UConn to apply to Hockey East

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Not that it would necessarily shake out this way, but it is less than 2 hours between RIT and Cornell, and between Colgate and Union (and relatively easy drives). In comparison, Holy Cross-Union as travel partners seems ridiculous. Even RIT-Union is a perfectly reasonable set of travel partners give the straight shot down the thruway (a little over 3 hours).

Rochester is no where near the middle of nowhere; it just looks that way from Mass. ... we're actually just on the edge of nowhere.

I won't get into the academic fit, as it is really impossible to define, but your suggestion that RIT is just the same as RPI would and that some in the ECAC don't want to touch RIT because of that implies that the ECAC wants RPI out. I find that difficult to believe. Personally I'd prefer to see RIT in an ECAC that includes RPI.

Well, if Hockey East poaches a team from the ECAC, it'd be either Q-Pac or RPI, and likely RPI because of their history. RPI gets regular home games with Hockey East teams.

I agree that Union/Colgate and RIT/Cornell would become the travel partners. However, if Q-Pac were to go, Colgate would probably end up being a travel partner with either Union or Princeton, meaning that RPI may travel partner with Dartmouth (very unlikely though).

Also, if you were to join the ECAC, you'd likely have to play games at the Blue Cross Arena until your new rink is built. Q-Pac couldn't play men's home games at Northford (women's games were OK there), and I don't know if the league will take kindly to a 185x85 rink.

 

[chickod]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Uconn could probably do well like in football if BC, BU, and Maine bolted for the ACC.

You see what I'm saying here?

Yeah, but it's not like they STINK. They DID go to bowl games (before you say "that's because they had a good record in a weak conference") and didn't acquit themselves too badly.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Q-Pac couldn't play men's home games at Northford

Quinnipiac played 10 ECAC games at the NIP, going 8-1-1 including a huge victory against Cornell.

 

[lmg6841]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Also, if you were to join the ECAC, you'd likely have to play games at the Blue Cross Arena until your new rink is built. Q-Pac couldn't play men's home games at Northford (women's games were OK there), and I don't know if the league will take kindly to a 185x85 rink.

I think if we were accepted into the ECAC shovels would be in the ground for the new rink before the end of that day.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Quinnipiac played 10 ECAC games at the NIP, going 8-1-1 including a huge victory against Cornell.

I thought you had to play most of your games at Yale's rink... at least that's what I remember seeing on the schedule. Northford's a quaint little rink, though. I remember being there for a women's game.

 

[kingdobbs]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Uconn could probably do well like in football if BC, BU, and Maine bolted for the ACC.

You see what I'm saying here?

I do, actually. We got lucky because the two consistent league winners left and were replaced with good, not great, teams, which widened out the middle of the league and made it easier for anyone to win. There's no doubt that we got a huge assist from not having to play Miami and VTech on a yearly basis during our formative seasons.

Had BC stuck around, they might have actually won an outright league title and gotten a trip to the BCS. Oops, I guess.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I thought you had to play most of your games at Yale's rink... at least that's what I remember seeing on the schedule.

I wasn't following the team back then but they played games at the NIP and Ingalls after joining the ECAC and before the Bank was complete. We even played Yale at Ingalls as the home team.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I wasn't following the team back then but they played games at the NIP and Ingalls after joining the ECAC and before the Bank was complete. We even played Yale at Ingalls as the home team.

Even the men played at NIP? OK. It's been a while, so I don't remember. I do remember RPI played the women at NIP in 2006-07, as I was with the band.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Yes of course. That "diaspora" always shows up in huge numbers when UConn takes on Bentley and Holy Cross - NOT! Truth is, UConn hockey is an afterthought with the university and its fans. When UConn plays at Bentley it appears there are more UConn players (not playing that evening) in the stands than actual UConn fans. ...and please spare me any argument that the small venues in which Bentley and Holy Cross play keep the fans away. When Bentley played RIT this season their fans showed up in droves. Even lowly Sacred Heart brought more fans to Bentley (during the AHA playoffs) than UConn has ever produced.

You were expecting UConn fans to go to BENTLEY??????????????? Nobody going to UConn has even HEARD of Bentley!!

 

[burgie12]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Even the men played at NIP?

Yes

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Had BC stuck around, they might have actually won an outright league title and gotten a trip to the BCS. Oops, I guess.

Hehehe. Not too likely. By the time they left, UConn was already better than them in football.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I know it's a slightly greater distance than Hartford, but is Mohegan Sun Arena a feasible option?

UConn actually played a year or two in Norwich in the D-3 days when Freitas was under construction. But no ice at Mohegan Sun or room to put it I wouldn't think.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

My primary concern with UConn is that men's hockey will be the 5th most popular sport after Men's BBall, Football, Women's BBall and Baseball.

You forgot Men's Soccer. They sell out and they are enlarging Marrone Stadium from about 4K.

 

[Humanoid]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

You were expecting UConn fans to go to BENTLEY??????????????? Nobody going to UConn has even HEARD of Bentley!!

It's hard to recognize a team you're used to looking up at in the standings.

UConn's gotten lucky because of Bartus; before him you were a terrible team and you upset Bentley in a one-game playoff 3 years ago now. Two years ago you benefitted from having a warped playoff system and a weak division. This year... you benefitted from playing a weak Canisius team at home in the playoffs that had to bus 500 miles. And then you went to Air Force and lost, even though I'll give you credit at that.

And maybe before you say "haven't heard of Bentley" remember that you've been in the MAAC/AHA as long as they have. So maybe if you had a following you would have heard of them.

 

[Humanoid]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Hehehe. Not too likely. By the time they left, UConn was already better than them in football.

The petulant little child of UConn. "We're better than BC! Wahhhhhhh" BC would've absolutely WAXED the Big East had they stayed for ac ouple of years. It's a weak, weak league in football. And it'll take several years to get caught up even with scholarships in hockey.

 

[komey1]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Everyone knows RIT thinks its better than the rest of the AHA and wants out, that it wants the scholarship investment and the new rink and to seamlessly fit into another conference. But geographically, ROchester doesn't fit with anybody, especially the WCHA or the old CCHA.

Of course RIT fans think the world starts and stops with them since, yes, they have been good as of late. But Rochester and the fact that the AHA championship is played at BCA is just a fact that RIT isn't going anywhere.

I'm curious how everyone KNOWS that RIT wants out of the AHA. RIT has publicly said that they are happy in the AHA. There are fans that would disagree and want out of the AHA as soon as possible. Personally, I think RIT is in the catbird seat. They can stay in the AHA and be a contender for league titles and NCAA bids every year. If an ECAC spot opened up, I think RIT would be high on the list of teams that would be considered, in no small part, due to their success at the AHA level and I think the Tigers would go.

Success of late? It's not like they had 1 or 2 good years like Bentley. RIT has won or tied for 4 AHA championships. They have made 3 straight trips to the AHA tournament championship, winning 1 and parleying that to a Frozen Four appearance. The is not a johnny-come-lately program, but one with sustained success in the AHA.

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

With the exception of this past year, BC has actually been really competitive in the ACC since joining. Their football team has gone to 2 conference championships, men's soccer became a national power and has gone to four consecutive tournaments, winning 1 ACC title, men's basketball has gone to a Sweet Sixteen and qualified for the national tournament more often than they haven't, and the baseball team went to the national tournament for the first time in 2009 since the 1960s (and the only reaosn why they were 2-and-screw in that was because they played a 26 inning game in the firs tgame, then turned around less than 16 hours later and played another game with no pitching and fatigue. Texas had a day off).

And women's basketball holds wins over national powers like Duke and FSU within the last couple years. It's unfair to judge them on last year's collapse in football and this year's struggles in pretty much everything.

So while you hate on BC, the fact remains that they have been pretty good. Also, their profile is clearly high enough for this forum to become less about UConn joining Hockey East and more about BC-bashing.

Who is this, Gene DeFillippo's grandson? BC in the ACC is a disaster. The ACC in football is a joke, actually on a lower level than the Big East, yet all BC can do is lust for one of the bottom 10% if bowl games In basketball they were pre-season last place. And did you look at the attendance at home games? Except for Duke and UNC, average attendance was, what, 3,500? And didn't they lose to every New England team they played? But the bottom line really is that provincial Bostonians don't give a rats *** about Clemson, Georgia Tech, or NC State in anything. Plus, recruiting wise, BC is way out of the loop in both sports since, if you like the ACC as a conference, why would you go to the northern most school, with the most blasé fan base, when you could go to Duke, UNC et al for hoops or FSU or Miami for football?

The move to the ACC is a big negative for BC, mostly because they will never, ever be big time in the league in either major sport. And while the AD is making a futile attempt to pump up the affiliation, at the same time he is trying to marginalize the most successful team on campus - men's hockey.

 

[Tater]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

pass the popcorn....

 

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Greg Ambrose is even dumber than I thought. Never thought it was possible.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

And maybe before you say "haven't heard of Bentley" remember that you've been in the MAAC/AHA as long as they have. So maybe if you had a following you would have heard of them.

People at UConn have heard of Kentucky, Tennesee, Syracuse, Pitt, Penn State, Louisville, Rutgers. They've never heard of Bentley. They aren't going to travel to a school they have never heard of to see a hockey game. Especially to the JAR, assuming they knew about the JAR! The point is that how they will draw in HE (if that is where they go) will depend on how well known the opponent is. Against BC and BU they will draw nicely. Some others, perhaps not so much.

Btw, UConn was a founding member of the MAAC/AHA while Bentley joined later. UConn has one league championship to Bentley's none.