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

[Shirtless Guy]

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

I'm not following your thought here. Are you stating that because the big 10 & ASU are highly ranked in recruiting that many of those recruits will leave because they won't get play time? So with UND & WMU being even higher ranked for recruiting your logic suggests that they will lose an even higher percentage of recruits?

Many of the blue bloods simply have more recruits committed than money/spots available so kids have to decide if they want the walk-on spot vs the scholarship they thought they were getting and decommit to go elsewhere like Jake Harrison did this week, switching from Michigan to Nebraska-Omaha

 

[gfmorris]

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

I also don't believe anyone is scheduling ASU because they are a big name school. There is only one reason ASU gets scheduled - the weather and something for the alumni in the SW part of the country to do.

Thanks — that's a lot closer to the truth than what I wrote.

GFM

 

[gfmorris]

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

A major reason that UAH also struggles is the feeble airport facility. Despite having the second-longest runway east of the Mississippi, HSV is choked out by ATL, BNA, and BHM. Huntsville was (apparently, I didn't live here then) one of the ten-busiest airports in the Southeast prior to airline deregulation. We're less than 100 miles from both Nashville and Birmingham, so Southwest won't support us. We got AirTran in to service the airport about six weeks before Southwest announced plans to buy them. Good times.

This means that you're either doing direct flights in smaller jets (mostly from Chicago, Denver, Houston, or Washington) or you're taking regional jets from ATL ... except those jets aren't set up to take a hockey team, attendant staff and coaches, plus the equipment. So you either fly to BNA or ATL and drive either two or three hours, respectively.

I don't know if Tech flies here, but it almost might be faster to bus it. You're either, what, busing to GRB or DTW? That DTW trip has to be a haul. GRB has direct flights to ATL, but they're probably smaller craft ... so you're probably connecting through DTW or MSP. Add up the bus times on the front and back and it's probably 50-50 on time.

[I know that I've said all of the above multiple times.]

The irony is that Huntsville's the main city in the largest metro area in the conference and is getting shut out for reasons that completely make sense, even though I hate them.

GFM

 

[Shirtless Guy]

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

Thanks — that's a lot closer to the truth than what I wrote.

GFM

I think the third reason is easy flights, Huntsville, despite being a decent sized place has horrible flight service. Well in advance tickets are really expensive compared to most other places I've tried to fly over the years.

 

[gfmorris]

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

I think the third reason is easy flights, Huntsville, despite being a decent sized place has horrible flight service. Well in advance tickets are really expensive compared to most other places I've tried to fly over the years.

We're generally regarded by business magazines as one of three most expensive airports by average fare price. Some of it is due to what I stated before, and a good chunk of it is because a lot of the flights here are for government fliers (who get a price break but do a lot of travel) and aerospace contractors (who don't care what the flight costs because they get to charge NASA/DoD for it). Such is the fun of having a concentrated community like this.

GFM <— tries to FlyHSV whenever possible, but that usually just means going through ATL on Delta

 

[Squarebanks]

A major reason that UAH also struggles is the feeble airport facility. Despite having the second-longest runway east of the Mississippi, HSV is choked out by ATL, BNA, and BHM. Huntsville was (apparently, I didn't live here then) one of the ten-busiest airports in the Southeast prior to airline deregulation. We're less than 100 miles from both Nashville and Birmingham, so Southwest won't support us. We got AirTran in to service the airport about six weeks before Southwest announced plans to buy them. Good times.

This means that you're either doing direct flights in smaller jets (mostly from Chicago, Denver, Houston, or Washington) or you're taking regional jets from ATL ... except those jets aren't set up to take a hockey team, attendant staff and coaches, plus the equipment. So you either fly to BNA or ATL and drive either two or three hours, respectively.

I don't know if Tech flies here, but it almost might be faster to bus it. You're either, what, busing to GRB or DTW? That DTW trip has to be a haul. GRB has direct flights to ATL, but they're probably smaller craft ... so you're probably connecting through DTW or MSP. Add up the bus times on the front and back and it's probably 50-50 on time.

[I know that I've said all of the above multiple times.]

The irony is that Huntsville's the main city in the largest metro area in the conference and is getting shut out for reasons that completely make sense, even though I hate them.

GFM

Technically second largest. Bowling Green is part of the Toledo MSA.

But yeah, it’s never been lost on me that two of the largest population centers in the conference (Huntsville and Anchorage) are getting shunned.

 

[gfmorris]

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

Sorry, I conflated MSA with CSA! Ugh.

Toledo MSA (651,429): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_metropolitan_area
There isn't a CSA that I can find around Toledo, but Northwest Ohio is above 1.6MM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Ohio
Huntsville MSA (455,458): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville_metropolitan_area
Huntsville CSA (774,480): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville,_AL_Combined_Statistical_Area

I should know better. My late SIL is from Delphos.

GFM <— loves that he had it right, changed it, and ... duh

 

[Squarebanks]

Sorry, I conflated MSA with CSA! Ugh.

Toledo MSA (651,429): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_metropolitan_area
There isn't a CSA that I can find around Toledo, but Northwest Ohio is above 1.6MM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Ohio
Huntsville MSA (455,458): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville_metropolitan_area
Huntsville CSA (774,480): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville,_AL_Combined_Statistical_Area

I should know better. My late SIL is from Delphos.

GFM <— loves that he had it right, changed it, and ... duh

Just for grins...demographic dorks unite! Numbers are MSA’s.

Toledo (Bowling Green): 651,429
Huntsville: 462,693
Anchorage: 380,821
Fairbanks: 97,581
Mankato: 96,740
Marquette: 67,077

The other four are too small to qualify as a metro area.

 

[manurespreader]

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

I think the third reason is easy flights, Huntsville, despite being a decent sized place has horrible flight service. Well in advance tickets are really expensive compared to most other places I've tried to fly over the years.

Honestly, the easiest and cheapest way is to fly into Nashville and drive 2 hours. plenty of flights then. To me, Bemidji is much harder to get to and Mankato isn't easy either.

 

[John J. MacInnes]

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

Just for grins...demographic dorks unite! Numbers are MSA’s.

Toledo (Bowling Green): 651,429
Huntsville: 462,693
Anchorage: 380,821
Fairbanks: 97,581
Mankato: 96,740
Marquette: 67,077

The other four are too small to qualify as a metro area.

Depends if you consider the Twin Saults as one metro area. Soo Canada is just short of 80,000 by itself, and Soo Michigan's population would push you towards 95,000.

 

[gfmorris]

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

Honestly, the easiest and cheapest way is to fly into Nashville and drive 2 hours. plenty of flights then. To me, Bemidji is much harder to get to and Mankato isn't easy either.

It depends on where you are. If you're in a market that Southwest serves, that's absolutely the case. If you have to fly one of the legacy carriers, you're going through ATL, HOU, or DFW.

GFM

 

[Sol Diablo]

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

Many of the blue bloods simply have more recruits committed than money/spots available so kids have to decide if they want the walk-on spot vs the scholarship they thought they were getting and decommit to go elsewhere like Jake Harrison did this week, switching from Michigan to Nebraska-Omaha

You are kind of implying that the non-B1G & non-ASU teams will get the hand-me-downs.......But being those teams do great, must be great coaching & teamwork?

 

[davyd83]

Honestly, the easiest and cheapest way is to fly into Nashville and drive 2 hours. plenty of flights then. To me, Bemidji is much harder to get to and Mankato isn't easy either.

NMU flew Marquette-Chicago O’Hare-Nashville, Occasionally Marquette-Chicago-Birmingham. Have flown into & out of HSV without too much trouble as well. The problems have been because of weather up north.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

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

You are kind of implying that the non-B1G & non-ASU teams will get the hand-me-downs.......But being those teams do great, must be great coaching & teamwork?

I never said all the recruits are hand-me-downs. The Big Ten Schools are notorious for recruiting way more than they need and as soon as the kid takes a step back in development cutting bait and moving on to some late bloomer. The reason it works because every kid (much like our current non-hockey situation) doesn't think it will happen to them. It does though. It would probably be a bigger deal to recruits if when Michigan, Wisconsin, etc is no longer interested they can't find an offer but since there is a reason those schools wanted them in the first place there is usually a team like CC, MTU, WMU, UML, etc that will make a offer.

 

[manurespreader]

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

I never said all the recruits are hand-me-downs. The Big Ten Schools are notorious for recruiting way more than they need and as soon as the kid takes a step back in development cutting bait and moving on to some late bloomer. The reason it works because every kid (much like our current non-hockey situation) doesn't think it will happen to them. It does though. It would probably be a bigger deal to recruits if when Michigan, Wisconsin, etc is no longer interested they can't find an offer but since there is a reason those schools wanted them in the first place there is usually a team like CC, MTU, WMU, UML, etc that will make a offer.

it's another fallacy that players get better coaching or more visibility at a name school. Honestly, that's totally false. they don't even get better facilities. On a smaller campus, everyone knows who they are and they get the royal treatment everywhere they go, on a big school, they are nameless, faceless students. Scouts know them no matter where they play.

 

[Lost_Husky]

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

it's another fallacy that players get better coaching or more visibility at a name school. Honestly, that's totally false. they don't even get better facilities. On a smaller campus, everyone knows who they are and they get the royal treatment everywhere they go, on a big school, they are nameless, faceless students. Scouts know them no matter where they play.

Case and point, ask the average Houghton area resident/MTU student to name a current Tech hockey player. I bet you most could.

Ask the average Columbus area resident/OSU student to name a current hockey player. Most will ask if OSU even has a hockey team. If you ask them where they play, they will have no idea.

 

[Sol Diablo]

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

it's another fallacy that players get better coaching or more visibility at a name school. Honestly, that's totally false. they don't even get better facilities. On a smaller campus, everyone knows who they are and they get the royal treatment everywhere they go, on a big school, they are nameless, faceless students. Scouts know them no matter where they play.

I mostly agree with you, good points. I disagree concerning facilities. ASU may have a pretty lousy rink, but the abundance of outdoor swimming pools in use during the winter for the students and athletes has got to beat most every other hockey school!!!

 

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

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

Case and point, ask the average Houghton area resident/MTU student to name a current Tech hockey player. I bet you most could.

Ask the average Columbus area resident/OSU student to name a current hockey player. Most will ask if OSU even has a hockey team. If you ask them where they play, they will have no idea.

As an average Columbus area resident I can attest that not only is the above statement true, most will be dumbfounded to learn Columbus has an NHL team.

 

[davyd83]

it's another fallacy that players get better coaching or more visibility at a name school. Honestly, that's totally false. they don't even get better facilities. On a smaller campus, everyone knows who they are and they get the royal treatment everywhere they go, on a big school, they are nameless, faceless students. Scouts know them no matter where they play.

When you combine the facilities for fans and for players, 6 of the ten WCHA rinks would automatically be the bottom of the Big Ten, and only Western would be comparable to them in the NCHC. As far as exposure, how does the Big Ten Network compare to FloHockey for the fans, and which has more rinks in close proximity to where scouts congregate?

 

[giwan]

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

When you combine the facilities for fans and for players, 6 of the ten WCHA rinks would automatically be the bottom of the Big Ten, and only Western would be comparable to them in the NCHC. As far as exposure, how does the Big Ten Network compare to FloHockey for the fans, and which has more rinks in close proximity to where scouts congregate?

Please put them all in the mix. Make a rubric breaking things down and look forward to responses