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Realignment Rumors

Re: Realignment Rumors

dggoddard said:
Supposedly the "Super Six Conference" would have an interlocking schedule with Hockey East.

You can bet that the coaching shake-ups and rumors this offseason are tied to possible realignment.
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That hypothetical conference is the Butthurt Hockey Conference. Don't be trying to rename it! :p
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

4four4 said:
Which is why the new proposed rumor will never happen.
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This suggestion was first floated in the Denver newspaper. You have to wonder if these guys ever actually look at the realities of such a situation. I've seen Miami to the WCHA and Notre Dame to Hockey East rumors floated. Of course that was before you look at the fact that Miami would have to increase it travel budget by nearly $100,000 and ask that though Notre Dame, with its new arena, may be able to afford Hockey East travel, would Hockey East teams, which don't even have a lot of overnight stays, would be willing to spend $15,000+ per weekend to fly to South Bend.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

davyd83 said:
The most preposterous thing about the proposed MIA, NDAME, NDAK, UNO, CC, DU conference is the fact that, other than Denver-CC and Miami-Notre Dame, every road trip is 499 miles or more, with 60% of trips over 800 miles. That doesn't seem too cost effective.
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4four4 said:
Which is why the new proposed rumor will never happen.
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I don't think it's going to happen, either. On the other hand, MN just traded in 4-6 road trips a year of 200 miles or less for the privilege of traveling to Columbus, Ohio and State College, Pennsylvania, so I also don't have a lot of faith in college presidents and athletic directors doing anything that makes sense to most people.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

Almington said:
I think that a conference of SCSU, UMD, BSU, MTU, NMU and MSUM would have some stability should an Anti-6 conference form and the political pressure inside MN might be enough to keep MN playing those teams (at least the 4 MN based teams) on a semi-regular basis.

The real losers would be the other 6 teams: UAA, UA(F), Ferris, WMU, LSSU, and BGSU. Those neams needing a home may cause a cascade through AH and ECAC breaking the teams up into 3 or 4 smaller conferences.

I think that at the end of the day if all that happens, 2 major changes happen:
1.) college hockey loses between 2-4 teams
2.) The tournament returns to a 12 team format.
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I believe this is how the dominos will fall and you are right.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

The HE teams are already making pilgrimages out west so why not wind them into an interlocking schedule. For example in the past 7 seasons, BC, BU, VT, ME, UMass, Umass-Lowell and Northeastern have all traveled to DU for one to two games with BU and BC coming multiple times. Next year Providence is coming out to DU for the Denver Cup to play 2 games with one most likely against DU. DU has traveled to BC, Northeastern, BU, UMass, ME and VT in the past 7 seasons. Next season they are going to play BC and BU on back to back nights. HE schools have also traveled to play CC and UND. Seems perfectly plausible to me to put together the 6-team conference with 20 league games and an interlocking schedule with HE. You could play 8 interlocking games with 4 home and 4 away. The HE teams would only need to make 2 road trips per year in that scenario as the games out west would all be 2-game series. The western teams can come east twice a year and play some back-to-back games against single opponents. For the western teams that would leave 6 OOC games they could still schedule.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

To me conference realignments should make sense for the participants before I start believing in the possibility. I don't understand how an anti-Big 10 conference benefits those schools over their present situation. While the Big 10 had money as the overriding reason to form that conference, I don't see an enhanced TV deal out of this, nor a strengthening of rivalries to boost attendance. All I do see are increased travel costs as have been mentioned already as well as a lot tougher road to reach the NCAA's.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

du78 said:
The HE teams are already making pilgrimages out west so why not wind them into an interlocking schedule. For example in the past 7 seasons, BC, BU, VT, ME, UMass, Umass-Lowell and Northeastern have all traveled to DU for one to two games with BU and BC coming multiple times. Next year Providence is coming out to DU for the Denver Cup to play 2 games with one most likely against DU. DU has traveled to BC, Northeastern, BU, UMass, ME and VT in the past 7 seasons. Next season they are going to play BC and BU on back to back nights. HE schools have also traveled to play CC and UND. Seems perfectly plausible to me to put together the 6-team conference with 20 league games and an interlocking schedule with HE. You could play 8 interlocking games with 4 home and 4 away. The HE teams would only need to make 2 road trips per year in that scenario as the games out west would all be 2-game series. The western teams can come east twice a year and play some back-to-back games against single opponents. For the western teams that would leave 6 OOC games they could still schedule.
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There is a mathematical problem with this. It can't be done the way you described with the two leagues having different numbers of teams. You are talking about a 6-team western conference and a 10-team HEA. (Correct?) The western teams would in total play 6*8=48 games vs. the HEA, while the HEA teams would play 10*8=80 games agaisnt the west. That does not compute. Each of the western teams would have to play more eastern teams than vice versa. One way would be if each HEA team played 6 western games while each western team played 10 eastern games.
 
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Re: Realignment Rumors

Ralph Baer said:
There is a mathematical problem with this. It can't be done the way you described with the two leagues having different numbers of teams. You are talking about a 6-team western conference and a 10-team HEA. (Correct?) The western teams would in total play 6*8=48 games vs. the HEA, while the HEA teams would play 10*8=80 games agaisnt the west. That does not compute. Each of the western teams would have to play more eastern teams than vice versa. One way would be if each HEA team played 6 western games while each western team played 10 eastern games.
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Interlocking schedules is going to be the way to go come the 2012-2013 season. It worked great when the WCHA and HE did it.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

Almington said:
I think that a conference of SCSU, UMD, BSU, MTU, NMU and MSUM would have some stability should an Anti-6 conference form and the political pressure inside MN might be enough to keep MN playing those teams (at least the 4 MN based teams) on a semi-regular basis.

The real losers would be the other 6 teams: UAA, UA(F), Ferris, WMU, LSSU, and BGSU. Those neams needing a home may cause a cascade through AH and ECAC breaking the teams up into 3 or 4 smaller conferences.

I think that at the end of the day if all that happens, 2 major changes happen:
1.) college hockey loses between 2-4 teams
2.) The tournament returns to a 12 team format.
Click to expand...

MTU can get some wins with this format, too
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

Ralph Baer said:
There is a mathematical problem with this. It can't be done the way you described with the two leagues having different numbers of teams. You are talking about a 6-team western conference and a 10-team HEA. (Correct?) The western teams would in total play 6*8=48 games vs. the HEA, while the HEA teams would play 10*8=80 games agaisnt the west. That does not compute. Each of the western teams would have to play more eastern teams than vice versa. One way would be if each HEA team played 6 western games while each western team played 10 eastern games.
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I like your math. Under that scenario, the eastern teams would only have to make 1 to 2 road trips west per year. The western schools would make 2 to 3 road trips east per year. For the western schools doing road trips via air is more the norm especially for DU, CC, UNO and to a lesser extent UND. The road trips to the HE schools would be easier than the road trip to Houghton. The western schools would still have 4 games to play OOC teams.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

Rover said:
To me conference realignments should make sense for the participants before I start believing in the possibility. I don't understand how an anti-Big 10 conference benefits those schools over their present situation. While the Big 10 had money as the overriding reason to form that conference, I don't see an enhanced TV deal out of this, nor a strengthening of rivalries to boost attendance. All I do see are increased travel costs as have been mentioned already as well as a lot tougher road to reach the NCAA's.
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Miami & Notre Dame will probably break even, with increased playoff revenue sharing offsetting increased travel.

TV is a factor because DU & UND have TV deals. The five of the six teams involved will see attendance increases [UND will host more marquee games, so they will still come out ahead]. They will also be able to offer recruits the opportunity to play elite competition every weekend.

The four Minnesota schools didn't want to spend the money to travel, so they opted out. Of course this was well before UMD won a NC, so perhaps that might change something.
 
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Re: Realignment Rumors

dggoddard said:
Miami & Notre Dame will probably break even, with increased playoff revenue sharing offsetting increased travel.

TV is a factor because DU & UND have TV deals. The six teams involved will see attendance increases. They will also be able to offer recruits the opportunity to play elite competition every weekend.

The four Minnesota schools didn't want to spend the money to travel, so they opted out. Of course this was well before UMD won a NC, so perhaps that might change something.
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So the increased playoff revenue will offer Miami the extra $100,000 to make up the difference in travel costs? There are only three playoff scenarios. A six team, one site tourney, a four team, one site tourney, or #6 at #3/ #5 at #4 preliminary round on home ice, then a four team, one site tourney with those two winners taking on the top two seeds.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

davyd83 said:
So the increased playoff revenue will offer Miami the extra $100,000 to make up the difference in travel costs? There are only three playoff scenarios. A six team, one site tourney, a four team, one site tourney, or #6 at #3/ #5 at #4 preliminary round on home ice, then a four team, one site tourney with those two winners taking on the top two seeds.
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Is a third option: Play all the games on home ice in 3 game series:
#6 at #3/ #5 at #4 preliminary round
#6 at #3 winner at #2 / #5 at #4 winner at #1
Winners play at higher seed to see who wins.

If you wanted to maximize revenue (and, resultantly total # of games) that is the path that you'd take.

I don't see the increase in playoff revenue either overall. From having 6 sets of first round games plus ~60k tickets sold currently in the WCHA to having 2 home playoff series and ~45k in tickets under this plan. Even curing the number of teams in half, I just don't see how this maintains the current levels of league payout. Plus, I can't see Notre Dame nor Miami really liking having the Conf. tourney at the X long term, ND got a taste of what the conference tournament would be like every year with the clearly biased crowd at the F4 this year.

I see this as just one more step down the path to losing multiple teams in the west, which I think could have a significant negative impact on college hockey as a whole.
 
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Re: Realignment Rumors

dggoddard said:
Its gonna happen, you can bet your 2002 NC Banner on it.
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Sorry from what have been told it will not happen. If by chance things change I believe it would be great for Minnesota and Wisconsin because this way they are not under any obligation to play the newly formed ButtHurt Conference. I gurantee if the WCHA splits again without the Minnesota schools the likelyhood of a Big Ten school showing up in Colorado, Nebraska and North Dakota will be about zero. Just remember the Big Ten wants as many home games as possible.
 
Re: Realignment Rumors

4four4 said:
Sorry from what have been told it will not happen. If by chance things change I believe it would be great for Minnesota and Wisconsin because this way they are not under any obligation to play the newly formed ButtHurt Conference. I gurantee if the WCHA splits again without the Minnesota schools the likelyhood of a Big Ten school showing up in Colorado, Nebraska and North Dakota will be about zero. Just remember the Big Ten wants as many home games as possible.
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You will still see Minnesota and North Dakota play, but possibly only one series a year.
 
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