WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conference

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

Here's a radical, radical proposal that would never get out:

If two or more teams are more than N miles from the geographic center of the league, up to two (2) games played against that team's conference are exempted. Call it the Imputed Alaska Exemption.

Consider: every WCHA team, because they're willing to take on the two far-flung Alaska schools, are allowed to schedule two more non-conference games. BGSU could have another two freebies to keep some of its in-state / old CCHA rivalries in place. MSU and BSU can work to schedule more games against in-state teams. The Michigan schools could try to get MSU-EL and UM to schedule them (maybe Merle remembers the Mackinac). Huntsville could ... well, we could start back with the Nashville series.

Word it right and you could get four games exempted if ASU came on board and then get the IAE applied to UA3 and ASU for four games.

GFM <— either hasn't had enough or too much coffee this morning.

That's great but we're already not using all out exempt games and that just makes the super conferences richer because their footprints are gigantic. You'd probably also have CC/DU far enough away for NCHC to qualify.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

You’re the one doing the complaining.

I'm just stating facts. Every time the fact is stated 2 or 3 of you come in here and tell whoever said it they're wrong and to shut up...but continue on.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

That's great but we're already not using all out exempt games and that just makes the super conferences richer because their footprints are gigantic. You'd probably also have CC/DU far enough away for NCHC to qualify.

Someone smart like us can figure out a way to write it such that only WCHA schools qualify.

As far as WCHA schools not all using it: I understand it for some of us. UAH used it in 2013-14, and Corbett swore that he wouldn't do it again because his guys were just beaten and broken by the end of the season (it didn't help that there was no steady ECHL+ talent on that roster). Now maybe a 19th skater ameliorates that some, although at one point that season or the next, UAH carried three goalies on trips because they didn't have 20 healthy skaters to take on trips.

GFM

GFM

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

Someone smart like us can figure out a way to write it such that only WCHA schools qualify.

As far as WCHA schools not all using it: I understand it for some of us. UAH used it in 2013-14, and Corbett swore that he wouldn't do it again because his guys were just beaten and broken by the end of the season (it didn't help that there was no steady ECHL+ talent on that roster). Now maybe a 19th skater ameliorates that some, although at one point that season or the next, UAH carried three goalies on trips because they didn't have 20 healthy skaters to take on trips.

GFM

GFM

one more spot to dress also helps get more guys dressed which means more opportunities to get rewarded.

 

[davyd83]

That's great but we're already not using all out exempt games and that just makes the super conferences richer because their footprints are gigantic. You'd probably also have CC/DU far enough away for NCHC to qualify.

It’s rare for a team to play more than 36 regular season games, and even if they did, it would be very difficult for WCHA teams to even get half those games on their home ice.

 

[manurespreader]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

Why would UMD even consider anything like that? They just won the National Championship, their 2nd in the last like 8 years, and they did it while in the toughest conference in the country, but yet would be ok giving up the situation that just paved the way for them to their 2nd championship?

Oh I agree they're not leaving but, let me play devils advocate for a second.
in the NCho they have 1 team under 4.5 hours drive. St clod. in the WCHA they would have three teams under 4.5 hours. And if Mankato stayed in they would have another one about that same amount.
In the Nacho they have UND and St clod as the only teams semi close. Omaha is 8 hours at least and everything else is a real long way including a flight. So if a flight is a flight then the only issue is the Alaska schools vs all those trips to SW Michigan and Ohio. Now ad in ASU. ...
I'm just saying teams that are close to each other ought to be talking. And leagues ought to make sure that teams that are close play 4 times.

 

[beaverhockeyfan]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

It’s rare for a team to play more than 36 regular season games, and even if they did, it would be very difficult for WCHA teams to even get half those games on their home ice.

And with the WCHA playoff set up as they are now, all teams lost one of their bye weeks due to the season ending a week sooner.

I really doubt, even with the 19th skater, that any team will play more than 36 games in a season. Those bye weeks are just too important, mentally and physically, to the teams.

 

[purpleinnebraska]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

Oh I agree they're not leaving but, let me play devils advocate for a second.
in the NCho they have 1 team under 4.5 hours drive. St clod. in the WCHA they would have three teams under 4.5 hours. And if Mankato stayed in they would have another one about that same amount.
In the Nacho they have UND and St clod as the only teams semi close. Omaha is 8 hours at least and everything else is a real long way including a flight. So if a flight is a flight then the only issue is the Alaska schools vs all those trips to SW Michigan and Ohio. Now ad in ASU. ...
I'm just saying teams that are close to each other ought to be talking. And leagues ought to make sure that teams that are close play 4 times.

They're not leaving the NCHC as long as St. Cloud is there. And as long as they were in the WCHA, their rivalry with NoDak is not something they're giving up.

 

[Squarebanks]

I'm just stating facts. Every time the fact is stated 2 or 3 of you come in here and tell whoever said it they're wrong and to shut up...but continue on.

You’d react the same way if you constantly had people wishing your team would cease to exist. But hey, who doesn’t love a long bus ride to Houghton?

 

[aparch]

But hey, who doesn’t love a long bus ride to Houghton?

Denver, Colorado College, North Dakota, Nebraska Omaha, and Minnesota Duluth for starters.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

Here it is: https://uahhockey.com/blog/2018/06/20/widespread-conference-schedule-exemption/

Writ short:
1. Find geographic midpoint of all schools.
2. If your school is more than 1,000 miles from that midpoint, any home games you have are exempt from the visitors' schedule maximum. (UAH and AFA join UAA and UAF)
3. If at least half of your conference members are 500 miles from the midpoint, each of those teams can provide an exemption to one visiting school per season. (AHC and WCHA get this.)

I don't know if you can get that through the NCAAs, but it's an interesting concept. That would allow you to push the far-flung schools into the smaller conferences or have a bigger conference pick up a distant school to help them hit that second milestone. I don't think that adding ASU does that for the NCHC; it moves the midpoint to Pilger, NE, which probably isn't far enough from MU/WMU/UMD to make a difference; add two southwestern teams, though, and things might change.

GFM

 

[aparch]

Here it is: https://uahhockey.com/blog/2018/06/20/widespread-conference-schedule-exemption/

I did a midpoint with an average radius size (half the distance for the average?) way back... <img width=400 src=http://www.nmubaseball.net/uscho/1314AvgDistance.jpg>

The geographic midpoint is some village in southeast Manitoba.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

I did a midpoint with an average radius size (half the distance for the average?) way back... <img width=400 src=http://www.nmubaseball.net/uscho/1314AvgDistance.jpg>

The geographic midpoint is some village in southeast Manitoba.

I remember you doing that — it was a starting point in my thinking for this. . That's pretty much what the tool that I used did, and that's the result that I got. Admittedly, I was entering in city names of the school's homes from Wikipedia and not putting in, say, the mailing address of the main campus of each school or the address of the home rink. I don't know if that would matter very much, even in the tightly-clustered HE grouping.

A more thorough analysis would look at optimal travel paths, etc., but the NCAA manual doesn't work that way — it's really just "Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico games are exempt".

What I probably didn't clearly state is that WCHA teams generating 28 exempt games a season, unevenly distributed between member schools, doesn't guarantee that those exemptions will be used. Granting exemption generation to those schools, however, is a different kettle of fish. It's an easier sell for Ohio State to travel to Bowling Green than Fairbanks, even though they played both in the old CCHA.

Within reason (and outside of the Ivy League), I don't know why most coaches wouldn't mind getting in two more games a season. Mike Corbett doesn't want UAH to do 38 again, but a lot of that is probably because that almost assuredly means 11 trips for us. Would UAH play 38 games if it were only nine trips in the season? I think that they might.

Unanswered there is the question of whether UAH would be allowed to exempt games played in Alaska. I'd argue for yes, but I know that's wearing some seriously deep blue glasses.

GFM

 

[purpleinnebraska]

Here it is: https://uahhockey.com/blog/2018/06/20/widespread-conference-schedule-exemption/

Writ short:
1. Find geographic midpoint of all schools.
2. If your school is more than 1,000 miles from that midpoint, any home games you have are exempt from the visitors' schedule maximum. (UAH and AFA join UAA and UAF)
3. If at least half of your conference members are 500 miles from the midpoint, each of those teams can provide an exemption to one visiting school per season. (AHC and WCHA get this.)

I don't know if you can get that through the NCAAs, but it's an interesting concept. That would allow you to push the far-flung schools into the smaller conferences or have a bigger conference pick up a distant school to help them hit that second milestone. I don't think that adding ASU does that for the NCHC; it moves the midpoint to Pilger, NE, which probably isn't far enough from MU/WMU/UMD to make a difference; add two southwestern teams, though, and things might change.

GFM

I’m just glad to see Pilger, NE make it onto a college hockey message board. Carry on!

 

[beaverhockey]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

If I remember right, BG is the only school to come close to using all of their exemptions (in the current WCHA). With the redo of the playoffs, I can see more WCHA teams not using ANY exemptions before I see them using all available to them.

If your extra games are on the road anyway...I'd only play 34 if I were the coach.

 

[davyd83]

If I remember right, BG is the only school to come close to using all of their exemptions (in the current WCHA). With the redo of the playoffs, I can see more WCHA teams not using ANY exemptions before I see them using all available to them.

If your extra games are on the road anyway...I'd only play 34 if I were the coach.

Michigan Tech played 37 & 38 over the past 2 years I believe.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

If I remember right, BG is the only school to come close to using all of their exemptions (in the current WCHA). With the redo of the playoffs, I can see more WCHA teams not using ANY exemptions before I see them using all available to them.

If your extra games are on the road anyway...I'd only play 34 if I were the coach.

Follow-up pieces from me would include looking at how WCHA teams have used the 28 games that can be exempted each season. As many have noted, not all of these exemptions have been used. Looking at this will take a lot more work, since I'll have to pull up each team's schedule over the last few years and make notes.

GFM

 

[Alaska Hockey]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

You’d react the same way if you constantly had people wishing your team would cease to exist. But hey, who doesn’t love a long bus ride to Houghton?

And it's a smartest 8 hr bus ride to the city, as the Hick county airstrip is closed a lot............as I found out, but the out of state snow-go riders were really nice .

 

[beaverhockeyfan]

Re: WCHA 2018 Off-Season: Nobody's Walking Out On This Old-Fashioned Hockey Conferenc

The NHL releases their complete schedule today at 4:00 today. We should get a better idea as to which date in January (12, 19 or 26) that Hockey Day Minnesota in Bemidji is on. The BSU Women play Mankato in a single non-conference game on the weekend of the 19th (on the schedule as the 18th, 19th or 20th) and the BSU Men play Michigan Tech in a home series on the 18th and 19th with it announced (by Michigan Tech) that the 19th will be outdoors. The official announcement is July 1 in Bemidji.

 

[beaverhockeyfan]

The NHL releases their complete schedule today at 4:00 today. We should get a better idea as to which date in January (12, 19 or 26) that Hockey Day Minnesota in Bemidji is on. The BSU Women play Mankato in a single non-conference game on the weekend of the 19th (on the schedule as the 18th, 19th or 20th) and the BSU Men play Michigan Tech in a home series on the 18th and 19th with it announced (by Michigan Tech) that the 19th will be outdoors. The official announcement is July 1 in Bemidji.

The Wild host Columbus at 8 PM on January 19th. The 12th, they host Detroit, but at 7 PM and there is nothing on the 26th.