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Weighing Realignment?

R

RSTuthill

Been There, Done That, Got T-shirt
This is kind of a tiresome subject, but there must be rumblings coming from somewhere for USCHO to put it on the front page.

For this to be driven by Notre Dame, a couple things might have occurred, I suppose. Either the Big Ten is offering to let Notre Dame join as hockey members only (which would seem to be against their rules) or they are offering Notre Dame full membership in all sports and for some reason Notre Dame now may feel this is attractive whereas before they did not for whatever reason (national profile, TV contracts, etc.).

But for agument's sakes lets say that Notre Dame does leave HE. Then I think the next dominoes to fall are obvious. QU goes to HE and HC goes to the ECAC beating out RIT. HC would take Brown as a travel partner and Yale would take Princeton. Straightforward.

But events like this are often triggered first by football. Yeah, UConn would love to get into the Big Ten but I doubt it would happen because of their abysmal football program right now and they are not yet members of the AAU. So I am curious to know what USCHO knows that we do not.
 
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Re: Weighing Realignment?

RSTuthill said:
This is kind of a tiresome subject, but there must be rumblings coming from somewhere for USCHO to put it on the front page.

For this to be driven by Notre Dame, a couple things might have occurred, I suppose. Either the Big Ten is offering to let Notre Dame join as hockey members only (which would seem to be against their rules) or they are offering Notre Dame full membership in all sports and for some reason Notre Dame now may feel this is attractive whereas before they did not for whatever reason (national profile, TV contracts, etc.).

But for agument's sakes lets say that Notre Dame does leave HE. Then I think the next dominoes to fall are obvious. QU goes to HE and HC goes to the ECAC beating out RIT. HC would take Brown as a travel partner and Yale would take Princeton. Straightforward.

But events like this are often triggered first by football. Yeah, UConn would love to get into the Big Ten but I doubt it would happen because of their abysmal football program right now and they are not yet members of the AAU. So I am curious to know what USCHO knows that we do not.
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AAU membership can't be THAT big of a deal since Nebraska got kicked out not long after joining the Big 10.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

They have one affiliate member in men's lacrosse, Johns Hopkins.

The Big 10 really had nowhere else to go. They only had 5 teams playing the sport (even with the addition of Rutgers and Maryland) who both field men's and womens' lacrosse teams and you can't have a conference or conference championship unless you have the NCAA mandated number of schools (6). NCAA D-1 Lacrosse teams are allotted 12.6 scholarships per team but the average D-1 men's roster is 45 guys! Not a "cheap" sport and don't forget about Title IX if you add it. This was a simple, easy, cheap solution to a problem they had and they were admitting a school that is academically superior to any existing member school. This situation was unique, methinks.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

Red Cows said:
They have one affiliate member in men's lacrosse, Johns Hopkins.

The Big 10 really had nowhere else to go. They only had 5 teams playing the sport (even with the addition of Rutgers and Maryland) who both field men's and womens' lacrosse teams and you can't have a conference or conference championship unless you have the NCAA mandated number of schools (6). NCAA D-1 Lacrosse teams are allotted 12.6 scholarships per team but the average D-1 men's roster is 45 guys! Not a "cheap" sport and don't forget about Title IX if you add it. This was a simple, easy, cheap solution to a problem they had and they were admitting a school that is academically superior to any existing member school. This situation was unique, methinks.
Click to expand...

Not to mention, Johns Hopkins is a D-III playup, so affiliate membership isn't exactly that tough.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

RSTuthill said:
This is kind of a tiresome subject, but there must be rumblings coming from somewhere for USCHO to put it on the front page.

For this to be driven by Notre Dame, a couple things might have occurred, I suppose. Either the Big Ten is offering to let Notre Dame join as hockey members only (which would seem to be against their rules) or they are offering Notre Dame full membership in all sports and for some reason Notre Dame now may feel this is attractive whereas before they did not for whatever reason (national profile, TV contracts, etc.).

But for agument's sakes lets say that Notre Dame does leave HE. Then I think the next dominoes to fall are obvious. QU goes to HE and HC goes to the ECAC beating out RIT. HC would take Brown as a travel partner and Yale would take Princeton. Straightforward.

But events like this are often triggered first by football. Yeah, UConn would love to get into the Big Ten but I doubt it would happen because of their abysmal football program right now and they are not yet members of the AAU. So I am curious to know what USCHO knows that we do not.
Click to expand...

Yes, many of these events are triggered by football TV money. What hurts UCONN with the Big 10 is not so much its bad program but the Hartford TV market. It is not a big enough plum for the Big 10 to care. They already have NYC - at least in their minds - with Rutgers, Boston with BC and Baltimore/Washington with Maryland.

Notre Dame could be having second thoughts about all the travel with HE and if the Big 6/10 would take associate members for hockey only, AZ St. and Notre Dame would fit in nicely. Notre Dame just moved all sports but hockey and football to the ACC, so it is unlikey that they would move their sports to another conference so soon and football is not joining a conference anytime soon because of all that TV money from NBC.

I would think that a school the size of AZ St., with its big-time sports profile, would prefer the Big 10 over the NCHC or WCHA with smaller programs. Time will tell.

What concerns me more is the Ivies. I think they will pull out of the ECAC sometime soon - I thought they would've done it already - and take their automatic bid and TV attraction with them. That will cause a huge shift with the ECAC looking to get Holy Cross, RIT and other schools to band together. Unfortunaetly, that would be a vastly inferrior league much like the current WCHA and NCHC. I don't think this is close to being settled yet.
 
retsap71 said:
Where is this coming from?
Click to expand...

There was a tweet from a radio station in Cornell addressing the rumors. Plus Adam Wodon of CHN wrote a column addressing it. I can't seem to find it on my phone right now but perhaps someone can link to it or I can later.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

Jasma said:
Yes, many of these events are triggered by football TV money. What hurts UCONN with the Big 10 is not so much its bad program but the Hartford TV market. It is not a big enough plum for the Big 10 to care. They already have NYC - at least in their minds - with Rutgers, Boston with BC and Baltimore/Washington with Maryland.

Notre Dame could be having second thoughts about all the travel with HE and if the Big 6/10 would take associate members for hockey only, AZ St. and Notre Dame would fit in nicely. Notre Dame just moved all sports but hockey and football to the ACC, so it is unlikey that they would move their sports to another conference so soon and football is not joining a conference anytime soon because of all that TV money from NBC.

I would think that a school the size of AZ St., with its big-time sports profile, would prefer the Big 10 over the NCHC or WCHA with smaller programs. Time will tell.

What concerns me more is the Ivies. I think they will pull out of the ECAC sometime soon - I thought they would've done it already - and take their automatic bid and TV attraction with them. That will cause a huge shift with the ECAC looking to get Holy Cross, RIT and other schools to band together. Unfortunaetly, that would be a vastly inferrior league much like the current WCHA and NCHC. I don't think this is close to being settled yet.
Click to expand...
BC is in the B1G?

I assume you mean inferior, which makes a whole lot of sense considering the NCHC and WCHA combine for 8 of the top 9 Pairwise spots.:rolleyes:
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

Jasma said:
Yes, many of these events are triggered by football TV money. What hurts UCONN with the Big 10 is not so much its bad program but the Hartford TV market. It is not a big enough plum for the Big 10 to care. They already have NYC - at least in their minds - with Rutgers, Boston with BC and Baltimore/Washington with Maryland.

Notre Dame could be having second thoughts about all the travel with HE and if the Big 6/10 would take associate members for hockey only, AZ St. and Notre Dame would fit in nicely. Notre Dame just moved all sports but hockey and football to the ACC, so it is unlikey that they would move their sports to another conference so soon and football is not joining a conference anytime soon because of all that TV money from NBC.

I would think that a school the size of AZ St., with its big-time sports profile, would prefer the Big 10 over the NCHC or WCHA with smaller programs. Time will tell.

What concerns me more is the Ivies. I think they will pull out of the ECAC sometime soon - I thought they would've done it already - and take their automatic bid and TV attraction with them. That will cause a huge shift with the ECAC looking to get Holy Cross, RIT and other schools to band together. Unfortunaetly, that would be a vastly inferrior league much like the current WCHA and NCHC. I don't think this is close to being settled yet.
Click to expand...

Sudden thought.

Anybody see a possibility of ASU jumping ship on the PAC-12 and moving to the Big 10? Seems unlikely. They are well outside of the footprint but Phoenix is a major market. 15 teams also is getting to the unwieldy point and leaves you "odd" (but I suppose you could add another and have 2 eight team divisions). Plus, ASU would lose their biggest rival, Arizona.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

Biddco said:
There was a tweet from a radio station in Cornell addressing the rumors. Plus Adam Wodon of CHN wrote a column addressing it. I can't seem to find it on my phone right now but perhaps someone can link to it or I can later.
Click to expand...

Is this what you were referring to?:

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2015/02/06_between_the_lines_outstanding.php

This also contains, I believe, the Cornell radio station tweet you spoke of:

http://www.bcinterruption.com/bosto...eaving-hockey-east-for-nchc-rumors-heating-up
 
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Re: Weighing Realignment?

Red Cows said:
Sudden thought.

Anybody see a possibility of ASU jumping ship on the PAC-12 and moving to the Big 10? Seems unlikely. They are well outside of the footprint but Phoenix is a major market. 15 teams also is getting to the unwieldy point and leaves you "odd" (but I suppose you could add another and have 2 eight team divisions). Plus, ASU would lose their biggest rival, Arizona.
Click to expand...

Arizona State isn't an AAU member.

The big appeal for schools to jump to the Big Ten is the Big Ten Network money. The Pac-12 already has their own TV network so the appeal isn't the same for the incredible expense it would add.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

MaizeRage said:
Arizona State isn't an AAU member.

The big appeal for schools to jump to the Big Ten is the Big Ten Network money. The Pac-12 already has their own TV network so the appeal isn't the same for the incredible expense it would add.
Click to expand...

As an side to this, If I am school potentially soliciting Big 10 membership, only to be told "But, you aren't an AAU member" I'd remind them that not only do they have a school in the conference that isn't, but, they got kicked out of the AAU after they became a members of the conference, becoming the first school in AAU history to actually get tossed.

That can't be the gold standard any more as far the Big 10 is concerned. Nebraska is in clear violation of this "prerequisite".
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

MavHockey14 said:
BC is in the B1G?

I assume you mean inferior, which makes a whole lot of sense considering the NCHC and WCHA combine for 8 of the top 9 Pairwise spots.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

And so begins the Western Bias woofing. Popcorn, anyone?

If Notre Dame is serious about leaving HEA, look for them to go wherever ASU ends up going. If ASU ends up in Atlantic (not impossible, but improbable), I don't see any change happening, including from ND.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

Red Cows said:
That can't be the gold standard any more as far the Big 10 is concerned. Nebraska is in clear violation of this "prerequisite".
Click to expand...

They were a member when they were admitted. As for getting kicked out, I think everyone understands the circumstances of why it happened, and that Nebraska more or less meets the research requirements the Big Ten is looking for.
 
Re: Weighing Realignment?

FlagDUDE08 said:
And so begins the Western Bias woofing. Popcorn, anyone?

If Notre Dame is serious about leaving HEA, look for them to go wherever ASU ends up going. If ASU ends up in Atlantic (not impossible, but improbable), I don't see any change happening, including from ND.
Click to expand...

If I am a conference commissioner, I am casting a very wary eye on ASU. They still don't even know, for sure, where they are going to play, even. The whole thing reeks of not being very well thought out (or funded, I might add).
 
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