Split-N
All Hail
Re: Weighing Realignment?
Very true. The bridges between ND and the B1G were burned a long time ago (although money (and maybe time) is said to be able to heal all wounds).
NDs only other viable option would be the NCHC, but the travel advantages gained would be marginal, at best. Yes, they would get bus trips to WMU and Miami but they'd be swapping six flights to Boston (684 air miles -- ~2.5 hrs) for two trips to Colorado (850 air miles), one trip to Duluth (400 air miles) two trips to Minneapolis (360 air miles), one trip to Omaha (430 air miles), and one trip to Grand Forks (600 air miles). Total flights: seven (as opposed to six). Throw in Arizona State and you have eight. OK, maybe the Minnesota trips could be by bus but you're still looking at ~400 road miles, or about the distance from Boston to Baltimore. Then there's the fact that the NCHC teams play each other twice at home and twice away, as opposed to the one-and-one in HEA (or, in NDs case, two and home and two away on alternating years), so their OOC scheduling opportunities would become limited.
I guess they could follow the football model and play an independent schedule but hockey ain't football so that's easier said than done.
I suspect the fact that Jeff Jackson is known to be unhappy with HEA officiating plays into this somehow. But a coach with his experience should have figured out by now that HEA calls the clutch-and-grab obstruction type fouls tighter than they might have been called in the CCHA. But c'mon, he's had the better part of two seasons to adjust. And yes, the bottom tier of HEA officials leave something to be desired but so did the bottom tier of CCHA officials.
So, as someone else pointed out, this looks like much ado about nothing.
Very true. The bridges between ND and the B1G were burned a long time ago (although money (and maybe time) is said to be able to heal all wounds).
NDs only other viable option would be the NCHC, but the travel advantages gained would be marginal, at best. Yes, they would get bus trips to WMU and Miami but they'd be swapping six flights to Boston (684 air miles -- ~2.5 hrs) for two trips to Colorado (850 air miles), one trip to Duluth (400 air miles) two trips to Minneapolis (360 air miles), one trip to Omaha (430 air miles), and one trip to Grand Forks (600 air miles). Total flights: seven (as opposed to six). Throw in Arizona State and you have eight. OK, maybe the Minnesota trips could be by bus but you're still looking at ~400 road miles, or about the distance from Boston to Baltimore. Then there's the fact that the NCHC teams play each other twice at home and twice away, as opposed to the one-and-one in HEA (or, in NDs case, two and home and two away on alternating years), so their OOC scheduling opportunities would become limited.
I guess they could follow the football model and play an independent schedule but hockey ain't football so that's easier said than done.
I suspect the fact that Jeff Jackson is known to be unhappy with HEA officiating plays into this somehow. But a coach with his experience should have figured out by now that HEA calls the clutch-and-grab obstruction type fouls tighter than they might have been called in the CCHA. But c'mon, he's had the better part of two seasons to adjust. And yes, the bottom tier of HEA officials leave something to be desired but so did the bottom tier of CCHA officials.
So, as someone else pointed out, this looks like much ado about nothing.
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