Re: Save Uah Hockey!
That's pretty much the key. Not necessarily State, but for there to be a truly seismic shift in college hockey, it's going to take a BCS school to start a program.
Robert Morris, RIT, UAH, none of us are simply big enough to move the current conference mountains.
Syracuse, Penn State, Southern Cal, Colorado, Texas... any major conference school that would start-up would effectively break-up the Pangea of five conferences we have next season. Simply because of the fact that so many programs would love to get said school on the marquee on a regular basis.
Er, you'll need a BCS program to start TWO programs- Title IX and all that. Which is why so many don't in the first place. BTW, just to jump through your list real quick:
Syracuse- the closest to a men's program simply because they have a women's program. But they don't have a rink big enough for a men's team, and honestly, would probably easily slot into Hockey East, where the women's team is.
Penn State- nowhere even close at this point. Would need to spend money both to either build a new rink or put ice in over the basketball court, plus would need to start two new programs.
USC- just to come up with unique problems for every team, I'll just point out that the closest teams to USC would be Colorado College, Denver, Air Force, UAA, and UAF. Yeah, that's incentive for USC to turn it's club team (with a rink over an hour away) into a Division I program with a rink near campus.
Colorado- okay, the other caveat here is that even if a BCS team did start a men's and women's program, it actually has to be a GOOD BCS team. Colorado, Rutgers, Washington, Washington State, among others, would not get a conference to form around it.
Texas- even if a Texas Longhorns club hockey player went out tomorrow and hit both Mega Millions and Powerball within the week, there's no guarantee Texas would actually form a hockey team.
Oh, and add to all of this that you're asking for teams to build an ice rink (or rent one) plus create two new athletic teams, complete with scholarships, during a national recession. Uh huh. Plus there's no guarantee that this helps. Like you said, teams would jump at the chance to take these teams. So in the bizarro world where USC does get a hockey team, do you think they are going to start their own conference with the Colorado and Alaskan schools, or do you think the CCHA is going to throw oodles of money at them hoping for the prospect of USC-Notre Dame, USC-OSU, USC-Michigan games. That would completely shut the door on Alabama-Huntsville and the CCHA.
Moving on, look, I want to see Alabama-Huntsville saved. It tickles me that they took Notre Dame to all those overtimes, I love that there is a team in Alabama, etc. etc.
But it doesn't do anyone any good to focus on pipe dreams. If you want to save UAH, politely make noise, attend games, buy shirts, send petitions, and if you are too far away to do that, encourage your team's AD to book a non-conference series with UAH for next year. Hopefully UAH fans come out to support the team this year, boosting attendance, and when UAH goes on the road, fans who want to see them saved go out to show they give good road attendance numbers. That's what will save UAH hockey, not waiting for a big name school to add Division I hockey out of thin air.
As for me, I do honestly hope that rather than meeting in a tournament game like last year, that Harvard takes a trip down to Huntsville to show our support. I would be honored to call a game down there, especially if it could help. Good luck to the Chargers, and I'll be rooting for you guys to make a Cinderella run that opens up the CCHA's eyes. And hopefully on the run, you beat Michigan or some other big name CCHA school (but I really hate Michigan
).
