The Big Chill & College Hockey

[CornwallAce]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007943138317876.html

Inside Higher Ed commented briefly on this story and mentioned that 5 teams are considering upgrading to D1 hockey.
"Five colleges are currently considering upgrading hockey teams from club to varsity status, several institutions have new arenas planned, and the sport is gaining ground outside its traditional geographic regions."

 

[sbkbghockey]

Re: The Big Chill & College Hockey

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007943138317876.html

Inside Higher Ed commented briefly on this story and mentioned that 5 teams are considering upgrading to D1 hockey.
"Five colleges are currently considering upgrading hockey teams from club to varsity status, several institutions have new arenas planned, and the sport is gaining ground outside its traditional geographic regions."

Paul Kelly made a similar comment when talking during the intermission with the NoDak Broadcasters a week or two ago the Fighting Sioux Sports Network and Fox College Sports. To Clarify a bit more that number does not include Penn State's announcement in September so it's possible there's going to be 6 new teams. Lindenwood University, an up and comming private university in Suburban St. Louis, MO is upgrading their women's program and there's strong rumors that LU men's will follow in a few years with an announcement in a year or two.

Big Ten rumors include Illinois and Indiana, both have strong ACHA DI programs in the Central Collegiate Hockey Leauge with Lindenwood, Iowa State and Robert Morris (IL). As far as Big Ten- I think before Illinois or Indiana, Northwestern could add hockey.

College Hockey Inc has been talking to Southern and Western schools as well, but the big issue there is more than one school would have to add hockey.

Back to the Big Chill this weekend, it's on the Big Ten Network but I would have loved to see it on a major network seen nationwide like ESPN, ESPN2, or NBC.

 

[komey1]

Re: The Big Chill & College Hockey

The Big 10 Network is fairly national and probably more watched than the next best alternative - CBS College Sports.

As for these new 6 teams - where would they go? There will need to be some serious realignment for there to be room in conference.

 

[aallenpollreisz]

Re: The Big Chill & College Hockey

You know, despite the general consensus around these parts regarding last year's Frozen Four, the success stemming from that event (in the sense that the NCAA was able to draw 40,000 people for a college hockey game) along with the apparent success stemming from the upcoming Big Chill event, I think it's slowly being proven that there's a degree of viability with D-I college hockey.

Sure, college hockey is never going to eclipse basketball in terms of popularity and television ratings, but, with the right marketing and the continued success of the sport's big-name events, it can only mean good things in terms of future growth.

 

[sbkbghockey]

Re: The Big Chill & College Hockey

The Big 10 Network is fairly national and probably more watched than the next best alternative - CBS College Sports.

As for these new 6 teams - where would they go? There will need to be some serious realignment for there to be room in conference.

I agree that the Big 10 Network is fairly national, but it's not a basic cable channel in a lot of areas. Same with CBS College Sports, they usually come in a sports package (cheap 5-10 extra dollars to the digital cable bill) but lot's of people don't have it. Also The Big 10 Network's primary audience are Big 10 fans and alumni, not so much general sports fans like ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, NBC, or CBS. It would have been really beneficial for college hockey to have this event on an even more national network like one of those.

 

[komey1]

Re: The Big Chill & College Hockey

Unfortunately, college hockey - even the NCAAs don't warrent enough ratings to put it on any basic cable network. (I believe ESPN-U is also on most sports tiers and not basic package).