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So you want to start up a D1 team

Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

Beer Pong Horn said:
Yup. :cool:

(Also, I neglected to mention that Rupp Arena is in Lexington, and has full icemaking capability. 23,500 is grossly oversized for collegiate hockey, but nevertheless it occasionally hosts UK club hockey games. It couldn't be a normal facility though, as UK routinely packs it for basketball.)

EDIT: And if UK really wanted to be classy, they could remodel the Alumni Gym to contain a rink, a la Yost.
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There's been talk around Penn State of retrofitting the Bryce Jordan Center with an ice-making plant, but I'd be against that for the same reason. It's grossly oversized for college hockey (a la Schott).

If they're not going to build a new barn here, I'd love to see ice in Rec Hall, which could be Penn State's version of Yost.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

ACHA Champions from this season:

Div. 3- Saginaw Valley State University (defeated Hope)
Div. 2- Davenport University (defeated Central Conn. State Univ- CCSU)
Div. 1- Lindenwood University (defeated Iowa State)
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

The University of Phoenix.

They dont need an ice arena, a coach or have to raise any funds since they'll only compete 'on-line'.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

NMU8405 said:
ACHA Champions from this season:

Div. 3- Saginaw Valley State University (defeated Hope)
Div. 2- Davenport University (defeated Central Conn. State Univ- CCSU)
Div. 1- Lindenwood University (defeated Iowa State)
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Lindenwood is applying for NCAA D2 Status. They are currently NAIA.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

Flashy Man said:
Lindenwood is applying for NCAA D2 Status. They are currently NAIA.
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I have too heard that rumor as well. Not that it matters much for the topic at hand. For any school even just move one sport up from D2 to D1 they would need to be invited by a D1 conference to do so. Not sure if that conference would have to accept them as well, but it would be a very ****ty thing to leave somebody high and dry as an independent thats just getting started out. Gotta give thanks to the New Jersey Institute of Technology's and the Savannah State's of college to thank for that rule.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

NMU8405 said:
Id assume their hockey program would be placed in D3?
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If they choose to compete as a D2 school, their hockey team could only be D2, unless a D1 conference invites them to join. As far as I know, schools aren't allowed to play down. I'm guessing they'll stay ACHA, which is a shame but makes sense in terms of monetary commitment.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

Beer Pong Horn said:
If they choose to compete as a D2 school, their hockey team could only be D2, unless a D1 conference invites them to join. As far as I know, schools aren't allowed to play down. I'm guessing they'll stay ACHA, which is a shame but makes sense in terms of monetary commitment.
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Right, and right now in the west, I don't see any of the D3 schools wanting to add the bus time to St. Louis to play a team that wouldn't even count for the D3 playoffs. Hell, the MCHA just kicked Minnesota-Crookston out of their league because they were a D2 school, and that pretty much forced them to fold up their program.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

bigmrg74 said:
Right, and right now in the west, I don't see any of the D3 schools wanting to add the bus time to St. Louis to play a team that wouldn't even count for the D3 playoffs. Hell, the MCHA just kicked Minnesota-Crookston out of their league because they were a D2 school, and that pretty much forced them to fold up their program.
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Yet another reason I wish the CHA had been able to make a go of things. I hate to admit it, but there's a market for a conference where teams can thrive without a huge commitment. It would have been a very nice home for the former programs at Ohio U, Saint Louis U, UIC, Kent State, Findlay, Wayne State and the current programs at UAH and Robert Morris, and perhaps a couple of CCHA teams.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

Beer Pong Horn said:
Yet another reason I wish the CHA had been able to make a go of things. I hate to admit it, but there's a market for a conference where teams can thrive without a huge commitment. It would have been a very nice home for the former programs at Ohio U, Saint Louis U, UIC, Kent State, Findlay, Wayne State and the current programs at UAH and Robert Morris, and perhaps a couple of CCHA teams.
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I always thought the CHA would make a fantastic bus league based around Lake Erie:

Canisius
Findlay
Mercyhurst
Niagara
Robert Morris
Wayne State

If you threw in Bemidji State and Alabama-Huntsville as Alaska-like outliers, there's eight right off the bat, with space to grow and no huge worry if one left for greener pastures (BSU to the WCHA), let alone if you would have been able to convince BGSU or the like to switch over to the CHA...

I have to think playing closer teams would have helped both schools that dropped the sport, and who knows where it would have gone from there? Not to say that FU and WSU didn't have problems outside the conference situation...
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

Beer Pong Horn said:
If they choose to compete as a D2 school, their hockey team could only be D2, unless a D1 conference invites them to join. As far as I know, schools aren't allowed to play down. I'm guessing they'll stay ACHA, which is a shame but makes sense in terms of monetary commitment.
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Well, as far as I know there is no more D-2 Hockey...so are they just out of luck trying to play hockey?

Everyone on the boards should pool some money and create a league and invite some schools :p
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

NMU8405 said:
Well, as far as I know there is no more D-2 Hockey...so are they just out of luck trying to play hockey?

Everyone on the boards should pool some money and create a league and invite some schools :p
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There's still D-II hockey, there's just not a whole lot to play for, especially a NCAA sanctioned title. You'll play a schedule made up of mostly D-III teams and the other D-II teams you've got access to and then just go about your own business when the regular season ends.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

GreatLakerMohawk said:
There's still D-II hockey, there's just not a whole lot to play for, especially a NCAA sanctioned title. You'll play a schedule made up of mostly D-III teams and the other D-II teams you've got access to and then just go about your own business when the regular season ends.
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Not entirely; the D-II Northeast Ten conference sponsors a postseason tournament for its members who play D-II (men's) hockey, which accounts for (I think) six of the seven such men's teams. It has no NCAA sanction, of course, but at least it's something to play for.


Powers &8^]

Edit:

I should add that those D-II teams are (mostly) also members of D-III conferences, and appear in the standings, but cannot participate in the postseason for obvious reasons.

As another tangent, there are fifteen members of the Northeast Ten. Six play D-II hockey and four play D-I hockey: AIC, Bentley, Merrimack, and UMass-Lowell.
 
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Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

GreatLakerMohawk said:
I'm sure if the Ivies were able to make their own conference, they'd more than happily do so, ECAC's opinion be dâmned.
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Why would you say that? I don't agree with that and would miss long standing rivalries like Cornell's trek to SLU and Clarkson.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

MoFan said:
Why would you say that? I don't agree with that and would miss long standing rivalries like Cornell's trek to SLU and Clarkson.
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Many would. And there's no reason those rivalries couldn't continue, even if not for multiple games a year. But conference movement necessarily means breaking longstanding conference match-ups. Sometimes they have to be sacrificed for other advantages.


Powers &8^]
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

NMU8405 said:
Everyone on the boards should pool some money and create a league and invite some schools :p
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I have kicked that idea out before. Get College Hockey Inc. to get all the alumni groups of all the various college hockey teams together so that they can pool their money together to start up endowments for at other schools where Hockey would be a good fit at. Basically, if everybody just pooled together just one percent of all the money that the booster clubs give to their schools, like Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Denver, BC, ect.... That would be more than enough money to start up an endowment at about any school where College Hockey would be a natural fit at. So, you give a school like say Syracuse a $25,000 endowment for the developement and funding of a College Hockey program, and I would write it so that it could be for both men's and women's hockey as well. You then give some of the smaller backers of the idea at the school there a place to put their money where their mouths are at. And College Hockey Inc. could help to work with any groups there to help them drum up support, perhaps even kicking in $2000 every year if they can at least get $5000 into it. Until the school athletic department get serious about it, they can't touch that money, so the pot will just grow and grow. Sooner or later you do that at enough schools long enough, schools would be looking at that pot and have a good little nest egg to hopefully fund a program for a bit until it gets its legs under them.
 
Re: So you want to start up a D1 team

The main problem with any large expansion of D1 Hockey is the talent. Hockey is the only major sport that has to face a serious threat in a Major-Junior league that siphons away top talent into their own league. Northeastern for example, had recruited Ryan Johansen (who is 8th in the draft list), but he decided to leave immediately for major juniors instead of waiting. It's hard enough for colleges to compete for top talent, especially if you then have to compete with a league that can make offers you aren't allowed to.

It'd probably be pretty easier for another school or two to add D1 hockey, but adding a whole new conference would drain the pool of talent, and likely cause a serious conflict with the Major-Juniors.

Luckily the USHL is expanding with two more teams next year, so hopefully the talent pool continues to increase.
 
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