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.

Merrimack to add women's hockey

Hux

Hux

Alfond to Ridder & rinks in between
According to the Boston Globe: "Merrimack College has agreed to form six new teams in a settlement reached after a federal review found that the school's number of male athletes was unfairly higher than its number of female athletes, the US Department of Education announced."

"One new team, a women's hockey team, ultimately will compete at the Division 1 level, the Education Department said."

No time was given for when these teams will be added, but you'd have to figure they aren't too far off in the future.
 
Last edited:
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

futurestar said:
Have they hired a coach? maybe elevating a men's assistant?
Click to expand...

I have a feeling this will be a phased in project that will probably take the rest of the decade, if not a decade, to complete. Given the cost of D1 hockey, I would think that team would be one of the last added. Hopefully I am wrong.
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Hux I am hearing that Merrimack is adding women's hockey as result of a Title IX settlement. This will happen sooner rather than later.
 
Last edited:
UCONN FAN said:
Hux I am hearing that Merrimack is adding women's hockey as result of a Title IX settlement. This will happen sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I doubt they will add teams all at once. As such I would expect them to push off the big ticket item for as long as possible.
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Had a conversation yesterday with someone involved and he said Merrimack is reluctantly adding women's hockey. The timetable for the rollout was also negotiated as part of the settlement. It will be in the next couple of seasons.
 
Last edited:
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Hux said:
I have a feeling this will be a phased in project that will probably take the rest of the decade, if not a decade, to complete. Given the cost of D1 hockey, I would think that team would be one of the last added. Hopefully I am wrong.
Click to expand...


Hey Hux ,What do you think A True D1 Women's program cost for College to fund $1,500,000 PLUS .? Scholarships ,Coaches salary, Travel, Ice time, Gear
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Besides a boat load of money, what do you think it take to get the program off the ground?
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

OneTimer said:
A league affiliation
Click to expand...
No Brainer - Hockey East, the men are already there. There are seven teams that are the same for both Men and Women, with Merrimack, UMass and UMass Lowell being only on the men's side, and UConn being only on the women's side.

My guess is that this conversation consumes roughly 12 seconds of Mr. Bertagna's time.
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Hockey it's only a Game said:
Hey Hux ,What do you think A True D1 Women's program cost for College to fund $1,500,000 PLUS .? Scholarships ,Coaches salary, Travel, Ice time, Gear
Click to expand...

Did Penn State not infuse something like 89 Mil to start?. Now that includes the building of a Rink.

More seriously, 1M to 2.5M is probably the range....

No clue on real numbers, but I'll take a wild stab in the dark on the break down. Most teams have some basic costs:
Salaries - $200K (Coaches/Trainers)
Equipment - $3Kx25=$75K
Travel - $3Kx10=$30K
Hotels - $2Kx10=$20K
Recruiting - $30-50K (Scouts travels and Official visits) (This number probably varies a lot from school to school)

So excluding schollies and ice cost budget runs at around $400K a year. Ice and Schollies are the big variables. How they get expensed/built into the program, probably varies greatly from school to school. Not sure how far out to lunch my WAG (wild A guess) numbers are, but consider this note from a few years ago:

"Wisconsin spends roughly $2.5 million on the women and gets $0.6 million of it back. Minnesota spends about half of that and gets $0.4 million back. Wisconsin (in 2009 anyway) lost just under $2 million while Minnesota lost a little over $0.8 million. The point: spending money doesn't reduce the amount of money you lose, it increases it."
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

It is the Hockey East bylaws that any current member who adds a women's team will automatically be accepted into the league.
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

IceIsNice said:
No Brainer - Hockey East, the men are already there.
My guess is that this conversation consumes roughly 12 seconds of Mr. Bertagna's time.
Click to expand...

UCONN FAN said:
It is the Hockey East bylaws that any current member who adds a women's team will automatically be accepted into the league.
Click to expand...

The league acceptance conversation has just been reduced to 0 seconds. :)
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

OnMAA said:
The league acceptance conversation has just been reduced to 0 seconds. :)
Click to expand...

All of this portends really good news for people who want women's hockey at Merrimack. However I think Bertagna et al would want to see a viable business or operational plan before they commit to an absolute, definitive yes. They need to do the due diligence even though they want it all to happen.
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Since you can't play up anymore, will the women's team be classified as D-II (unless can you match your men's D-I playup with a women's D-I playup?)? It's immaterial for women as there is a combined D-I/II NC for ice hockey. Scholly's are still 18 no matter what division you're in, so that's not a disadvantage.

D-II's playing women's ice hockey: Franklin Pierce, St. Anselm, St. Michaels. Get 3 more and you have a viable competitive conference that gets an AQ into the tournament.
 
Last edited:
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

I thought the deal was that teams aren't allowed to be D-I in hockey and D-III in everything else. I don't believe there is a problem with being D-I in hockey and D-II in everything else, because that is still a scholarship program. For example, Lindenwood is D-I in women's hockey but will be D-II in most of its sports, and they are new to the NCAA as a department.
 
Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

ARM said:
I thought the deal was that teams aren't allowed to be D-I in hockey and D-III in everything else. I don't believe there is a problem with being D-I in hockey and D-II in everything else, because that is still a scholarship program. For example, Lindenwood is D-I in women's hockey but will be D-II in most of its sports, and they are new to the NCAA as a department.
Click to expand...
Women have a combined D-I/II championship. Also, if your D-II sport does not sponsor a championship (D-II men's ice hockey), you're allowed to play in the D-I championship, but you're a D-II team. That would apply to any new D-II programs, not the current crop who declared their playup many moons ago. You CANNOT play for a lower championship (D-III).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top