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Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

If this leads to a major reshuffle in the east, I'll be ticked. Hockey East was fine with 10, it will be fine now with 11. If Bentley does ever get around to building an arena as they've said they plan to do, they could join to bring HE back up to 12. That, or Quinnipiac could move over and Bentley could take their spot. Holy Cross and RIT would both be options to replace Quinnipiac too, if the Bobcats ever moved over. RIT can't offer scholarships, which might prevent them from joining other conferences, but neither can the Ivy's or Union, so they would fit in the ECAC. Holy Cross fits academically (though I don't think the ECAC really cares, seeing as its a hockey-only conference), but I'm not sure their arena would meet ECAC requirements if there are any. I don't see the ECAC really wanting to go after any of the others. AIC just doesn't seem to be aware it even has a hockey team, Army and Air Force seem content as mid-majors (obviously recruiting is hard for them and they'd rather be decent in Atlantic Hockey than garbage in a bigger conference), and I don't see the rest as wanting to spend big money to take their programs to the next level, whereas with HC, Bentley and RIT I could see it. A few minor moves like this I'd be fine with. But a huge, multi-team shakeup would be the worst.

Other than that I think this is a good move. Hopefully ASU doesn't join too though. It would be stupid for the same reason it was stupid for Notre Dame to join Hockey East. I think its weird to have affiliate members, but we already set the precedence with John's Hopkins in Lacrosse. At least this move will resurrect some of the old CCHA rivalries, which is, I think, what most of us who have hated the B1G Mistake from the start really want.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

RIT is a D-III Liberty League School, like Union, RPI, SLU and Clarkson and competes with them in most other sports. They are physically close to Colgate, Cornell, SLU and Clarkson in Central NYS. Also, Penn and Columbia have club teams and all the money to build whatever they need if they decided to upgrade. Another possibility is HC as they are a patriot league school (like Colgate) and compete in many sports with the Ivy's. I wonder if HE might go after HC.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Quinnipiac certainly makes sense. As a second choice I think Bentley would be a good fit if there is any shot of a reasonable arena (I have no idea what they have now, but the old Volpe complex when Merrimack joined was pretty bad, so...).

This is a good change. It will be a little awkward next season with ND playing in HE as lame ducks...
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

AspyDad said:
No doubt that QPac goes to HE, RIT to ECAC. I remember Paul Kelly right after he left College Hockey Inc say that he expected the Ivies to form their own league soon.
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I'd prefer Holy Cross to the ECAC rather than RIT because I think it's a better geographic fit and as a Patriot League school fits better than RIT, and among non-hockey fans has better name recognition.

But if Quinnipiac leaves, I'd vote for the Ivies peeling off first and foremost. The possibility of a 20 game schedule and playing the same team on back to back nights, the rivalries would be intense and a blast.
 
alslammerz said:
I'd prefer Holy Cross to the ECAC rather than RIT because I think it's a better geographic fit and as a Patriot League school fits better than RIT, and among non-hockey fans has better name recognition.

But if Quinnipiac leaves, I'd vote for the Ivies peeling off first and foremost. The possibility of a 20 game schedule and playing the same team on back to back nights, the rivalries would be intense and a blast.
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HC needs to upgrade their women's team to D1 before the ECAC will consider them. Their refusal was the reason the ECAC chose Quinny.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

joecct said:
Will this start the Eastern equivalent of the Great Western Schism?
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No: Hockey East forming 33 years ago was the Great Eastern Schism. The question for Hockey East now is who to invite to replace Notre Dame. While the men's and women's leagues are separate, I think they should look at a school that has both and it also should look for programs that are already established national contenders.

Quinnipiac fits that perfectly and the boost to the women's league would be immediate and help make it much better immediately. However, Quinnipiac may prefer to stay in the ECAC, now the their's men's league has regained national prominence and their women's league is considerably stronger than Hockey East's.

After Quinnipiac there is RPI, who Hockey East courted once before, but were ultimately rejected. Would they consider a move now? The have both men's and women's hockey teams, but the women have never been nationally prominent and the men have not been for well over a decade.

After them the only other two ECAC schools would be Union or Colgate. Union has a nationally prominent men's program, but the women's program is likely the worst DI program. Union is planning a $10 renovation Achilles Center, but they seem to have no commitment to improving the women's program.

Colgate is slightly further away, 272.8 mi from Boston according to Google (about 4 h 39 min), but that is not much more than Orono to Boston. It also has a new rink opening next season, which would be a major plus. Their men's team made the NCAAs two seasons ago and also back in 2005, but has been a middle of the pack team for most of the past decade. Their women's team has also been a middle of the pack team for most of the past decade, but was very good this past season and could probably do well in the weaker women's Hockey East league. Colgate is also a member of the Patriot League along with BU.

After those 4 schools Hockey east would need to look at Atlantic Hockey. Bentley is in Waltham, a suburb of Boston, but has no rink and uses a local town rink well below Hockey East standards. They also don't have a women's team. The university in early stages of considering building an on campus rink, but if they wanted to join Hockey East it would likely need to have more requirements than if they stayed in Atlantic Hockey.

Next closest is Holy Cross. They are also a member of the Patriot League with BU and they already have an on campus rink. They are renovating the Hart Center but current plans are to leave the rink alone, except for redoing the hockey offices and women's locker room, re-engineering the sound system and adding video boards. However, they might revise those plans if they join Hockey East. They also have a women's team, although they play in a mixed DII/DIII league and I don't believe they offer scholarships. The team is very good at that level, but I don't know if they would upgrade it to DI, or if Hockey East would require it (if Hockey East does invite Holy Cross to join I would hope that they would require the women's team to become DI and join the league). Like Colgate, Holy Cross is a member of the Patriot League along with BU.

Thinking out of the box, there is RIT. They have both men's and women's DI teams and a new rink that opened just two years ago. They are committed to DI hockey at the highest level and the men's team has had success in the NCAA tournament. Distance is an issue here, but they appear to have the same commitment to hockey that Quinnipiac has shown over the past decade.

Personally, my order of preference would be:
Quinnipiac
Colgate
Holy Cross (if they upgraged the rink and women's team)
RIT
RPI
Union
Bentley

Sean
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

What was RPIs reasoning last time they were under consideration?

If it was loss of old rivalries, 12 ooc games might help rectify that a bit.

Travel is the only thing I can really come up with, but I'd figure higher conference revenue payouts might quell that as well.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Agree with the overwhelming opinion that Notre Dame never really seemed to fit into Hockey East. Even when they came to BU, it felt more like an OOC game.

Speaking of ND, where are all of the ND fans on this board? I remember they used to have a fairly active season thread etc. Can't say I've seen any in a while?
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

I looked for a season thread and only found a 14-15 thread via search.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

defkit said:
As a second choice I think Bentley would be a good fit if there is any shot of a reasonable arena (I have no idea what they have now, but the old Volpe complex when Merrimack joined was pretty bad, so...).
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Bentley's rink is akin to your local MDC rink. The "old Volpe" is far superior to what Bentley has now.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

****, 90 minutes is a bad thing?

Minnesota fans do that to Duluth and Mankato all the time. And vice versa.
 
komey1 said:
I think RIT would jump at the chance to move to ECAC. They also have a women's team that could join the ECAC women's conference. They have facilities that I believe would be comparable to most of the ECAC.

The biggest strike against them would be they would need to rearrange travel partners.
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Ecac would be great for RIT. This program is growing very well.

Brand new rink, this was first season in it.
 
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