Michigan Getting a Women's Team?

[StPaulSam]

It's hard to gauge what those PAC/Big Ten teams attitudes are on hockey. Now that they're in a conference that does have 4'school with women's hockey and will probably now be getting a fifth it may peak their interest but time will tell.

as much as we would all like this to be true, from an AD perspective it's another sport that loses money that would need to be flown across the country 10-15 times per year. Travel with another team? maybe but then you've got your men's basketball team waiting on women's hockey for an extra day (and another night of hotel rooms) then rushing them both to the airport to fly 6-7hrs from State College to Eugene. Or say you put them on commercial flights. Fine but then you're stuck getting them Eugene-Denver-O'Hare-Bus 2-3hrs to Madison (plus any traffic in Chicago). Good luck getting enough seats+room for bags if the airline is only flying a 50-70 seater into Eugene.

This is to say nothing of the fact that your recruiting is still going to come from the East, Midwest, and Canada.

I hate to be a downer but until you could convince a few programs to start simultaneously out west, seems very hard to imagine. If they do add sports, I'd expect them to add the kind of sports where you go to large meets and play multiple schools at the same event. Perhaps even ones sponsored by the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (like the non-hockey ECAC for sports not sponsored by a primary conference) that they can add with lots of schools out west, likely for Title IX compliance reasons.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

as much as we would all like this to be true, from an AD perspective it's another sport that loses money that would need to be flown across the country 10-15 times per year.

Loses money? What college sport besides football and basketball doesn't lose money? The one and ONLY reason the PAC moved to the B1G is they couldn't resist the carrot stick of BIG MONEY that was offered to them. Perhaps you don't understand the scope of how much money that is coming into play, it can indeed fund an additional sport like hockey. There are five NHL teams out west so you can't say there's not a venue for it or lack of popularity. Hockey has been growing by leaps and bounds in this country for a number of years. Look at the strides of USA Hockey in developing it from youth to the Olympics.The PAC knew full well that ALL their sports must travel often as far as the east coast so that obviously was a non-factor in their decision ( and current Big Ten schools travelling out there). I don't see recruiting a particular region as a factor either. Current recruiting covers all the USA, Canada and Europe.

 

[Timothy A]

Loses money? What college sport besides football and basketball doesn't lose money?

I do believe the UW men's hockey team turn a slim profit.

 

[StPaulSam]

Loses money? What college sport besides football and basketball doesn't lose money? The one and ONLY reason the PAC moved to the B1G is they couldn't resist the carrot stick of BIG MONEY that was offered to them. Perhaps you don't understand the scope of how much money that is coming into play, it can indeed fund an additional sport like hockey. There are five NHL teams out west so you can't say there's not a venue for it or lack of popularity. Hockey has been growing by leaps and bounds in this country for a number of years. Look at the strides of USA Hockey in developing it from youth to the Olympics.The PAC knew full well that ALL their sports must travel often as far as the east coast so that obviously was a non-factor in their decision ( and current Big Ten schools travelling out there). I don't see recruiting a particular region as a factor either. Current recruiting covers all the USA, Canada and Europe.

I do understand the amount of money involved. My brother in law works in a Big 12 Athletics department. I hear a lot about it. I still don't think women's hockey will be added by any of the new Big Ten schools any time soon. Especially not by Washington and probably not by Oregon, both of whom will be getting 50% of the media payouts that USC, UCLA, and all of the rest of us will get. What new money the incoming four will receive is probably committed for the time being (for eg., travel costs), especially for a place like UCLA where they have to pay some to Berkeley to offset Berkeley's costs and where the UCLA athletics department is otherwise in deep financial trouble and looking at cutting olympic sports.

cf. https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/...to-the-big-ten

Are there any HS hockey programs for girls even in SoCal or Washington/Oregon? I don't mean private lessons outside of school, I mean run by the schools.

B1G athletics departments don't have a grapple on how they're going to deal with the travel for their current sports either. And to think that the Big Ten presidents almost vetoed Penn State because they didn't want student athletes going all the way to State College, the horror!

I do believe the UW men's hockey team turn a slim profit.

IIRC Gopher men's hockey is also revenue positive.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

I don't think a five team B1G would have to worry about getting bids into tournament, even without an autobid.

Scheduling might be a bit tricky, but an autobid really wouldn't matter much.

Doesn't matter. No conference is going to form from scratch without at least six teams.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Loses money? What college sport besides football and basketball doesn't lose money? The one and ONLY reason the PAC moved to the B1G is they couldn't resist the carrot stick of BIG MONEY that was offered to them. Perhaps you don't understand the scope of how much money that is coming into play, it can indeed fund an additional sport like hockey. There are five NHL teams out west so you can't say there's not a venue for it or lack of popularity. Hockey has been growing by leaps and bounds in this country for a number of years. Look at the strides of USA Hockey in developing it from youth to the Olympics.The PAC knew full well that ALL their sports must travel often as far as the east coast so that obviously was a non-factor in their decision ( and current Big Ten schools travelling out there). I don't see recruiting a particular region as a factor either. Current recruiting covers all the USA, Canada and Europe.

There was a fairly loud outcry from the athletes of these PAC schools in the non-revenue sports when the B1G announcement was made. Many of them did not want to travel like this, taking time away from school, not to mention the wear and tear from traveling across country so many times when they weren't earning the NIL bucks like the revenue sports were. Most of those sports aren't sending athletes to the pros, especially on the women side, so falling behind in school was not a desire for them. I think there could be an issue for these former PAC schools recruiting for certain sports moving forward.

 

[StPaulSam]

There was a fairly loud outcry from the athletes of these PAC schools in the non-revenue sports when the B1G announcement was made. Many of them did not want to travel like this, taking time away from school, not to mention the wear and tear from traveling across country so many times when they weren't earning the NIL bucks like the revenue sports were. Most of those sports aren't sending athletes to the pros, especially on the women side, so falling behind in school was not a desire for them. I think there could be an issue for these former PAC schools recruiting for certain sports moving forward.

Indeed when Washington and Oregon were added to the B1G (with olympic sport powerhouse Stanford left behind to join the ACC), Nebraska's football coach was telling anyone who'd listen that it'd be a huge boon for Nebraska olympic sports because of their now being more or less in the geographic center of the Big Ten. Since most of those teams will be flying commercial, I'd be better to be near a hub airport like Minneapolis or Chicago, for example, but that's neither here nor there.

It's also a huge burden on the equipment staffs. Big 12 schools struggled all last FB season going from, e.g., Utah to Cincy or Orlando to Lubbock. And they spent an enormous amount of money to do it. So there's another expense eating up all of that B1G money for our new "friends."

 

[Still Eeyore]

Doesn't matter. No conference is going to form from scratch without at least six teams.

It is against the Big 10's bylaws to have a conference sport without at least six teams.

 

[Still Eeyore]

I'll once again say that I'm dubious that this will happen. I suspect that it will take someone making an enormous donation specifically to start the program, like the Pegulas at Penn State. Again, this would require a new arena, after Michigan has spent millions renovating Yost. A women's team might play at The Cube for a few years while it gets built, but that wouldn't be considered a permanent solution.

Michigan does this every twelve years, like clockwork. They study adding women's hockey, and then conclude that they could add more sports, and more athletic opportunities, for less money, by adding other sports. In 2001, it was women's soccer and women's water polo. In 2012, it was men's and women's lacrosse.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I'll once again say that I'm dubious that this will happen.

I have connections at UM and from those sources I started this thread. I've known for a year this was gathering momentum at Michigan.
The Illich family will make it happen and get other mega donors on board. Look for the team to come into existence no later than three years.

 

[Timothy A]

I don't think a five team B1G would have to worry about getting bids into tournament, even without an autobid.

Scheduling might be a bit tricky, but an autobid really wouldn't matter much.

Wow, I never thought about the fact that you really don't need an auto bid if you have good teams in your league. That being said, I still don't want a big 16 hockey League to see the light of day.

Geographically it does make sense to put tosu and Michigan in the CHA. That would help the small Minnesota schools with their travel budget.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

Wow, I never thought about the fact that you really don't need an auto bid if you have good teams in your league. That being said, I still don't want a big 16 hockey League to see the light of day.

Geographically it does make sense to put tosu and Michigan in the CHA. That would help the small Minnesota schools with their travel budget.

Ohio State absolutely won't leave the WCHA unless they're made to with a Big Ten conference happening and it's total nonsense to imply otherwise.
You guys complain about travel but Eeyore is the only one of you dedicated enough that I've seen in Columbus supporting his team so if you aren't making the trip don't complain. Do you hear us whining about going to Minnesota and Wisconsin for all of our conference away games?
Also it's inevitable that when we get the new arena it will be in the rotation to host WCHA Final Faceoffs so what are you gonna do then besides complain?

 

[StPaulSam]

Also it's inevitable that when we get the new arena it will be in the rotation to host WCHA Final Faceoffs so what are you gonna do then besides complain?

I didn't realize they were going to start rotating the championship. The only reason it's in Duluth next year is because we're also hosting the Frozen Four.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I didn't realize they were going to start rotating the championship. The only reason it's in Duluth next year is because we're also hosting the Frozen Four.

To be more accurate the schools have to apply to host which Ohio State will do. If the arena's meet the requirement they won't deny them. I assume when St.Thomas gets their new barn they might try and get a Final Faceoff as well.

 

[Timothy A]

Ohio State absolutely won't leave the WCHA unless they're made to with a Big Ten conference happening and it's total nonsense to imply otherwise.
You guys complain about travel but Eeyore is the only one of you dedicated enough that I've seen in Columbus supporting his team so if you aren't making the trip don't complain. Do you hear us whining about going to Minnesota and Wisconsin for all of our conference away games?
Also it's inevitable that when we get the new arena it will be in the rotation to host WCHA Final Faceoffs so what are you gonna do then besides complain?

I clearly stated I was referring to the little MN schools' costs to head so far east, not the fans.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I clearly stated I was referring to the little MN schools' costs to head so far east, not the fans.

I wasn't referencing your particular comment but the grousing I've heard over the years from many on forum.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

A paragraph from the Michigan women's hockey story in The Rink Live.

The addition of Michigan to the women’s college hockey world would mean five Big Ten schools sponsoring the sport, with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State already having programs in place. The Wolverines would seemingly be a natural geographic fit in the current WCHA, and would be the ninth member of that conference.

 

[Still Eeyore]

I have connections at UM and from those sources I started this thread. I've known for a year this was gathering momentum at Michigan.
The Illich family will make it happen and get other mega donors on board. Look for the team to come into existence no later than three years.

As I've also said, if there is a large donation specifically tied to starting a women's hockey team, that becomes a different matter. But I've also become quite skeptical of a lot of the claims you make.

 

[robertearle]

A paragraph from the Michigan women's hockey story in The Rink Live.

The addition of Michigan to the women’s college hockey world would mean five Big Ten schools sponsoring the sport, with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State already having programs in place. The Wolverines would seemingly be a natural geographic fit in the current WCHA, and would be the ninth member of that conference.

A ninth WCHA member would complicate scheduling, meaning either even fewer non-conference games than now, or an unbalanced schedule and doing away with the home-and-home two game weekends vs every conference opponent. I'm not a fan of either option.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

A ninth WCHA member would complicate scheduling, meaning either even fewer non-conference games than now, or an unbalanced schedule and doing away with the home-and-home two game weekends vs every conference opponent. I'm not a fan of either option.

I hear you but I wouldn't let the thought of it bother you much at this point with it just being the opinion of a sports writer.
When they do get a team and will have to petition a conference for admission the WCHA might like the idea of another Big Ten university but I guess we'll see.