Robert Morris dropping men's and women's hockey.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Schooley gets a big promotion...
https://www.uscho.com/2021/09/07/sc...is-mclaughlin-bittle-named-special-assistant/

"Robert Morris announced Tuesday that Derek Schooley has been named head coach and director of men’s and women’s hockey operations...."
"IF... the RMU men’s and women’s hockey programs are reinstated..."

So once again doing things completely backwards. Moving forward with hiring/promoting staff... but they may not actually have any hockey teams to run.

This has gone from sad to just silly to watch.

 

[Redridge]

They are half way to funding a team for ’two seasons’.... This sounds exactly like UAH. With zero committment from the school, the program will twist in the wind and die.

The money would be better spent giving it to another University, with the express intention of recruiting Chris Howard away.

 

[altazo]

Why any borderline D1 recruit would choose to attend Robert Morris over a D3 powerhouse like Norwich, Oswego, Stevens Point, or St Norbert is completely beyond my mental comprehension.

If they are indeed reinstated, they are only going to attract kids who should probably be playing a level down.

 

[moose97]

Why any borderline D1 recruit would choose to attend Robert Morris over a D3 powerhouse like Norwich, Oswego, Stevens Point, or St Norbert is completely beyond my mental comprehension.

If they are indeed reinstated, they are only going to attract kids who should probably be playing a level down.

Exactly why Huntsville has sucked for a decade (since the FIRST time they cut hockey). They took their recruiting advantage (climate) and threw it in the garbage. All they got was tweener recruits & the results show how well that worked.

 

[UncleRay]

Why any borderline D1 recruit would choose to attend Robert Morris over a D3 powerhouse like Norwich, Oswego, Stevens Point, or St Norbert is completely beyond my mental comprehension.

If they are indeed reinstated, they are only going to attract kids who should probably be playing a level down.

Honestly, that's all the men's team has ever gotten anyway.

 

[John J. MacInnes]

https://www.wtae.com/article/robert-morris-hockey-announcement/38549761

Personally, if I were AHA I'd be pretty suspicious about accepting them back into the league.

 

[UncleRay]

RoMo will be the new Huntsville - in one year, out the next, rinse, repeat.

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

In the end the RMU administration got their secret wish. They said it wasn't about money, but now that the public found the money to pay the bills, watch the two hockey teams magically reappear.

I am glad that RMU, UAF, UAA (and hopefully UAH) are finding ways to keep their programs active, but this "success" is really a blow to college hockey as a whole. Somewhere there is another school strapped for cash. They've seen three teams force the public to pay the bills and all three were "saved." Who is going to be next to roll the dice, take the gamble that the public can't let their local college hockey team go so they'll fund it and take if off the school's athletics budget so that money can be spend on football or basketball.

 

[davyd83]

In the end the RMU administration got their secret wish. They said it wasn't about money, but now that the public found the money to pay the bills, watch the two hockey teams magically reappear.

I am glad that RMU, UAF, UAA (and hopefully UAH) are finding ways to keep their programs active, but this "success" is really a blow to college hockey as a whole. Somewhere there is another school strapped for cash. They've seen three teams force the public to pay the bills and all three were "saved." Who is going to be next to roll the dice, take the gamble that the public can't let their local college hockey team go so they'll fund it and take if off the school's athletics budget so that money can be spend on football or basketball.

This is all very similar to Michigan Tech football in 2003.


https://dailyorange.com/2005/09/alumni-bail-out-financially-weak-michigan-tech-football-program/

 

[njmav1]

In the end the RMU administration got their secret wish. They said it wasn't about money, but now that the public found the money to pay the bills, watch the two hockey teams magically reappear.

I am glad that RMU, UAF, UAA (and hopefully UAH) are finding ways to keep their programs active, but this "success" is really a blow to college hockey as a whole. Somewhere there is another school strapped for cash. They've seen three teams force the public to pay the bills and all three were "saved." Who is going to be next to roll the dice, take the gamble that the public can't let their local college hockey team go so they'll fund it and take if off the school's athletics budget so that money can be spend on football or basketball.

Yes, it's definitely a bad look for college hockey. But so are programs that don't have the institutional support.

Huntsville is a good example. The WCHA was the perfect place for them- a conference of D2 schools playing D1 hockey. But with those schools, men's ice hockey was their marquee athletic program. Ferris State football just won the D2 national title and their hockey program is at the bottom of the CCHA, but there's no doubt that Ferris State is a hockey school.