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The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

College Hockey Weekend said:
Is anyone else thinking the Anastos hire has officially signed the CCHA's death warrant?
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No. Well... no. Anyone could have told you that Anastos was always pushing the B1G teams in promotions with the CCHA. College Hockey at the Joe was all about getting Michigan and Michigan State down there, no mention when LSSU used to have "home" games at the Joe against Michigan. There were also reports that Anastos looked ill when the Wildcats bumped off the Spartans a few years ago to make it to the Joe.

Everyone pretty much had Anastos pegged for a B1G job long before Penn State was official. Adding Penn made it seem like Anastos was one foot out the door on the way to Park Ridge, IL for an advisory role or as a B1G Hockey Commissioner.


If anything, I think that this gives the new guy plenty of opportunity to make sure the CCHA succeeds. Give's them a chance to look over the finances, decide what they need to do, and advise the member organizations PROPERLY.


The more I think about it, I think this honestly gives the CCHA a fighting chance. Now, they just need to find someone to steer this ship through the B1G fiasco.

What's Paul Kelly up to these days? ;)
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

yooper(UP) hockey said:
I just wonder how long it going to take for the other teams from Colorado, North Dokata, Minnesota and Nebraska going to say they dont want to travel to Houghton to play a medicore team. Both Alaska teams are going to face this in the near future too.
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I will not feed the troll. I will not feed the troll. I will not feed the troll...
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

I Want Shegos said:
I'd be really surprised if the CCHA puts UAH in even now. They faced Ferris this year at Big Rapids, and that series was easily the most deserted series from a crowd standpoint all season. When looking at the remaining CCHA teams, I think they'd have that same problem. I don't think UAH would sell for anything with the other CCHA teams. The program really doesn't have any name recognition to draw in ticket sales. Plus, the team has just not really been that good the past few years, which weakens sales more, and could worry teams about Pairwise issues. That, plus 9 is an awkward number for a conference, and these teams aren't going to want to travel to UAH either. I just don't see it. I would think a lot of the CCHA would probably rather schedule in one of the Big Ten teams or WCHA teams instead of having to schedule UAH.
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Those are poor reasons, UAH would undoubtedly draw better if they were a member of the league because those matchups would obviously be league games, which are more important than non-conference matchups...I mean honestly what "name recognition" did Nebraska Omaha have? Or does Alaska have? None. They may not be the biggest attendance weekends of the year but when was the last time you heard someone complain about markedly worse attendance when those teams came/come to town? You didn't/don't...and why is that?? because those are league members, bottom line.You say the team hasn't been "that good" the last few years but they still have 2 NCAA tournament appearances to show for it (and it's not like they were run out of the rink, they lost a 1 goal game to Notre Dame in '07 and a 1 goal game to Miami last year), which isn't bad for a team that spent that time playing in either a subpar conference (i.e. harder to recruit quality players to), or no conference at all (i.e. hard to recruit any player to)....If the UAH gets accepted into the CCHA I guarantee those attendance numbers will increase and their quality of play will increase because the CCHA (even with the defections) will be easier to draw players into than the CHA was and certainly easier than being an independent...
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

bronconick said:
Holy crap, we could hire a new commissioner who gets rid of the shootout!
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At least they weren't so twisted up like the NHL standings. They still were W-L-T with the Shootout Winner attached on the end.
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

Oh, and I hope that the CCHA returns any letters and hangs up on the following commissioners looking for work:
Richard Brosal, Paul Pickard, or Dennis Hextall
 
College Hockey Weekend said:
Is anyone else thinking the Anastos hire has officially signed the CCHA's death warrant?
Click to expand...

Quite the contrary. Even as a Michigan fan, the promotion bias toward UM and MSU has been quite bad. All of the College Hockey at the Joe has been sided toward the two schools instead of promoting the entire conference plus Detroit. THIS was the first final where Detroit was even mentioned... As opposed to the Final Five where its more of a destination event.

IMHO.... Detroit is a dead market for the new CCHA- move to Grand Rapids and promote the destination as well as the play so that Ferris fans would make the drive in good spring weather. I also think the league will be backstopped by the MAC teams + ND. The conference has plenty to stand behind if they pay attention. Plenty.
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

College Hockey Weekend said:
I do hope the CCHA accepts UAH. Here is a program that is willing to jump through hoops ringed with fire to get into a conference in an area of the country in the Southeast that is relatively untapped by college hockey, and the CCHA as we all know needs teams to survive. Is it a match made in heaven? Not necessarily, but what the CCHA and UAH needs to understand is that its a marriage of necessity and not being accepting of the other could mean the end of both entities.
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I find it hard to agree that the end of the CCHA will be because they didn't accept the University of Alabama - Huntsville. I think that UAH needs the CCHA much more than the CCHA needs UAH. Without a conference, UAH isn't going to be able to last much longer in this landscape. What does UAH add to the CCHA? They are arguably the weakest team in all of college hockey and are a geographic outlier. Hockey growing in the South isn't going to happen because of UAH.
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

nmupiccdiva said:
~Anastos bolts. I'll keep my opinions about him to myself, but I don't see him sticking around without Michigan or State.
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Who was right? Yup, that would be me.

Jimjamesak said:
I will not feed the troll. I will not feed the troll. I will not feed the troll...
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That would be for the best. Thanks. ;)

alfablue said:
Quite the contrary. Even as a Michigan fan, the promotion bias toward UM and MSU has been quite bad. All of the College Hockey at the Joe has been sided toward the two schools instead of promoting the entire conference plus Detroit. THIS was the first final where Detroit was even mentioned... As opposed to the Final Five where its more of a destination event.

IMHO.... Detroit is a dead market for the new CCHA- move to Grand Rapids and promote the destination as well as the play so that Ferris fans would make the drive in good spring weather. I also think the league will be backstopped by the MAC teams + ND. The conference has plenty to stand behind if they pay attention. Plenty.
Click to expand...

He's right. I don't know if the CCHA tourny will ever compare to the Final 6ive, but I agree in that it would be awesome to see it become a destination event. I also think Grand Rapids would be a much easier sell than Detroit, given the latter's not-so-pleasant reputation.
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

alfablue said:
Quite the contrary. Even as a Michigan fan, the promotion bias toward UM and MSU has been quite bad. All of the College Hockey at the Joe has been sided toward the two schools instead of promoting the entire conference plus Detroit. THIS was the first final where Detroit was even mentioned... As opposed to the Final Five where its more of a destination event.

IMHO.... Detroit is a dead market for the new CCHA- move to Grand Rapids and promote the destination as well as the play so that Ferris fans would make the drive in good spring weather. I also think the league will be backstopped by the MAC teams + ND. The conference has plenty to stand behind if they pay attention. Plenty.
Click to expand...

I agree with that. The CCHA needs to restructure and Grand Rapids would be the place to do it. They have the rink and infrastructure to host the tournament and it would be easy to transfer the Red Wings support there. The location is really more centrally located for most of the CCHA compared to Detroit. Ferris and Western are only about an hour away, ND is 2, 3 for BGSU, and then about 5-6 for everybody else sans Alaska. And like you said, the CCHA is going to be backstopped by the MAC teams and ND. I think having the tournament in Grand Rapids would be a good spot for the league to gain traction with other MAC schools. I really think that the league could be a very solid one if they could get Grand Valley and one more MAC school to add hockey.
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

Buck LeVasseur said:
I agree with that. The CCHA needs to restructure and Grand Rapids would be the place to do it. They have the rink and infrastructure to host the tournament and it would be easy to transfer the Red Wings support there. The location is really more centrally located for most of the CCHA compared to Detroit. Ferris and Western are only about an hour away, ND is 2, 3 for BGSU, and then about 5-6 for everybody else sans Alaska. And like you said, the CCHA is going to be backstopped by the MAC teams and ND. I think having the tournament in Grand Rapids would be a good spot for the league to gain traction with other MAC schools. I really think that the league could be a very solid one if they could get Grand Valley and one more MAC school to add hockey.
Click to expand...

Ohio University has a very good ACHA team
 
Re: The CCHA: Where do we go from here?

Although there is a lot of discussion on this thread and others related to the Big 10 conference and the possible expansion of the number of Div 1 hockey schools, I don't think many schools are going to look at adding Div 1 hockey in this economic environment. There might be a couple of exceptions, possibly from large schools such as Penn State, but I just don't see much expansion as long as the economy is going down the tubes.

I would like to see UAH added to the CCHA, despite it's location. Travel wise, it's pretty comparable for most remaining CCHA schools to when UNO was in the league. It would be somewhat longer for NMU.
 
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