UAH plans to stay Division I

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Wouldn't both the WCHA and Hockey East both be at an odd number in 2013?? They would both have room to take em in, or at least offer up a long term scheduling alliance with UAH. They'll both have teams that will be sitting deep in the regular season when its really hard to schedule games if you're an Indy.

The chances of HEA taking UAH are laughable at best, abysmal at worst. Until the B1G, NCHC and (to a lesser extent) WCHA sort out their predominance over the next decade, HEA will be the preeminent college hockey league in the country - and yes, it pains me to say that. If anything, HEA might try to poach a team from the ECAC or AHA (I know, I know, UCONN isn't ready), but more likely they'll just stay at 11 and schedule a lot of non-conference play.

The B1G is automatically out unless Alabama-Huntsville joins the Big Ten. The NCHC is also unlikely - despite their openness to a fair amount of travel, they wish to position themselves as another premier league and have shown reluctance to take on outlying schools rolleyes:.) So, for the meantime the AHA and the WCHA are the only options, and the WCHA is better positioned to add teams than the AHA.

Ideally, UAH's work to keep college hockey, along with the news of Penn State adding the sport, will inspire other midwest and mid-south universities to add hockey. In particular, it would be great if Ohio University, Kent State and Saint Louis University considered adding the sport again, though I have no insight that they'll actually want to do so. However, that would set up a nucleus for a new CCHA with UAH, SLU, OU, BGSU (three founding CCHA members), Kent State, RMU, possibly the western New York AHA teams and (EDIT) possibly Lindenwold if they finally add men's NCAA D-1 hockey. I know, it's still a long shot, but bear with me

 

[MUhawks628]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

While I'm sure that ship has sailed, I would love to see that come to pass. Depending on how many AHA schools they could get to bite, the startup school wouldn't be necessary (although if it were possible, another one or two MAC schools with a program would be fantastic... Not that we should hold our breath over it).

Start the grassroots movements in Bobkitty and Flashes land!

 

[dubbie31]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

The chances of HEA taking UAH are laughable at best, abysmal at worst. Until the B1G, NCHC and (to a lesser extent) WCHA sort out their predominance over the next decade, HEA will be the preeminent college hockey league in the country - and yes, it pains me to say that. If anything, HEA might try to poach a team from the ECAC or AHA (I know, I know, UCONN isn't ready), but more likely they'll just stay at 11 and schedule a lot of non-conference play.

The B1G is automatically out unless Alabama-Huntsville joins the Big Ten. The NCHC is also unlikely - despite their openness to a fair amount of travel, they wish to position themselves as another premier league and have shown reluctance to take on outlying schools rolleyes:.) So, for the meantime the AHA and the WCHA are the only options, and the WCHA is better positioned to add teams than the AHA.

Ideally, UAH's work to keep college hockey, along with the news of Penn State adding the sport, will inspire other midwest and mid-south universities to add hockey. In particular, it would be great if Ohio University, Kent State and Saint Louis University considered adding the sport again, though I have no insight that they'll actually want to do so.

Good post. What about ECAC??? No one has mentioned them.

 

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Is it possible to see this option arise again? UAH could be the 6th or 7th team if BGSU wants or even can back out of its WCHA agreement.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2011/10/04_bowling_green_accepts_wcha.php

According to sources, Bowling Green was delaying the decision while trying to work out a possible new conference — or re-formulated CCHA — that included four Atlantic Hockey schools, Niagara, Robert Morris, Merchyhurst and Canisius, and possibly a startup program like University at Buffalo as a sixth.

But, whether the timeline was too tight to make that happen, or the overall idea was considered not feasible, Bowling Green decided to finally accept the WCHA's invitation.

A very interesting thought. The NCAA might have extended the same five-conference privilege to the CCHA as it did to the CHA if Buffalo didn't join, but I would hope that the Bowling Green-style CCHA would have picked up Huntsville for the good of the sport. The WCHA probably would be willing to let Bowling Green back out of its agreement too - 8 teams is a decent start, and Bowling Green is probably the weakest new-WCHA team overall.

Good post. What about ECAC??? No one has mentioned them.

Unlikely in my view - they seem perfectly happy with being the Ivy League and friends - but again, I have no particular insight.

 

[REDaero91]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Good post. What about ECAC??? No one has mentioned them.

The ECAC's pretty set, with its 12 teams and travel partner system. There have been rumors of RPI being interested in Hockey East, should they choose to add another team to even up their numbers, and if they're interested in RPI. RIT would then possibly be interested in moving to the ECAC with other Liberty League (DIII) teams, and UAH could take RIT's spot in the AHA...but that would take a lot of agreement by a lot of people. I really hope UAH gets a conference spot-at it would be awesome if more schools added hockey to revive the CCHA or create a new conference.

 

[drshoen]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Unlikely in my view - they seem perfectly happy with being the Ivy League and friends - but again, I have no particular insight.

I would agree - ECAC is very much a bus league, with partners of teams (relatively) close together, so that away trips are one game at two arenas. I'd like to see Hockey East get their 12th (hopefully and AHA school) which opens up a spot for Huntsville; or the WCHA adds them.

 

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if any existing league adds UAH (excepting the CCHA, which redhead18 posed as a possibility earlier), it'll be the WCHA. BGSU would become their travel partner, and the two schools would be kept on a long, thin leash if they chose to try to resurrect the CCHA.

UAH-BGSU
FSU-LSSU
NMU-MTU
BSU-MSUM
UA_-UAA

I could get behind that set of pairings for the meantime. (Though it still bites, compared to the WCHA-that-was.)

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Regardless of what's happening with BGSU or the potential AHA breakaways, I hope that Paul Kelly is making a lot of calls these days. He may have more focus on the recruiting angle, but this would be a great time to see where Kennesaw State stands, for instance.

 

[burgie12]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Wouldn't both the WCHA and Hockey East both be at an odd number in 2013?? They would both have room to take em in, or at least offer up a long term scheduling alliance with UAH. They'll both have teams that will be sitting deep in the regular season when its really hard to schedule games if you're an Indy.

Hockey East already has a strange schedule where it's not uncommon to have teams play multiple teams in a weekend, even though they have an even number of teams (and they don't do it in a travel partner situation, like the ECAC).

Take for example the weekend of Feb 10-11 this season (the weekend in the middle of the Beanpot):

[B][U]Team      Friday    Saturday[/U][/B]
Maine     @PC       @UML
PC        Maine     @Mass
UML       Merrimack Maine
Mass      @BU       PC
Merrimack @UML      UNH
UNH       NU        @Merrimack
Vermont   BC        ---

So, they already do a fair amount of schedule juggling (and that's with only three more weeks to go in the season) and it's not unreasonable to think that they could do the same with 11 teams. Sure, it may produce a couple of Friday-Sunday series at Notre Dame and in some other situations, but they are already not tied to the "2 teams will play 2 games only against each other in a weekend" mindset. Not saying that it's a preferable solution, but it's feasible.

 

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Regardless of what's happening with BGSU or the potential AHA breakaways, I hope that Paul Kelly is making a lot of calls these days. He may have more focus on the recruiting angle, but this would be a great time to see where Kennesaw State stands, for instance.

This article hints at such a move, though doesn't give specifics, and the college would need a larger home (the Kennesaw Ice Forum has a capacity of only 1000, though the Marietta Ice Center apparently seats 2-3k.)

Then again... we've been down this road before.

 

[COHockey]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

As for scheduling, the USCHO story by Matt Mackinder quotes Coach Luongo as saying that the school has given him permission to schedule Division I games for 2012-13.

Today I wrote two USPS letters (not just an email) to both DU (playing UAH this season) and CC (played UAH last season) asking them to return the favor and travel to Huntsville. Not that I have any pull, but I still have DU season tickets and spoke with Gwoz several times on this subject. He responded to my correspondance last year, so hopefully there is the idea in their minds. Unsure what CC would think.

If I win Powerball and/or Megamillions, I will fund UAH hockey next year, and all the teams travelling to Huntsville.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Today I wrote two USPS letters (not just an email) to both DU (playing UAH this season) and CC (played UAH last season) asking them to return the favor and travel to Huntsville. Not that I have any pull, but I still have DU season tickets and spoke with Gwoz several times on this subject. He responded to my correspondance last year, so hopefully there is the idea in their minds. Unsure what CC would think.

If I win Powerball and/or Megamillions, I will fund UAH hockey next year, and all the teams travelling to Huntsville.

CC I could see doing this. Denver, I don't know. Invite to the Denver Cup tournament at best.

 

[MikeAnderson]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

I hope Atlantic Hockey or someone takes Huntsville. It is better for the game that this program survives.

Part of the problem has been the "I hope [some conference other than the one my team plays in] takes in UAH." I'd say it's been that way for five years, but it's been that way since D2 dissolved in '99. That's why they had to make their own league to even have a shot...

 

[Flashy Man]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Part of the problem has been the "I hope [some conference other than the one my team plays in] takes in UAH." I'd say it's been that way for five years, but it's been that way since D2 dissolved in '99. That's why they had to make their own league to even have a shot...

I hope UAH is picked up by the WCHA, many Tech fans feel the same. We have more in common academically with UAH than the other schools in the WCHA especially in research.

 

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

I hope UAH is picked up by the WCHA, many Tech fans feel the same. We have more in common academically with UAH than the other schools in the WCHA especially in research.

+1

Mike, I understand your frustration, and I hope that other WCHA fans will agree that we would like to give you guys a home - if nothing else, until UAH finds more teams in the mid-south region.

 

[CornwallAce]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Ok, UAH has not played AIC since going indy. Here's a perfect opportunity to get two more games next year!

 

[Umileated]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Part of the problem has been the "I hope [some conference other than the one my team plays in] takes in UAH." I'd say it's been that way for five years, but it's been that way since D2 dissolved in '99. That's why they had to make their own league to even have a shot...

I'd love to see HEA sack up on the matter. We're spoiled by proximity. The toughest road trip that comes to mind would be Amherst, MA (maybe Burlington, VT?) to Orono, ME. Google maps puts that at 5.5 hours. Also, HEA has money coming out of its ears in an unsettling way. When I go to a college hockey game, I want to sit on a bench in a half-cylinder arena and only have pizza and hot dogs as my concession options. We can spend a couple of bucks on travel. I also want the socialites to be too concerned with messing with a goalie's head to rub elbows throughout the entire game.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

I'd love to see HEA sack up on the matter. We're spoiled by proximity. The toughest road trip that comes to mind would be Amherst, MA (maybe Burlington, VT?) to Orono, ME. Google maps puts that at 5.5 hours. Also, HEA has money coming out of its ears in an unsettling way. When I go to a college hockey game, I want to sit on a bench in a half-cylinder arena and only have pizza and hot dogs as my concession options. We can spend a couple of bucks on travel. I also want the socialites to be too concerned with messing with a goalie's head to rub elbows throughout the entire game.

I had a former HEA coach [Tim Army] say in my presence that HEA coaches had "talked" about UAH in HEA. I would put the chances at better than getting into B1G.

I think the current stages of agreement-in-place-ing that will be done in the next week or so has to be done before UAH approaches any conference. I would expect the WCHA to be the most likely to take UAH.

Mike's comment is fully valid. The CHA had eight member schools: Air Force [bolted to AHA when they decided the CHA was done; this act was the true undoing], Army [bolted for the MAAC after a season], Bemidji State [lucked up with a WCHA slot in the diaspora, and if you don't believe me, ask Tom Serratore], Findlay [openly scorned by the MAAC in their transition season, held on for a while, then folded], Niagara [ended up in AHA in the diaspora, after reported attempts to get into the ECAC and CCHA], Robert Morris [who were headed to Atlantic Hockey in the first place and encouraged to join the CHA when Findlay folded, and ended up in AHA after all in the diaspora], Wayne State [tried for years to get into the WCHA, and was hamstrung by not getting the institutional support that the program deserved; oh, and UAH coach Chris Luongo was an assistant in that last season], and UAH. Sure, we tried to get in other leagues over time, but we never got very far with any one of them. Then we know how things went in August 2009 with the artists about to be formerly known as the CCHA, a group that a number of us like to call Can't Comprehend Hockey in Alabama.

I think everyone down here knows that the conference situation is the yawning question. It does not make sense for UAH to try to play an independent schedule for more than a handful of seasons, and we've already played one-and-a-half. While I did not expect attempted fratricide, I am still worried about the ticking time bomb that is a conference slot. I've said before that my hope and a tiny bit of faith are in the WCHA. It sure would be great for the member schools to let Bruce McLeod step up---again, if you want to look at the Bemidji situation as a group commitment for the betterment of western college hockey by taking a Division II school with a solid hockey tradition at lower levels---and give the Chargers a further hand out of this mess.

Tuesday's decision can be looked at in a number of ways, but I choose to think of it as an inflection point. The momentum has changed, but it needs to be maintained.

[It's late, I'm tired, and I'm rambling.]

GFM

 

[UAHStatman]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Interesting...I'm hoping it works out. I have been concerned about next year's schedule and what the past month might have done with it. It's also good to see College Hockey Inc. trying to do something as well.

Temporary measure sought to help Alabama-Huntsville schedule home games
http://www.uscho.com/2011/12/11/tem...-help-alabama-huntsville-schedule-home-games/

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: UAH plans to stay Division I

Interesting...I'm hoping it works out. I have been concerned about next year's schedule and what the past month might have done with it. It's also good to see College Hockey Inc. trying to do something as well.

Temporary measure sought to help Alabama-Huntsville schedule home games
http://www.uscho.com/2011/12/11/tem...-help-alabama-huntsville-schedule-home-games/

That idea makes too much sense for it to happen.

But the NCAA can move quickly if it wants to.

For basketball or football, maybe, but they really don't care about hockey.