Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread
The Commish of the league should want all his teams to succeed because it does make the top teams stand out more. Not giving every team a chance to have a shot, while giving others shows favoritism, like it or not.
By the commissioner of the league? I think by definition we're owed at least equal footing, and that is certainly not the case. If that's expecting too much than we might as well fold up the program because what's the point?
A couple of more points I wanted to add...
Monty and Patronick are 100% correct, the commissioner of any sports league should be promoting his entire group and there should be the perception that any sports conference should hold its member schools on equal footing. For example during the 1990's and 2000's under the old NESN and CSN (when it was FSN) HE contracts, there used to be a clause in the contract that every Hockey East team (no matter how bad or good) were to get one game, and if possible, that game was to be at home. Hockey East had that leverage because NESN was a still a young network. When NESN took over the contract once again and was more powerful, this clause was eliminated as Merrimack failed to show up on NESN telecasts for many years.
I can't say that Patronick is off-base either because he's spot-on right about one thing. Hockey East teams are not treated on equal footing when it comes to one thing -- TV. In fairness, however, I don't know of any D-I conference where equal footing and TV games are synonymous. Vanderbilt came into my mind immediately so I did a bit of research. I know it's a different sport, but it is in the same context.
The bottom of Hockey East is analogous to the Mississippi State and Vanderbilt of the SEC in football. Historically, within the SEC, they have been in the middle to bottom of the pack and have a good year about once or twice a decade. CBS has a exclusive SEC package at 3:30 PM on Saturdays and have held that since 1998. According to Wikipedia, and I have no good reason to dispute this, Vanderbilt has appeared just four times on this premier package and hasn't had a game since 2001. Miss. State has not had a premier game since 2005. Why?? Because struggling teams don't sell ads or the sizzle.
Lowell is a small market, BC is a big market when it comes to college hockey. Sure, Lowell has a rabid and loyal fan base with people (including myself) that are boosters of the program. However, at the same time, I just can't get caught up scapegoating Bertagna because BC got yet another high-profile hockey game. After all, they have won two over the last four NC's. I'd be willing to wager that Bertagna wasn't the only one making the decision and in reality, probably had 0% input. In its simplest form, I bet the conversation when something like this
TV People: "This is who we want, these are the dates and times, this is the amount of money....take it or leave it"
Again, IMHO, when it comes to TV revenue, there is no such thing as equal footing.
Other than BC and BU, there are signs that Hockey East may be a lot more open for the taking over the next two to four years. Now is the time for Lowell to be like the Minn-Duluth of the world, a D-II school that proved to the ultimate level last year that it can play with the big boys and finally get those marquee matchups.
My $0.02
