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UConn to apply to Hockey East

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

4four4 said:
This is not about one or two seasons of hockey. HE is looking at the long term value and brand of UCONN.
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Bingo! Nobody can expect UCONN to challenge for the Hockey East title in Year 1 any more than UMass-Amherst did when they joined Hockey East in 1995. I would hope that the Huskies upgrade is a bit more successful but let's not forget that they joined Hockey East for the 1994-95 season and didn't have a winning record until 2002-3. I really think that's the kind of time fram UCONN would be on, too...5-10 years.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Jim said:
Bingo! Nobody can expect UCONN to challenge for the Hockey East title in Year 1 any more than UMass-Amherst did when they joined Hockey East in 1995. I would hope that the Huskies upgrade is a bit more successful but let's not forget that they joined Hockey East for the 1994-95 season and didn't have a winning record until 2002-3. I really think that's the kind of time fram UCONN would be on, too...5-10 years.
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Has UMass-Amherst ever really challenged for the Hockey East title?
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

ericredaxe said:
How about the difference between 4th and 5th (home ice for playoffs or not). Huge difference and definately could be impacted based on who you play extra games against.
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I guess I have the same view, just win more games but if you really htink it is an issue you could rotate who people play 4 times each season so BC and BU play 4 times in 2014, but next year BC plays Providence and BU palys UMass...it wouldn't help in any given season, but over the long run it would even out. I might be a hardliner on this, but I don't really see it as any different than a team that makes it to the NCAA final through a relatively easy bracket where the the 7 and 8 seeds pull off upsets while the other side has to beat all the "high" seeds. Luck of the draw.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Ralph Baer said:
Has UMass-Amherst ever really challenged for the Hockey East title?
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Well, good point, but didn't they win th etournament in 2006 to get into the NCAAs? have to admit I don't recall all the details.
 
Patman said:
ND was a team w/o a conference...
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Wait, what?

No, they had a home, they just decided to hold the CCHA, NCHC, and Hockey East hostage while they circle jerked.

At one point it was:
NCHC: DU, CC, NoDak, tUMD, UNO, Miami
WCHA: BSU, MSU-M, UAA, MTU, SCSU
CCHA: UAF, NMU, LSSU, FSU, BGSU, WMU, ND
B1G: Minn, Wisco, MSU, Mich, tOSU, Penn

It was apparent that Notre Dame wanted out, but they never said so.

From that, NMU was offered a spot in the WCHA to meet the minimum for an auto-bid. Leaving six teams each in the NCHC, CCHA, WCHA, and B1G.

Then the NCHC got sick of ND's game and invited the "like minded" WMU and SCSU to their party. All still before ND made up their mind. Making it NCHC 8, WCHA 5, CCHA 5, B1G 6.

Finally when the CCHA's deadline came, did the formally state they too had no intention of staying in the CCHA. Which led to the scramble by the remaining CCHA teams to first discuss adding AHA teams, then getting invites from the WCHA.

ND had a conference, they wanted no part of it tho.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Jim said:
Well, good point, but didn't they win th etournament in 2006 to get into the NCAAs? have to admit I don't recall all the details.
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UMass hasn't really ever challenged for the regular season title (to my knowledge, which admittedly doesn't go back as far as 1995). In 2004, the Minutemen lost the Championship Game to Maine in triple overtime. So far, it's the only appearance in the championship game.

In 2007, UMass made the NCAAs, but that year they lost in the Hockey East semi finals to UNH.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

jjmc85 said:
UMass hasn't really ever challenged for the regular season title (to my knowledge, which admittedly doesn't go back as far as 1995). In 2004, the Minutemen lost the Championship Game to Maine in triple overtime. So far, it's the only appearance in the championship game.

In 2007, UMass made the NCAAs, but that year they lost in the Hockey East semi finals to UNH.
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I guess I was confusing those two events...I was thinking that they made the NCAAs the year they go tto the Finals. In any case, I wasn't originally intending to say UMass had in fact won anything, merely to suggest that UCONN would likely follow a similar path in that they would likely struggle in the early years and get better as time went on. As a UCONN fan, I would hope that they would succeed more quickly and with a higher upside, but that is a hope not a guarentee. Given UCONN's history of success in other sports, I would have to think it is at least not implausible to think that they could succeed here, too.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Jim said:
I guess I have the same view, just win more games but if you really htink it is an issue you could rotate who people play 4 times each season so BC and BU play 4 times in 2014, but next year BC plays Providence and BU palys UMass...it wouldn't help in any given season, but over the long run it would even out. I might be a hardliner on this, but I don't really see it as any different than a team that makes it to the NCAA final through a relatively easy bracket where the the 7 and 8 seeds pull off upsets while the other side has to beat all the "high" seeds. Luck of the draw.
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On the other hand though... I don't really see the point in doing that... for what? Two extra conference games? I think you are better off keeping it as balanced as possible.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Fishman'81 said:
Maine and ND are going to make for some brutal travel-weekends for everyone, at one point or the other. Teams in HE will likely have to fly at times to play each other, which has never happened before... But, at least there will be a few more OOC games to be scheduled, and that is a big deal re: the all-important PWR. (Which truly is the only thing that matters in this discussion.)
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And this would actually lend itself to keeping Hockey East at 11 teams... that way any team playing at ND only has one game that particular weekend... everyone else can drive. As for ND, well, they wanted to be in a conference that makes no geographic sense, so let them fly as much as they have to.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

komey1 said:
Would Hockey East have the TV contract it is getting wtihout ND? I'm not so sure. That is the value of the Irish to any conference. UConn is a team that casual sports fan would recognize. That brings value. It's more about the brand than the quality of the actual teams.
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I don't know... there has not really been a lack of Hockey East games on TV over the past few years (at least for the "bigger" teams.)
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I have been very pleased with the attention to college hockey given by The NBC Sports Network. They (NBC) already have a lock on Notre Dame football, right? I think NESN is probably a bit unsure about whether the additions of Notre Dame & probably Connecticut will help them or hurt them with respect to televising Friday night Hockey East. I suppose people never tire of Charlie Moore: The Mad Fisherman, so there's that to look forward to.

In time, I could see BC-Notre Dame and BU-Notre Dame being moved to TD Garden if demand were robust enough. Not right away, but eventually. And replace Harvard with UConn in the Beanpot :D
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Chris_NH said:
In time, I could see BC-Notre Dame and BU-Notre Dame being moved to TD Garden if demand were robust enough. Not right away, but eventually.
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Honestly I really doubt this... if anything the novelty of seeing Notre Dame will wear off after a couple of years and the demmand will be about the same as any other game.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I'm not sure that ND will ever create much demand re: pucks... Whatever football cache they still possess really hasn't rubbed-off very well on their other sports, even on a good-if-not-dominant hockey program.

BUT, I'm fairly confident that the numb TV bigwigs will see it differently, and that HEA's exposure will increase as a result... And I'm thinking that the HE league office is banking on that.
 
Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Guessing an announcement one way or the other within a week or two based on nothing but the tea leaves. Certainly by the end of the month I would think.
 
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