What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

But, I am surprised that they would consider 2/3.....

For 11 seasons (1981-1991) they used more than a single game elimination format. From 1981-88 the preliminary rounds were two-games total goals and from 1989-1991 they were best two of three.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

I hope that you aren't serious. The smoke-filled room this year would probably have resulted in 3 B1G schools. Undoubtedly some would like that, but ...

If your interpretation was that that was something I want to see, you are dead wrong. However, the NC$$ has noted in the past that they would like to bring more drama to the selection process and make all sports have subjectivity in the selection, as opposed to the computer rankings we use today.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

One has to admit we know who the teams are that make the field as soon as the last whistle blows

Heck if you got back and forget this year how many tournaments in a row did the 2 websites even nail each and every matchup in each regional

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

Don't be shocked if they set a seating minimum, forcing schools with smaller capacities to play at neutral sites.

This is my biggest issue with home games on campus..schools like Union, Brown, Harvard, PC, Merrimack, Yale, in the east would have problems hosting with a minimum.

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

If your interpretation was that that was something I want to see, you are dead wrong. However, the NC$$ has noted in the past that they would like to bring more drama to the selection process and make all sports have subjectivity in the selection, as opposed to the computer rankings we use today.

I prefer the coaches knowing what they need to do to get in...the subjective stuff with 15 squads (AHA auto bid) would be insane. Is Lowell better than PC? PC swept Lowell this year...but PC didn't get to the Garden same with BC. Lowell grabbed 3 out of 4 points vs BC...So do the River Hawks get in?

Just using them as an example

 

[jk]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

I really like best 2-of-3 series hosted by higher seeds. I'd much rather my team (UND) play in front of a loud, hostile crowd in an emotional environment than in the sterile vacuums we so often see.

My best example of a road win was when Jon Casey stood on his head twice in 1984 to beat that unbelievable RPI team, which went on to dominate again the next year en route to a title.

There should be no minimum rink size. What could be better than playing in a small building crammed with 2,500 people, with all the sound bouncing around?

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

I prefer the coaches knowing what they need to do to get in...the subjective stuff with 15 squads (AHA auto bid) would be insane. Is Lowell better than PC? PC swept Lowell this year...but PC didn't get to the Garden same with BC. Lowell grabbed 3 out of 4 points vs BC...So do the River Hawks get in?

Just using them as an example

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone on this site that doesn't have that preference. Unfortunately, it's the NC$$'s call.

 

[Crimson on the Glass]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

There should be no minimum rink size. What could be better than playing in a small building crammed with 2,500 people, with all the sound bouncing around?

I agree. If Ingalls and Messa are big enough for national champion teams to live there, then that's big enough for a first or second round series. From a fan's perspective, as long as there were enough for season ticket holders and a reasonable visiting team allotment, that seems fair. Perhaps from an NCAA perspective, though, that seems like lost revenue. It looks as if some of the Atlantic Hockey home rinks are as small as 1,000-1,200, though many do seems to have larger alternates.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

IMHO, the NCAA selection of tourney sites and the Final Four locations is/are pretty nutty.

They need to NOT be in large metropolitan areas where there is big competition for sports dollars from pro sports. They need to be in cities like (and I am using the Midwest just as an example here) like Des Moines, Sioux Falls, and yes, Omaha---medium markets that have the facilities to put on such an event and aren't crazy expensive to get to. Having some sort of hockey background or legacy in a given locale wouldn't hurt, either.

People in towns like these will get behind an NCAA Championship event being held in their town. People in Tampa yawned about the Frozen Four being there in 2012. Guess where it is next year? This is NOT a good thing for college hockey, IMHO.

Ask the NCAA how they feel about Omaha's ability to stage a National Championship event. The College World Series is locked in here for the next 25 years. The event has nothing to compete with in Omaha and is center stage the entire two weeks it goes on. Regionals and Frozen Fours would get the same treatment, I believe, if held in the "right locations".

FWIW, the City of Omaha took a run at the NCAA about a decade ago about having BOTH Frozen Fours in Omaha, and at the same time. The CenturyLink Center, now about to becomes UNO's 2nd ex-home (capacity 17,100 for hockey) is walking distance from the Omaha Civic Auditorium (capacity 8,314 for hockey) where UNO used to play and, about 2 miles away, right across the river from downtown Omaha in Council Bluffs, is the Mid-America Center (capacity 6,700 for hockey and only 1 year older than the Clink) where the Omaha Lancers used to play until they moved to their new arena in the Omaha suburb of Ralston two years ago.

The thinking was they would use all 3 facilities for this "event". I spoke to a MECA board member around that time who is also the former Mayor of Omaha who told me that if that wasn't "enough" facilities to pull this off, as far as the NCAA was concerned, that they'd have thrown Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum (capacity of about 6,200 for hockey and is another ex-home of the Omaha Lancers) into the mix, because, it was still standing then when they floated this idea to the NCAA.

Needless to say, this did not come to pass, but I believe it is this kind of out-of-the-box thinking the sport of college hockey needs to promote itself.

There are towns similar to or like the ones I cited all over the hockey landscape that would be better than some of the sites the NCAA has come up with in recent years. When UNO was in St. Louis for the Midwest Regional in 2011, pretty much nobody was there. Because nobody in St. Louis gives a rat's petunia about college hockey.

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

IMHO, the NCAA selection of tourney sites and the Final Four locations is/are pretty nutty.

They need to NOT be in large metropolitan areas where there is big competition for sports dollars from pro sports. They need to be in cities like (and I am using the Midwest just as an example here) like Des Moines, Sioux Falls, and yes, Omaha---medium markets that have the facilities to put on such an event and aren't crazy expensive to get to. Having some sort of hockey background or legacy in a given locale wouldn't hurt, either.

People in towns like these will get behind an NCAA Championship event being held in their town. People in Tampa yawned about the Frozen Four being there in 2012. Guess where it is next year? This is NOT a good thing for college hockey, IMHO.

Ask the NCAA how they feel about Omaha's ability to stage a National Championship event. The College World Series is locked in here for the next 25 years. The event has nothing to compete with in Omaha and is center stage the entire two weeks it goes on. Regionals and Frozen Fours would get the same treatment, I believe, if held in the "right locations".

FWIW, the City of Omaha took a run at the NCAA about a decade ago about having BOTH Frozen Fours in Omaha, and at the same time. The CenturyLink Center, now about to becomes UNO's 2nd ex-home (capacity 17,100 for hockey) is walking distance from the Omaha Civic Auditorium (capacity 8,314 for hockey) where UNO used to play and, about 2 miles away, right across the river from downtown Omaha in Council Bluffs, is the Mid-America Center (capacity 6,700 for hockey and only 1 year older than the Clink) where the Omaha Lancers used to play until they moved to their new arena in the Omaha suburb of Ralston two years ago.

The thinking was they would use all 3 facilities for this "event". I spoke to a MECA board member around that time who is also the former Mayor of Omaha who told me that if that wasn't "enough" facilities to pull this off, as far as the NCAA was concerned, that they'd have thrown Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum (capacity of about 6,200 for hockey and is another ex-home of the Omaha Lancers) into the mix, because, it was still standing then when they floated this idea to the NCAA.

Needless to say, this did not come to pass, but I believe it is this kind of out-of-the-box thinking the sport of college hockey needs to promote itself.

There are towns similar to or like the ones I cited all over the hockey landscape that would be better than some of the sites the NCAA has come up with in recent years. When UNO was in St. Louis for the Midwest Regional in 2011, pretty much nobody was there. Because nobody in St. Louis gives a rat's petunia about college hockey.

All great talk but someone from the East coast like myself would never go to Omaha, Des Moines, or Sioux Falls. Omaha is a fine city but can't hold a candle to the Boston area or even Manchester, NH.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

What about seats for visiting teams?

Ex- if bu is sent to play the goods and bu has 1400 confirmed deposit paid ticket buyers, they should be able to attend (same if goods were sent to Boston).
How will the "home" team work that and be happy with it?

 

[tape]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

All great talk but someone from the East coast like myself would never go to Omaha, Des Moines, or Sioux Falls. Omaha is a fine city but can't hold a candle to the Boston area or even Manchester, NH.

If you would never go there, how would you know?

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

If you would never go there, how would you know?

I did some freelance work in Omaha...

 

[HockeyMan2000]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

My impression is the NCAA really loves the regionals for some good reasons (cross-polinating of parts of the hockey community; the attempt to make college hockey a "Big Event" destination) and some bad reasons (great time for big fish to lord it over their little pond; G-7 style weekend get away for booze, broads, and Buicks).

The current regionals are also easy to televise, which has to be one of the main positive attributes. In the current structure, they get nearly every game on ESPNU/ESPN2, with just a pair of games relegated to streaming this year. If they go back to the regionals at local venues and a 2 of 3 format, guaranteed they will be nearly all streaming with little (if any) exposure on an over-the-air national platform (unless the NCAA opts to let local outlets produce the games/syndicate them again). Even if they do that, the national audience is diminished...but you can also argue few watch them now when they ARE on, so what's the difference?

But -- that said -- that's really the only positive left to the current structure. We've said it year in and year out -- the 4 regional format is a bust. It sounds great in theory but they're not enough of a draw, and haven't been since they decided to move from 2 regionals to 4. That really killed it, because when it first started and there was just an East and West venue, that "destination" element was clearer for consumers. When they moved onto 4 venues without enough of a consumer appetite to sustain that format, it was really the beginning of the end, even though they've stuck with it for much too long.

How about a mix of campus sites for the 1st weekend, followed by a weekend of 2 regional sites, then the FF...maybe not ditch the regional structure completely, so that they get the exposure pre-FF on TV as they currently do, but cut it down so that audience isn't being split up into 4 venues.

Either way, the whole way the NCAA approaches this sport has long been curious, and it would not surprise me at all if they are finally listening. I agree with Red Cows completely that exclusively holding the FF in NHL-sized stadiums in major metro areas (without a college hockey connection) is a waste of time because most of these cities could care less about the sport -- when college hockey doesn't exist in the location the FF is being held, it's worthless. There are arguments about "Growing the game" but you can't "market" or "expand" something that doesn't exist in that location in the first place. All they're doing is making more of an imposition on the die-hard college hockey fan who comprises most of the crowd to begin with and will follow whereever they go. The last few times we haven't gone in the last few years, we've gotten calls from NCAA reps asking why. We've told them it's too expensive and have had no interest in going to ____ location. Frankly if they have to hold it in a "big city" every now and then, just do it in Boston and St. Paul so at least a fair portion of fans can get there without making an enormous hassle every time. Throw in smaller cities like Providence that they've passed over recently because of the size of the venue; the city has a rich FF tradition and fans loved it in the past. Try it in Omaha if there's enough of a demand there...sure it may not interest some in the East Coast, but at least it seems to be a place that's embraced the game. Even do a rotation like they used to...whatever, changes need to be made. Their problem has long been they seem to believe the sport is a much bigger deal than it actually is.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

How about a mix of campus sites for the 1st weekend, followed by a weekend of 2 regional sites, then the FF...maybe not ditch the regional structure completely, so that they get the exposure pre-FF on TV as they currently do, but cut it down so that audience isn't being split up into 4 venues.

Not a bad idea, but what about just returning to 2 super-regionals? I went every year when there was only one super-regional in the east.

Sean

 

[Red Cows]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

All great talk but someone from the East coast like myself would never go to Omaha, Des Moines, or Sioux Falls. Omaha is a fine city but can't hold a candle to the Boston area or even Manchester, NH.

Yes, but I caveated naming those particular towns by saying there are others like them all over America. I don't got to tourney hockey games for the city they are being held in, I go for the hockey. You can find something interesting to do, anywhere. Fun is as fun does. I'm not specifically espousing those towns, in particular, they are examples among many.

By the way, FWIW, Omaha has arguably the finest zoo in the world. Not in the U.S. In the world.

I don't say so, TripAdvisor and other such web sites like it do.

 

[RPI fan 4 life]

Not a bad idea, but what about just returning to 2 super-regionals? I went every year when there was only one super-regional in the east.

Sean

But you have to remember that the "super-regionals" was when there were only 12 teams in the tournament. What they could do is to make it a 3-day tournament with 2 games on Friday, 2 games on Saturday with Friday's winners playing the early game on Sunday and Saturdays winners playing the late game on Sunday. And the other regional could be a Thursday through Saturday format.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

But you have to remember that the "super-regionals" was when there were only 12 teams in the tournament. What they could do is to make it a 3-day tournament with 2 games on Friday, 2 games on Saturday with Friday's winners playing the early game on Sunday and Saturdays winners playing the late game on Sunday. And the other regional could be a Thursday through Saturday format.

Yes, I should have stated it would have to be a 3-day format. Thank you for doing so.

Sean

 

[HockeyMan2000]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

Not a bad idea, but what about just returning to 2 super-regionals? I went every year when there was only one super-regional in the east.

I as well. I think the problem is logistical -- expanding it to 3 days makes it more of a commitment for fans, not to mention the possibility of added cost associated with that.

We've floated the idea of a "super regional" in the past. Certainly worth looking at. My thought of keeping a regional as a "2nd round" was based on having thinned the field down from 16 teams so you'd keep it structurally the same as it is now.

 

[Netman]

Re: What if the Committee Decides to Makes Changes to the Tournament Design?

As I say every year when this thread comes up, how about the NCAA lower the prices. You will get more causal fans at $49.