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Welcome St Thomas to Division I and the CCHA
- Thread starter moose97
- Start date
JohnsonsJerseys
Michigan Tech Fan
St Thomas being so easily/quickly accepted to the CCHA tells me there were even bigger issues with ASU than their rink (or lack thereof). The Sun Devils had better reach out to WMU immediately and ask for a copy of their "Why Western" campaign so they can edit it to "Also Adding ASU?" and pass it on to the NCHC ASAP.
Without the NCHC taking them, ASU is going to be independent for a long time. Nobody else out West is going to be adding hockey with schools now cutting sports left and right. Their best hope for the near future is to try and secure some loose scheduling agreement with the four other independent teams to at least put 8 games on their schedule every year. But trying to get that travel budget approved with Covid going on and revenue way down is going to be a big ask. If there was extra money available - A bigger travel budget for ASU hockey or new travel warm-up suits and another three new sets of uniforms for the Sun Devils football team? What do you think the athletic department will choose...
Without the NCHC taking them, ASU is going to be independent for a long time. Nobody else out West is going to be adding hockey with schools now cutting sports left and right. Their best hope for the near future is to try and secure some loose scheduling agreement with the four other independent teams to at least put 8 games on their schedule every year. But trying to get that travel budget approved with Covid going on and revenue way down is going to be a big ask. If there was extra money available - A bigger travel budget for ASU hockey or new travel warm-up suits and another three new sets of uniforms for the Sun Devils football team? What do you think the athletic department will choose...
Sol Diablo
Active member
So will the Tommies get a new arena before ASU?
No, being ASU arena groundbreaking is in November, of course COVID could change that but no changes yet announced.
Sol Diablo
Active member
You are correct. The extenuating issue had to do with the WCHA, maybe CCHA, requesting travel payments to play in PHX/Tempe, which was rejected. But you knew that.
FadeToBlack&Gold
8647
Half a billion is a massive endowment for a school the size of UST. They're gonna be fine.
Lost_Husky
Late to the Party
I think when ASU said no the first time, the WCHA and nCCHA had mostly moved on.
And it will continue to go up. Really, the Tommies outgrew the MIAC about 25 years ago.
FadeToBlack&Gold
8647
I'd say it worked out just fine. ASU can and has still played CCHA teams out of conference, and they have figured out a way to piece together an independent schedule that allows them to make the NCAA tournament as an at-large. Meanwhile, the CCHA stayed within its geographic footprint.
The new CCHA is too "small potatoes" for a D1 major with 90,000 students, and that fact doesn't bother me at all.
manurespreader
Still upright
I'm not thrilled with this. it seems like it was pre planned months ago. If that was the case they should have just told the other schools about it and let them get going on a new place to play instead of dropping a bomb on them like they did.
IMO, the day UST announced last year that the MIAC kicked them out was the first day of them moving to the WCHA/CCHA.
St. Thomas men's hockey team to join CCHA in 2021-22
https://www.startribune.com/st-thoma...-22/571943302/
https://www.startribune.com/st-thoma...-22/571943302/
JohnsonsJerseys
Michigan Tech Fan
It may have been, but I think it isn't hard to make the argument that StT is by FAR the best fit to round out the CCHA of the current independent programs. Even if there was no preplanning, how long would it take to look around college hockey and conclude they were the best option for the CCHA. How long would StT have to think to conclude the CCHA was their logical landing place?
They are small school, within the existing footprint of the conference, a D-I school (eliminates the minimal fears of BGSU bolting and taking the lone D-I voice in the room with them), they apparently have money to burn and even for as good as their other sports teams has been in D-III, I have to imagine that hockey will get an even bigger focus on campus going forward.
They can become a competitive hockey program in only a couple seasons where as football could take a decade or more, if ever, to reach that level of competitiveness in D-I. Not to mention they sit right in the center of the state of hockey. How will their hockey program NOT get more than their fair share of attention from the athletics department? There are now five other D-I hockey programs they have to exceed, just to be the best in their own state. I could easily see StT picking up some Gopher/SCSU/Mankato/Duluth/BSU 4th line cast offs with no playing time and being an above 0.500 team their first year in the CCHA.
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JohnsonsJerseys
Michigan Tech Fan
I fully expect Mitch's Misfits to hold a Tommy Boy look-alike contest the first time St Thomas comes to Houghton.
Tommies like wingies...
Tommies like wingies...
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ExileOnDaytonStreet
Drunkard
Something tells me that the nWCHA’s and CCHA’s “minimum arena requirements”, such as they are, aren’t very meaningful.
Iwearpurple
Registered User
There is no doubt in my mind that St. Thomas has committed to build a facility that will be one of the better in the league.
ExileOnDaytonStreet
Drunkard
Perhaps.
ASU is no less committed, it would seem, but that doesn’t always make it happen.
So, I know it may not be a great comparison, so don't jump on me for this, but StT hasn't had the broken promises like ASU has when it comes to an arena. ASU has gone through, what, like 3 or 4 deals for new arenas, including the one with the Coyotes? Now, according to an article from April, they're still on track to break ground in November & hopefully that's the case for all involved - especially to get people who may be out of work working again.
Hell, it'll be good for the sport.
StT is a new add, so it's not like they've had time to commit to building a new arena then backing out for whatever reason.
Or maybe they've committed to renting out a rink somewhere else in the city until they can expand/build a new rink.
Sol Diablo
Active member
I think it would have been great for ASU to join the WCHA/nCCHA conference, being that 10% (?) of the upper Midwest moves down to AZ in the winter & I like the nCCHA teams. But it wasn't meant to be, at least not yet........
Sol Diablo
Active member
Can't say I know of any case where ASU broke any promise. They did their due diligence, came up with a better plan for a revenue generating facility. They fit it in with a grand master plan of the Innovation Corridor rather than hobble something together. Hopefully COVID won't delay groundbreaking & construction.