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WCHA 2020-21: We Can Do Better than Two Bids and Eight Teams Exiting

MavHockey14 said:
Not that this is earth shattering, but Mike Hastings spoke at yesterday’s MSU Hockey Blue Line Club Golf Fundraiser..

”Would we like to start on October 3rd as we are supposed to? Of course. I’d also like to be 6 feet tall. I think the most realistic goal right now is a Conference only schedule beginning in January.”
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Thanks for the info.
 
The Northern Sun (Bemidji and Mankato in the WCHA, St. Cloud and Duluth in the NCHC) and the GLIAC (Ferris, Lake Superior, Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech) have suspended D-II activities until January 1.
 
So can someone explain to me. If the players are not in a bubble and they are students, and colleges, such as Illinois, or South Carolina, or whoever, are having a really hard time keeping students from partying, it seems to me that someone on the team is going to test positive pretty soon. So then what? We keep playing anyway?
 
manurespreader said:
So can someone explain to me. If the players are not in a bubble and they are students, and colleges, such as Illinois, or South Carolina, or whoever, are having a really hard time keeping students from partying, it seems to me that someone on the team is going to test positive pretty soon. So then what? We keep playing anyway?
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Our high school soccer team just had one player test positive for COVID. They have to suspend their season for two weeks as all the players have to go into quarantine and do distance learning for those two weeks (our high school is on a hybrid learning model). I would think that college programs will have to treat it much the same way.
 
ok, so any team, say BGSU, has a player test positive and they go into quarantine and so they forfeit those games they miss? I think this is a mess and it hasn't even started yet. in the meantime, BGSU has played let's say 2 games while that player is contagious and the other team now has to quarantine also? or do they just test everyone and hope like hell that no one got it. Helluva way to operate.
 
manurespreader said:
ok, so any team, say BGSU, has a player test positive and they go into quarantine and so they forfeit those games they miss? I think this is a mess and it hasn't even started yet. in the meantime, BGSU has played let's say 2 games while that player is contagious and the other team now has to quarantine also? or do they just test everyone and hope like hell that no one got it. Helluva way to operate.
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manurespreader said:
ok, so any team, say BGSU, has a player test positive and they go into quarantine and so they forfeit those games they miss? I think this is a mess and it hasn't even started yet. in the meantime, BGSU has played let's say 2 games while that player is contagious and the other team now has to quarantine also? or do they just test everyone and hope like hell that no one got it. Helluva way to operate.
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This aspect is what will cause the biggest challenges of trying to play any type of "normal" season. The Minnesota Department of Health is saying that, in general, teammates (and coaches) of a player that tests positive are considered to have met the definition of having had "close contact". Therefore, the whole team is quarantined. AND...if that team had played a game in the previous 5-7 days, the team they played would possibly be required to quarantine.

Now, in Minnesota, if a player can pass (be negatiive)on two consecutive tests with a 24 hour gap in between, they can be cleared from quarantine. The obvious challenge that currently presents is 1.) cost -- a number of health care plans might only cover one test or, even a partial cost of one or more tests... 2.) turnaround time -- it's often a 3-5 day wait on results. Meaning, it might be almost 10-12 days before you get the result of the 2nd test. Might as well just do the quarantine at that point.

My understanding is that this is the general process that most state health departments are operating under. If so, think about how that could possibly affect the scheduling integrity of a given league. We've already seen examples of this in relation to the MLB with the Marlins and Cardinals. Now, consider how this could affect our smaller universities that are already extremely cash strapped. Let's say Lake St. hosts Northern on a weekend and the following weekend Lake St. is scheduled to go to Fairbanks and Northern is scheduled to go to Anchorage. Then Monday, a Lake St. player tests positive. Now, both teams have to quarantine for two weeks. Not only does it affect the two Alaska teams that coming weekend, it affects whoever they were supposed to play the weekend after that. Now also think of the extra costs to cancel those plane tickets and coach buses on such short notice.

And...let's say that Northern was supposed to host Mankato on the second weekend and LSSU was supposed to host Tech. Two pretty good gate weekends that, if they aren't able to be made up, affects the financials of those athletic departments even more. As an example of what can happen, here's an ESPN article from early July that discusses what was happening to the Iowa high school baseball and softball seasons...

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id...-school-sports

Here's another article from the Des Moines Register that discusses the same issue, including how it affected the state play downs..

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...au/5390307002/https://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...au/5390307002/

So, what happens if teams have to quarantine during the league or NCAA tournament? Again, all kinds of potentially challenging situations. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
 
manurespreader said:
In a related incident Texas Tech football team last week reported 70 plus positive cases. They want to keep playing?
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Apparently most of the LSU players have contacted Covid, but they don't say when, do mention the supposed 90 day immunity, & plan to play a game later this month.
 
If any of you have yearly FloHockey subscriptions, make sure you check them so you don't get autobilled for a new year. They were set to renew mine in early October but without hockey, no reason to pay for Flo.
 
John J. MacInnes said:
Michigan Tech radio flagship WKMJ says they expect the release of the Huskies hockey schedule imminently. That's a good sign.
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I haven't been closely following the return date. Do you or anyone else know if we're looking at college hockey returning in November, January, or some other time?
 
The WCHA season will likely open on Friday January 1. Any non-conference games would have to be in December to not interfere with league play. I know of one western team in college hockey who has been told to expect practices with coaches to begin on Thanksgiving weekend.
 
The WCHA can't start Jan 1st and hold a 28 game conference season along with their traditional tourney. That only allows 12 weekends before the NCAA Regionals. They'll either have to move up the start date, trim the regular season or redesign the conference tourney to fewer teams and potentially play all the games in one extended weekend as the BigTen plans to do.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
The WCHA can't start Jan 1st and hold a 28 game conference season along with their traditional tourney. That only allows 12 weekends before the NCAA Regionals. They'll either have to move up the start date, trim the regular season or redesign the conference tourney to fewer teams and potentially play all the games in one extended weekend as the BigTen plans to do.
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The WCHA never claimed they were playing a 28 game schedule. My best guess is 18 - one series against everyone except your travel partner, who you'll play two series against. There are already league schools talking about non-conference games against each other too.
 
John J. MacInnes said:
The WCHA never claimed they were playing a 28 game schedule. My best guess is 18 - one series against everyone except your travel partner, who you'll play two series against. There are already league schools talking about non-conference games against each other too.
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Was hoping for a MTU+ASU series but with the Big10+ASU announcement......not likely (?)
 
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