What's new
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

The graph shows an IL university could easily support a hockey team. The question is which one.

I agree. Easily enough support for a team in Illinois. My guess is Illinois is more likely than Northwestern, only because there has been talk of Jimmy Johns making a sizeable donation.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

It's cute the one guy thinks the NCHC will be the SEC of college hockey.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Surprising development.

Sconnie & Minnesota are working together with DU on a deal to come out to Denver every other year for two nonconference games. DU will visit Bucky and Goldie on alternating years.

DU will play Air Force twice every season. That will get DU to 30 games per season.

Suppposedly, the cupcakes are asking for huge fees to visit western schools without a reciprocal visit.
 
Last edited:
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Who will be next in line to join the Big Ten Hockey Conference? Will this lead to Notre Dame dropping independent status to finally join the Big Ten? Will Illinois or Indiana get enough balls to take the jump to varsity status? Any predictions?

Call it a weird feeling but I'm saying Iowa. I am officially saying Iowa, but my second guess is Illinois (not sure if I get a 2nd guess but just in case I do there it is).
 
Surprising development.

Sconnie & Minnesota are working together with DU on a deal to come out to Denver every other year for two nonconference games. DU will visit Bucky and Goldie on alternating years.

DU will play Air Force twice every season. That will get DU to 30 games per season.

Suppposedly, the cupcakes are asking for huge fees to visit western schools without a reciprocal visit.
I wonder how much DU has to pay <strike>the Wisconsin Athletic Dept</strike> Barry Alvarez to get that arranged.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Surprising development.

Sconnie & Minnesota are working together with DU on a deal to come out to Denver every other year for two nonconference games. DU will visit Bucky and Goldie on alternating years.

DU will play Air Force twice every season. That will get DU to 30 games per season.

Suppposedly, the cupcakes are asking for huge fees to visit western schools without a reciprocal visit.
This would pretty much fill Minnesota's schedule. Not sure where they are going to find games against eastern schools anymore.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

This would pretty much fill Minnesota's schedule. Not sure where they are going to find games against eastern schools anymore.
I guess from Notre Dame which will be part of Hockey East. Trying to keep all the old WCHA rivalries, Minnesota teams and Big Ten Schedule and 20 home games is more than the bucket can hold. Some of these OOC matchups are going to need to cycle less frequently. If another Big Ten team joins there go another 4 off possible non-conference games.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

These stats are misleading. Always have been. Some states use USA Hockey for their high school level programs. While the numbers look nice, many of the larger states (MI, MN, WI, OH, PA) all have separate National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) as their association. So I would not look at these numbers and say that these are phenomenal hockey states. They are average growth numbers that are inflated based upon USA Hockey Registration numbers.

Having said that.....I do believe that IL and IA may yet make a bid to join the league in 2017 or 18 if they can draw some interest. Notre Dame is not likely to move into the B1G although weirder thing can and have happened.

Cool. Ask and ye shall receive.

This tells me what I already really knew. That there is a lot of interest in hockey in the State of Nebraska. The number of players registered with USA Hockey and the growth of those numbers is pretty phenomenal. You could also make the case that the numbers had nowhere to go but up, too. This decade's numbers would be even more telling.

The number of D-1 or NHL players produced isn't very significant yet but let us not forget that (state sanctioned) hockey is not played at any high school in the State of Nebraska, either. Male or female. It is played at a handful of schools (13) at the club level.

We can thank UNO (who has only had a program since 1997) and all the USHL teams in our area (Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux City, and Tri-City) for brewing up the interest in youth hockey around here since 1990, of whatever type.

It also tells me that any potential Husker D-1 team wouldn't be recruiting our own state very much, at least, initially. UNO does not have a single player on its roster from the State of Nebraska and, while the Husker Club hockey team does have 9 players on it from Nebraska, obviously none of them are D-1 talent. Let us not forget that the Husker football team is not overloaded with scholarship players from the State of Nebraska, either, and never has been. They get the best of what there is, usually, and then have to recruit elsewhere. You'll see a ton a players on the roster that are from Nebraska but most of them are walk-ons. 16 guys are currently planning on walking-on from the State of Nebraska next year at NU.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

I wonder how much DU has to pay <strike>the Wisconsin Athletic Dept</strike> Barry Alvarez to get that arranged.
I'd say you are on the right track...

Saturday, February 18, 2012
Denver (DEN) at Wisconsin (WIS)
Final Score: Wisconsin 5, Denver 2
Attendance: 15325 (Sellout)

Saturday, January 23, 2010
Denver (DEN) at Wisconsin (WIS)
Final Score: Wisconsin 4, Denver 3
Attendance: 15237 (Sellout)
 
Last edited:
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Call it a weird feeling but I'm saying Iowa. I am officially saying Iowa, but my second guess is Illinois (not sure if I get a 2nd guess but just in case I do there it is).
I think you can have six guesses. That way, even if one of them is Middle Tennessee State, one of them will be correct.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

These stats are misleading. Always have been. Some states use USA Hockey for their high school level programs. While the numbers look nice, many of the larger states (MI, MN, WI, OH, PA) all have separate National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) as their association.

Just to clarify, high school hockey in PA is not sanctioned as a varsity sport.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Suppposedly, the cupcakes are asking for huge fees to visit western schools without a reciprocal visit.

Dunno about the rest, but this wouldn't shock me.

Immediately, you're going to have a hard time convincing teams that were just in the CCHA/WCHA with Big Ten teams to take cash instead of a home and home, especially at the rather low #'s that have been thrown around in college hockey for "buy" games. This will change over time, I'd suspect, but right now they're probably not interested. That means there are 60 home games that Big Ten schools are looking to fill in non-conference play as opposed to 20-30 filled in this year between 5 Big Ten schools, and you have the same # of schools that were willing to take trips out west with no return trip. Throw in Denver and North Dakota looking for about 16 between them instead of 6-10 now.
 
Back
Top