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Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
So literally, what makes sense in Hockey East is how much fans would gripe about having to drive 90 minutes?
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They are in Waltham, with I believe the rink in Watertown, which is right outside Boston. No more than 30 minutes from several HEA schools. Not a reason to choose them IMO. All other aspects of the program (besides owning NU) are far below Hockey East standards.

15 min. from BU's Agganis Arena according to Google Maps
 
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Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

I would also like to point out that we can also stay at 11 for now and see what happens. I've also never been a fan of Quinnipiac.
 
ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
So literally, what makes sense in Hockey East is how much fans would gripe about having to drive 90 minutes?
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What makes sense to hockey east fans. Bentley is the third best option. QU, RPI, then Bentley with a new arena or HC with a new arena.

There aren't a ton of options, especially if it's only one team. If it were two I could see grabbing the two north country teams.

Do you have an option none of us are considering?
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

UML Puck Hawk said:
What was RPIs reasoning last time they were under consideration?
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According to an old Without A Peer blog post: "RPI was offered another opportunity to join Hockey East in the 1990s, but the school again turned down the invitation, citing a satisfaction with their position in the ECAC given that the program was among the league's top teams at the time."

Sean
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Tater said:
They are in Waltham, with I believe the rink in Watertown, which is right outside Boston. No more than 30 minutes from several HEA schools. Not a reason to choose them IMO. All other aspects of the program (besides owning NU) are far below Hockey East standards.

15 min. from BU's Agganis Arena according to Google Maps
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I've driven it many times going between my daughter's games at Ryan Arena and either men's games at Agganis or women's games at Walter Brown (or vice versa). Fifteen minutes at most.

Sean
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Buckeye22 said:
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.
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If old rivalries is what we want, add the MAC schools for an all D1 conference and rename it the CCHA. Pretty sure Bowling Green still holds the naming rights.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Buckeye22 said:
AIC just doesn't seem to be aware it even has a hockey team,
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This is the first year I remember AIC getting a commitment (two!) before the NCAA season is over! [We did get an early commitment for the goalie who left us for Omaha a few years ago]
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Amazing that Quinnipiac is part of this discussion. If there was a Hockey East opening 20 years ago and Quinnipiac was mentioned, many would send you to a drug test.

In the meantime best all at Hockey East and QU concentrate on the next shift, next period and next game in Albany.

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Sean Pickett said:
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
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Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Patman said:
I would also like to point out that we can also stay at 11 for now and see what happens. I've also never been a fan of Quinnipiac.
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Unfortunately an 11 team league with only 20 league games is pretty close to the same boat the six team B1G was in and why they wanted Notre Dame. And with an 11 team league there is no way you are going to have a 30-game league schedule, so the only other option would be an unbalanced schedule like Atlantic Hockey has and the CCHA had. Do you really want that? I don't.

Too many Hockey East fans on this board are far too intolerant of having a team a few hours from Boston and seems to think Hockey East teams should only be in New England. If you read that Without A Peer blog post you would learn the league originally invited RPI, Clarkson, and St. Lawrence to join the league when it was formed. The league has always looked to New York to add teams and I see no reason to not do so now. I think Quinnipiac should be invited for the reasons I've already stated, but if they decline I think Colgate would make an excellent addition to the league. I also really like the idea of RIT, even though they would be at a major disadvantage.

Sean
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

MGoBlueHockey said:
This is stunning given the long bad blood between the conference and ND. This could open a door for them to join in all sports....
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You're right. This is a marriage of convenience, if not desperation. And as for other sports, it all revolves around football. Or more precisely, football revenue, which is something the B1G insists that it share while ND steadfastly refuses. But with ND Hockey about to enter the B1G tent, someone obviously blinked.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Split-N said:
You're right. This is a marriage of convenience, if not desperation. And as for other sports, it all revolves around football. Or more precisely, football revenue, which is something the B1G insists that it share while ND steadfastly refuses. But with ND Hockey about to enter the B1G tent, someone obviously blinked.
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Mostly likely both, if you believe the talk that Notre Dame didn't like all the trips east and the east coast bias the league has. ;) Northeastern running them out of their own barn may have been the final nail in the divorce. :D

Sean
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Sean Pickett said:
The league has always looked to New York to add teams and I see no reason to not do so now. I think Quinnipiac should be invited for the reasons I've already stated, but if they decline I think Colgate would make an excellent addition to the league. I also really like the idea of RIT, even though they would be at a major disadvantage.

Sean
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I would be shocked if Colgate considered leaving the ECAC since they are a pseudo Ivy League school and have such a big rivalry with Cornell.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Right now, I am in the "Get Q or stay at 11 teams" camp.

Can someone remind me again why it is so bad to have an odd number of teams? Hockey East had 9 teams for about 10 years (approx. 1995-2005) and seemed to do just fine.
 
Re: Notre Dame leaves Hockey East for Big 10

Conventional wisdom says that schools in the same conference in other sports might want to stick together whenever they can. The only exceptions out east:

- Merrimack and Quinnipiac not being in AHA with the other MAAC and NE-10 (respectively) schools.
- RIT not being with the other Liberty League teams in ECAC
- The Patriot League teams (Army, BU, Holy Cross, Colgate) being all over the place

Everyone else is in the same conference as their primary conference foes, if they have any that play college hockey.

Obviously, Merrimack and Quinnipiac aren't taking "demotions" to AHA any time soon, and there's really only a thin connection in the Patriot League (BU doesn't have football, and Army obviously has their own football arrangements). I doubt it matters too much to Holy Cross and Colgate if they're playing hockey with or without each other.

If we go by "conventional wisdom" and factor in who is actually a good college hockey program, the most logical conclusion is: Quinnipiac to HE; either Holy Cross or RIT to ECAC; AHA does nothing. That or nobody does anything.
 
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