time.

The NEWHA was in the same situation on the women's ice hockey side - the league was formed as a scheduling alliance that was not eligible for an AQ way back in 2017, but eventually was recognized as an official NCAA Division I league just two years later because there was no moratorium (https://newhaonline.com/general/2019-20/releases/0904NCAAElectionD1) and the 2022-23 season was the first for the conference to earn an automatic qualifying bid.

What the independents could possibly consider is to start a scheduling alliance so when/if the moratorium is lifted, they already have a rough conference structure in place - the institutions can then "flip the switch" when/if the moratorium is lifted, or dissolve it if the NCAA puts up a road block.

The alternative, I guess, is to do nothing, stay as an independent, and hope and pray that one of the existing leagues takes them? Waiting until a moratorium is lifted to start talking about forming a league is far too late.
 
moose97 said:
Not technically, but it has kept the current independents from doing just that. Per Eric Largent, they stopped discussions once they realized they couldn't be a true conference.
Click to expand...

Ultimately, no one can stop these teams from scheduling each other. It makes sense to have at the very least a scheduling agreement.
 
HawksHockey said:
Right now, one of the challenges for a lot of the new independents is getting games scheduled - Binghamton will run into this issue as a lot of schedules are set three to four years in advance. If seven or eight teams get together and build out a 20-25 game "conference" schedule, these schools only need to find a certain level of non-league games to get started.

Anybody can get together and form a single-sport league in any sport across divisions I, II and III - there are no rules against it, except for the fact that the NCAA's moratorium prevents earning an automatic qualifying bid at the present time.

The NEWHA was in the same situation on the women's ice hockey side - the league was formed as a scheduling alliance that was not eligible for an AQ way back in 2017, but eventually was recognized as an official NCAA Division I league just two years later because there was no moratorium (https://newhaonline.com/general/2019-20/releases/0904NCAAElectionD1) and the 2022-23 season was the first for the conference to earn an automatic qualifying bid.

What the independents could possibly consider is to start a scheduling alliance so when/if the moratorium is lifted, they already have a rough conference structure in place - the institutions can then "flip the switch" when/if the moratorium is lifted, or dissolve it if the NCAA puts up a road block.

The alternative, I guess, is to do nothing, stay as an independent, and hope and pray that one of the existing leagues takes them? Waiting until a moratorium is lifted to start talking about forming a league is far too late.
Click to expand...

It is a matter of WHEN the moratorium is lifted, not if IMO. The reason it has been in place so long is because of the changes within the NCAA. As things settle from the Transformation Committee I think we will see more independence by the sports in determining what is best for each sport. Hockey is obviously dealing with different challenges than football or basketball. So in the end it will be up a board of hockey minded decision makers. It is clearly better to be in a league than independent. It is just a matter of time, you're right those schools need to get the details sorted out now and not later.
 
SNHUPenman said:
It is a matter of WHEN the moratorium is lifted, not if IMO. The reason it has been in place so long is because of the changes within the NCAA. As things settle from the Transformation Committee I think we will see more independence by the sports in determining what is best for each sport. Hockey is obviously dealing with different challenges than football or basketball. So in the end it will be up a board of hockey minded decision makers. It is clearly better to be in a league than independent. It is just a matter of time, you're right those schools need to get the details sorted out now and not later.
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I mean, maybe. Pretending anyone has a clue what college athletics will look like when this all sorts out is laughable.
 
moose97 said:
I mean, maybe. Pretending anyone has a clue what college athletics will look like when this all sorts out is laughable.
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No one knows what anything will look like in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years,... It is all a SWAG. I think it is a safe bet to say that the moratorium will be lifted before the existing leagues accept more than a small number of the current independents. For the Alaska schools, Lindenwood,... I would assume no league is going to come calling any time soon. They will need to take care of themselves and why not band together and ride out the storm until the landscape changes again.
 
How long will Sacred Heart and RIT stick around in Atlantic hockey, now that RIT can offer schollarships and Sacred Heart has their new arena? If Utica and Binghampton are going to invest in hockey, while both already have good arenas, can anyone else see them starting a new league at some point with the likes of Miami and potentially a few others in Atlantic Hockey that may be interested in playing at a higher level, such as maybe Army and Navy?

I think that there will be a lot of movement once the moratorium ends, and Stonehill/LIU could find spots in Atlantic Hockey if the above happens. Could also explain why we haven't yet seen an informal conference start yet with the independent schools.
 
I haven’t seen anyone say that they would play in the Memorial Arena, where the AHL teams played in town, but… where else would they play?

If there are huge sums of cash for a new rink, you’d think that would’ve been part of the announcement of a plan to make an announcement.
 
ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
I haven’t seen anyone say that they would play in the Memorial Arena, where the AHL teams played in town, but… where else would they play?

If there are huge sums of cash for a new rink, you’d think that would’ve been part of the announcement of a plan to make an announcement.
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Last fall they opened a world class baseball facility-- thanks to a $60 mil anonymous donation. It wouldn't shock me in the least if they were getting their ducks in a row to build a rink.
But with a 7,500 seater downtown there is absolutely no urgency to rush into it. They have time to get the program rolled out while planning a rink -- if that's what they intend to do.
 
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