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U of Illinois AD & NHL joint press conference

So in short, we just received further confirmation that the Big could care less about hockey. I see zero pressure being exerted from the other Big schools for IL to get their butts in gear.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
So in short, we just received further confirmation that the Big could care less about hockey. I see zero pressure being exerted from the other Big schools for IL to get their butts in gear.
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Spot on, sir. The B1G could make Illinois (or Iowa/Nebraska/Indiana/etc.) hockey happen in a New York minute, as witness its strongarming of supposedly powerful state universities Maryland and Rutgers to leave their entrenched places in their respective conferences a few years back.
 
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Split-N said:
Spot on, sir. The B1G could make Illinois (or Iowa/Nebraska/Indiana/etc.) hockey happen in a New York minute, as witness its strongarming of supposedly powerful state universities Maryland and Rutgers to leave their entrenched places in their respective conferences a few years back.
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Could they make it happen? Force them to adopt a financially risky sport (or any sport, frankly)?

And how do you figure Maryland and Rutgers were “strongarmed” into leaving their old conferences?
 
ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
And how do you figure Maryland and Rutgers were “strongarmed” into leaving their old conferences?
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Agreed! No one was strongarmed but the money of shared sports revenue was a carrot stick. The B1G wanted to expand it's sphere of influence and coverage of the Big Ten Network coast to coast and those two schools gave the a huge market increase along a very densely population section of the east coast.
 
Hockeybuckeye said:
...No one was strongarmed...
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Maryland was indeed strongarmed. Maryland had very deep roots in the ACC and the overture from the B1G met with significant opposition, especially from the hoops interests. When it appeared that Maryland might be waffling, Delany gave it an ultimatum: Commit now or forget it. IIRC, the vote to leave the ACC was not unanimous and residual hard feelings persist in some quarters to this day. In the end, it was all about money.

For the record, I have no ties to Maryland but live in the area and followed the story closely when it was happening.
 
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Split-N said:
Maryland was indeed strongarmed. Maryland had very deep roots in the ACC and the overture from the B1G met with significant opposition, especially from the hoops interests. When it appeared that Maryland might be waffling, Delany gave it an ultimatum: Commit now or forget it. IIRC, the vote to leave the ACC was not unanimous and residual hard feelings persist in some quarters to this day. In the end, it was all about money.

For the record, I have no ties to Maryland but live in the area and followed the story closely when it was happening.
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How is that being strongarmed? They had a decision to make, it was tightly contested and controversial, but… there’s no reason they couldn’t have just said “no”.
 
Ralph Baer said:
Tomorrow it will be four years since the press conference. Things seem to be moving rapidly. :-)
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And let's not forget, Illinois has already hung their banner as 2022 National Champions... If my math is correct, that would be next season. Better get that team started soon.

(Sorry this will be huge to show the details...)

Illinois-Arena-rendering.jpg
 
davyd83 said:
Apparently this little Covid thing may have tapped the breaks a bit. It may have had a slight effect on that fundraising portion.
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And, in said last 4 years, three dinky ass schools somehow figured out how to navigate Covid & announce and or actually start a team. Not a real good look for the Illini.
 
Split-N said:
Maryland was indeed strongarmed.
Click to expand...
In the end, it was all about money.
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I guess we simply just have different perspectives on what strongarming is. They were given a timeline to make a decision and that is commonplace in business. Absolutely nothing prevented them from saying no. And as I alluded to before of course it was all about the money. All universities today don't make decisions based on honor and traditions its motivated by greed. Sometimes being motivated by greed comes back and blows up in their faces, just ask the NCAA!
 
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Sean Pickett said:
They hung 2 banners. Maybe one is for their women's team.
Sean
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The more you look at that rendering, the funnier it gets. It's really a great representation of the chaos that Illinois has around this little hockey rumor that they can't get off the ground.

On the ice we apparently have the Illini taking on the New York Rangers AND the Boston Bruins (no mistaking Chara to the right of the faceoff circle). Three teams playing at once, an interesting concept.
On the scoreboard it looks like Illinois is beating Michigan State (who is nowhere to be seen) 5-1 after apparently scoring an empty net goal.
However the team on the videoboard is clearly Penn State wearing patches memorizing... the demise of the Illini hockey program? Foreshadowing?
Benches are full of Rangers and Bruins players, so I guess the Illini players are just going "ironman hockey" with only one line of forwards and defense for this three-way scrimmage of Illini vs the NHL? "That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em..."
 
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Hockeybuckeye said:
I guess we simply just have different perspectives on what strongarming is. They were given a timeline to make a decision...universities today don't make decisions based on honor and traditions its motivated by greed...
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Totally agree on the latter but we'll just have to respectfully agree to disagree on the former. But to get back to the larger issue of how the B1G views hockey, obviously no league can mandate which sports member institutions choose to sponsor though a league with the prestige of the B1G can certainly subtly nudge. But with only six full members (plus one associate) sponsoring hockey and the Illinois saga seeming to have no end, it would appear that hockey is just not high on the B1G wish list.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
The more you look at that rendering, the funnier it gets. It's really a great representation of the chaos that Illinois has around this little hockey rumor that they can't get off the ground.

On the ice we apparently have the Illini taking on the New York Rangers AND the Boston Bruins (no mistaking Chara to the right of the faceoff circle). Three teams playing at once, an interesting concept.
On the scoreboard it looks like Illinois is beating Michigan State (who is nowhere to be seen) 5-1 after apparently scoring an empty net goal.
However the team on the videoboard is clearly Penn State wearing patches memorizing... the demise of the Illini hockey program? Foreshadowing?
Benches are full of Rangers and Bruins players, so I guess the Illini players are just going "ironman hockey" with only one line of forwards and defense for this three-way scrimmage of Illini vs the NHL? "That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em..."
Click to expand...

There are also a minimum of 9 Illini players on the ice, and either 4 team benches or really full penalty boxes. Spot on with your "the longer you look ... the crazier it gets" comment
 
moose97 said:
And, in said last 4 years, three dinky *** schools somehow figured out how to navigate Covid & announce and or actually start a team. Not a real good look for the Illini.
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Have you seen the rest of the athletic department at Illinois? This is par for the course.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
The more you look at that rendering, the funnier it gets. It's really a great representation of the chaos that Illinois has around this little hockey rumor that they can't get off the ground.

On the ice we apparently have the Illini taking on the New York Rangers AND the Boston Bruins (no mistaking Chara to the right of the faceoff circle). Three teams playing at once, an interesting concept.
On the scoreboard it looks like Illinois is beating Michigan State (who is nowhere to be seen) 5-1 after apparently scoring an empty net goal.
However the team on the videoboard is clearly Penn State wearing patches memorizing... the demise of the Illini hockey program? Foreshadowing?
Benches are full of Rangers and Bruins players, so I guess the Illini players are just going "ironman hockey" with only one line of forwards and defense for this three-way scrimmage of Illini vs the NHL? "That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em..."
Click to expand...

Actually if you look close enough, I think they are beating North Carolina State 5-1.
 
On the other hand: how many people noticed those errors? Of those that noticed, who cares? And of those who care, who cares enough to not write a check? Much ado about very little.
 
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