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NCAA Tournament Selection and Seeding

zoofer said:
Thanks robertearle......I’m somewhat like that with UNH but since the McCloskey incident with the women’s team, the moves of the AD Scarano have almost eviscerated any emotions I’ve got for my alumni! He’s totally vacated the booster clubs of both hockey teams, (men’s Friends group founded in 1968!), but somehow football has theirs, the only sport to still have one!
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Same thing at Ohio State. Our Center Ice Club booster organization is gone along with all the other minor sports booster clubs but football still has theirs and the irony is they are the ones with any history of NCAA violations so how is THAT fair?
 
Sad to hear about booster clubs getting shut down!

Not a man but I will answer your q Zoofer: due to time constraints I mostly just follow women’s hockey. I like following other women’s sports at a high level, but not in depth. I do like the highlights and basic storylines (I hear Geno Auriemma has COVID!)

As for visibility, I think women’s hockey specifically needs our Meg Linehan or LaChina Robinson, that is sports media who are paid to cover hockey at a mainstream outlet, like those ladies cover women’s soccer and basketball full time. There are women’s hockey writers who can do this, just need a media company to take the leap. Next year is 50 year anniversary of Title IX and you know editors will be looking for fluff stories about progress. Only so much of that that can be stomached until it gets quite boring. Hopefully someone will make a bold hire, and be ready to go for Olympics and whatever league remains/emerges post 2022.

I get the sense Canada’s Sportsnet is trying to do better - lots of good interviews on 31 Thoughts pod, freelancing with Marisa Ingemi, but they are kind of stuck until Canada gets a pro league, or USports culturally becomes big like NCAA.

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan has a real talent for dropping into women’s hockey coverage. Recently wrote a nice piece about Abby Roque. Where they can do better (short of hiring a dedicated women’s hockey writer) is leveraging what the infrastructure of NCAA hockey gives them. Tons of opportunity to create content from what the NCAA offers, and American media hasn’t really jumped on that. I think we are trending in right direction, but ways to go.
 
TinyViking said:
This was actually a revelation to my oldest daughter, who we started taking to games at LaBahn when she was 3. She later saw her grandpa watching the Stanley Cup playoffs on TV and started talking to him about the players. "Mommy! Mommy! Boys play hockey, too!"
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Sadly, for me, it was the opposite. I've been a UW men's fan going back to the mid 80's (watching games on PBS at 10:30 at night). I started going to 1 men's game a year in the late 90's. Around 2010ish my Sister who is a UW alum told me there is a UW women's hockey team. I honestly had no idea they existed. Our TV/Radio market was based in Milwaukee and PBS never mentioned anything that stuck in my brain anyway about women's hockey. We went to a few women's games at the KC after I found out they existed. I've been a women's season ticket holder since 2012. I missed out on some epic seasons, what a bummer. Still only go to 1 men's game a year.
 
Timothy A said:
Sadly, for me, it was the opposite. I've been a UW men's fan going back to the mid 80's (watching games on PBS at 10:30 at night). I started going to 1 men's game a year in the late 90's. Around 2010ish my Sister who is a UW alum told me there is a UW women's hockey team. I honestly had no idea they existed. Our TV/Radio market was based in Milwaukee and PBS never mentioned anything that stuck in my brain anyway about women's hockey. We went to a few women's games at the KC after I found out they existed. I've been a women's season ticket holder since 2012. I missed out on some epic seasons, what a bummer. Still only go to 1 men's game a year.
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I was living in suburban Los Angeles, doing nothing one night in early 2004 when I thought to myself 'I wonder how the UW hockey team is doing this year (men's of course). So I went looking on the internet, and discovered that right then, there was a video stream of a game in progress. (And if I am remembering correctly, it Was Robbie Earl's hat trick vs North Dakota!). "I can sit here in LA and watch UW hockey on my computer!?!". I got in the habit of checking back for games being streamed, saw that often as not, it was the women instead of the men, thought 'hockey is hockey', and shortly I was hooked. (It didn't hurt that it was just as the women were getting good.)
 
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UMD definitely stopped skating in the third....either because of their fast start in the first or not, but look at the room they’re giving the Huskies!! Great game though....
 
Smart play by Fontaine to flip the shot vs hard shot....you could see both teams getting pretty fatigued! Can the second game be anything less than OT?
 
zoofer said:
Smart play by Fontaine to flip the shot vs hard shot....you could see both teams getting pretty fatigued! Can the second game be anything less than OT?
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Zoofer I think the game discussion is over in the playoff results thread. Can’t wait for tonight ‘s game! Only want it to go to OT if that’s what OSU needs to win. :-)
 
Hey Lindsay...in rereading your post, you make some very salient points! It would be nice if women’s college hockey had a competent, dedicated writer to cover them in depth! Unfortunately there’s just not the demand yet for that comprehensive coverage....I agree that Emily Kaplan does a credible job when she writes about it yet it’s that kind of inconsistent offering that is probably the most we can hope for as of now....I think that’s why Meg and LaChina and others lean towards the NWHL, PWHPA, and Olympics.....simply more eyes see their efforts! It’s the same for the NWSL, LPGA, WTA, etc.....as minimal as the market and therein the rewards for writing about women’s athletics, they have to focus on the leagues that draw the most attention, and big name athletes! Can you imagine if we tried to find coverage of field hockey, lacrosse or, swimming? Look at skiing....how many follow the FIS? Michaela Schifferin is unto herself in her Alpine skiing success but how many even know her name let alone when you can watch her on TV?
I think all we can do for now is continue to promote and follow the women’s athletics we enjoy and try to let the powers that be realize that their is definitely a viable market to be had! Have you seen how many former women athletes and celebrities have begun to invest in women’s franchises and marketing? I’ve been an advocate for women’s hockey since I used to get in nets for their practices back at UNH in the 70’s, when only a handful of universities believed in women’s sports! Providence, Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Cornell were there but not many others.....so yes, “”we’ve come a long way baby” but so much farther to go!
And just for S&G’s, I appreciate that you felt compelled to let me know your gender! I do give your opinions more weight now
 
zoofer said:
Look at skiing....how many follow the FIS? Michaela Schifferin is unto herself in her Alpine skiing success but how many even know her name let alone when you can watch her on TV?
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While that is true in the US, Shiffrin is huge in Europe. And even though she isn't at the same level here, I would guess that she is better known than any American male alpine skier who is still racing. The problem in skiing isn't that she's female, it is that the sport isn't followed to any extent here.

There are other sports where this is likely even more true. More Americans know Serena Williams -- or Coco Gauff for that matter -- than they do any American male tennis player. Soccer in this country has more stars who are known on the women's side than on the US men's. Obviously, that's not the case world wide, but it does show that if you have a good product, it can grow. Gymnastics and volleyball are a couple of other sports where Americans are more likely to follow women than men.
 
Good points ARM, especially on skiing being bigger in Europe.....I’m not sure if you’ve seen AU Athletics, which is trying to promote more of the women’s athletics.....currently you can see them with volleyball clubs on tv, which I never saw before, only collegiate or Olympic teams.....
Obviously, success breeds notoriety but my point is that if every sports channel would show/mention women’s sports results along with the men’s, then it would build the name recognition of the athletes, which in turn would help promote the fact that women play all these sports! Which within one generation would exponentially build interest-participation-demand-investment!
Look at what women’s athletics have become since The 1999’s let alone since the 70’s! We can only hope!
 
zoofer said:
Look at what women’s athletics have become since The 1999’s let alone since the 70’s!
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Growing up, girls basketball and volleyball were on the rise, but the high school I attended had neither. Even 20 years ago when I went back to the area, dads would complain about the girls' team taking ice time away from their sons. Apparently, boys are born with ice time as a birthright, while girls steal it if you're not vigilant.
 
Zoofer that’s cool you played for UNH. I get Providence and UNH mixed up, and was thinking you were Providence for some reason.

Absolutely agree it is important to enjoy the sport as is, not get to down about what the negligent powers that be are up too.

To ARM’s comment about the perception by some of girls stealing boys ice time: it’s amazing how some people are so accepting, even pre title ix, and others are like cave people even now in 2021 or even 20 years ago. Can only shake my head. You just never know what you’re going to get.

Our local school district seems oblivious that maybe just maybe they should have a spirit day tie in with a girls sporting event. Then there’s my daughter’s teacher - my daughter wrote about Hilary Knight for some women’s day thing, next thing I know the teacher has the whole class watching a video about Hilary Knight yesterday. How cool is that? Some people, thankfully a lot of people, just get it. Love to see it.
 
I do think that today, there is a heavy push to promote women’s athletics! Maybe it’s simply on/with the media/sports I follow....
More commercials are out today for the LPGA (#driveon promotion), PWHPA (televised game at Madison Garden)....softball and soccer getting ESPN and CBS cable coverage respectively....we’re no where near where it should be but it does seem that money and sponsors are getting into the women’s game!
Then of course you have the example of yesterday, where Twitter showed one photo of the men’s weight room at the NCAA’s (basically a basketball court sized room) and then a photo of 1 rack of 2#-20# dumbbells at the women’s site......I kid you not!! You can imagine the postings on that image of equality!
Then there are those like Lindsay’s daughters teacher who have the power to change minds with a simple show and tell respecting a women’s accomplishment.....every avenue is important!
 
Was born with maroon and gold blood flowing through my veins. Gopher football sucked, but there was hope with a new coach, Glen Mason, and Gopher basketball was fresh off a run to the Final Four, just before it got hit with a major scandal, the hockey team was floundering just enough and ready to get a new coach, so when I heard they started up a women's hockey program I got very excited about the team and have followed them closely from their start to the present. Never mattered to me whether it was women or men doing the skating and shooting and such, as long as they were competitive and entertaining to watch and didn't lose all the time. The Wrestling team was also doing very well at this time, so the women's hockey team was probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite team in the late 90s. College football has always been my favorite sport to watch, and if the teams were all female, the same would be true, I just love watching that sport more than any other. I even remember following a women's football league for the short time one existed. Wish they'd start that up again. BB bores me, but I'll watch Gopher games sometime. Baseball even more, yet somehow I do enjoy watching Gopher women's Softball games? Not sure why I prefer them? Maybe because they seem more competitive, maybe? I'd prefer wrestling to those two(men's bb and baseball), and college women's volleyball has become one of my favorites to watch, in part because of how well the Gopher's team has done, but also because it's a far more exciting sport to watch than cbb, imo. Well, the women's hockey team got to 2 Final Fours before they won their first title the year before the wrestling team did, so that gave them a head start and they've been my 2nd favorite sports team to watch ever since. The football team was already #1, although the women's hockey team was SO GOOD for so long that they honestly probably surpassed the football team, until that goofball PJ Fleck showed up, at least. But the cbb team could go undefeated and win a natl title and they'd still never move up past the women's hockey team for me. They will always be one of my Top 2 favorite teams on earth to watch and follow.

To sum it up, outside of college football, I'd say I much prefer watching and following women's sports. The only exception might be that I do usually prefer watching mens cbb than I do women's cbb, but that could be partly because I was raised up watching Gopher men's bb at it's peak. My high school was totally a bb school, and my hometown team played Randy Breuer's team in the state title game, and since my father was the AD, I got front row seats. I even remember being in the same elevator as Breuer, and as I was very young, he was literally a giant compared to me. And it is also in part because of what Clem Haskins did for UMn men's bb in the late 80s while I was overseas in the military. The Men's bb team and the Twins were my two biggest connections with home during my time in the military.

Well, finally, women's hockey, imo, is the more enjoyable game to watch compared to men's hockey, it's a quicker game, imo. And I'm sure my Gopher women's hockey team winning so often also helps.
 
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