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Who's Next for a Move Down from D1, or Drop Hockey Altogether?

lakersparty said:
But back to St. Thomas. I'm just not impressed with them. They've already burned bridges in the small college hockey world in just a short amount of time. I've seen no indication they have any sort of fan base. And it looks to me like they are building a basketball arena that a hockey team will play in.
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I'm a Gopher but have plenty of friends that work at UST. Enrollment is strong, alumni are wealthy. The new arena will be good for hockey and objectively a huge step up from the one they use now. Even if they're not the biggest school in the world, they have a very loyal fan base. I have yet to go to a Gopher game where the arena isn't packed with their fans and current students. And at least on the women's side, plenty of casual fans in the Twin Cities will just go over to a game for fun.

As for football, they might seek to move to a scholarship conference in a few years. They are a pretty decent FB team.
 
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If/when BG, Miami, Western and UMass lose our buy games, football programs will be restructured to realign costs with the new revenue realities. Measage boards are rife with speculation as to what this could look like.

Hockey isn’t ever going away at the four MAC schools.
 
beaverhockeyfan said:
Could this start a chain reaction that would lead to the rebirth of D-II hockey? I mean, there is going to be a growing divide between the haves and the have nots once all the possible NIL dollars and the scholarship split (18 vs 24) get sorted out.
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The current by-laws say you need 40 D2 teams to hold a national championship. They'd be better served to petition for a National Collegiate Championship like the women.
 
TalonsUpPuckDown said:
If/when BG, Miami, Western and UMass lose our buy games, football programs will be restructured to realign costs with the new revenue realities. Measage boards are rife with speculation as to what this could look like.

Hockey isn’t ever going away at the four MAC schools.
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100% this. Football downsizes if the payday games go away, or are diminished by playing B12/ACC teams instead of B10/SEC opponents.
 
Drew S. said:
The three schools in the northeast I’m interested in are Bentley, UVM, and UConn. Bentley is in the same situation athletically as AIC but they do have a new rink and I believe are in a better financial position. UVM and UConn are both great basketball schools that have struggled in hockey. They’re also the two newest schools in hockey east so it might be a little easier decision than it would be for the other hockey east teams.
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Bentley University's endowment is a collection of funds that provide a sustainable source of operating support for the university. As of June 30, 2023, the endowment was valued at $334 million. The endowment is made up of a variety of funds with different purposes and restrictions, which are combined into an investment pool.
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American International College (AIC) had an endowment of around $28 million at the end of the 2022 fiscal year. This was a 2.81% increase from the previous year.
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I think the "athletically" is right around where the comparison stops...
 
There was at one time a proposal to combine all three universities in the Upper Peninsula under the UM umbrella as UM-UP joining UM-Flint & UM-Dearborn. The rationale was that they'd save money by having just one administration. It never went anywhere and that's good because the schools would have lost all identity.

There will be one or two state funded universities in Michigan getting shuttered in the next decade. Odds are that Saginaw Valley is the top of the list, but Lake State is a close second in vulnerability.
 
StPaulSam said:
I'm a Gopher but have plenty of friends that work at UST. Enrollment is strong, alumni are wealthy. The new arena will be good for hockey and objectively a huge step up from the one they use now. Even if they're not the biggest school in the world, they have a very loyal fan base. I have yet to go to a Gopher game where the arena isn't packed with their fans and current students. And at least on the women's side, plenty of casual fans in the Twin Cities will just go over to a game for fun.

As for football, they might seek to move to a scholarship conference in a few years. They are a pretty decent FB team.
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People keep making these claims about St. Thomas, but they only had 437 fans in the building for game 3 of a best of 3 playoff series. I don't buy the spin of rich alums and passionate fans given that number.
 
joecct said:
The current by-laws say you need 40 D2 teams to hold a national championship. They'd be better served to petition for a National Collegiate Championship like the women.
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But they will still have to play a D1 schedule (like NEWHA does), and I don't see any of them doing that.
 
lakersparty said:
People keep making these claims about St. Thomas, but they only had 437 fans in the building for game 3 of a best of 3 playoff series. I don't buy the spin of rich alums and passionate fans given that number.
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It's a 24 minute drive from U of St. Thomas to St. Thomas Academy hockey arena. Since, they already sold out all the student tickets next year for the opening of the new arena we will see capacity 4k sell outs.
 
lakersparty said:
People keep making these claims about St. Thomas, but they only had 437 fans in the building for game 3 of a best of 3 playoff series. I don't buy the spin of rich alums and passionate fans given that number.
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You mean the same weekend as the MN State HS Hockey Tournament and spring break for all the Tommies?

You mean the same weekend the Gophers played Michigan in a best-of-three with less than 1k fans in Mariucci?

You dont know what you are talking about.
 
Stauber1 said:
You mean the same weekend as the MN State HS Hockey Tournament and spring break for all the Tommies?

You mean the same weekend the Gophers played Michigan in a best-of-three with less than 1k fans in Mariucci?

You dont know what you are talking about.
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Lots of excuses for a truly pathetic showing.
 
lakersparty said:
People keep making these claims about St. Thomas, but they only had 437 fans in the building for game 3 of a best of 3 playoff series. I don't buy the spin of rich alums and passionate fans given that number.
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The attendance is pretty good when MSU is in town, but my guess is that MSU alums from the area help.
 
Will always worry about the Alaska universities, given the history, travel distance, lack of conference, cost, etc.

And wonder about some of the AHA schools, like Mercyhurst, Robert Morris - relatively small schools, comparatively small endowments.

Would be really surprised to see Union or RPI consider it. Union is investing in the new rink and has just won the fight for scholarships. At RPI, you have a new president who (seemingly) is more interested in hockey, and it would cause a real uproar amongst some alumni, so I think the question is whether RPI will make changes to significantly improve things or just keep on with the status quo.
 
njmav1 said:
The attendance is pretty good when MSU is in town, but my guess is that MSU alums from the area help.
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Last year Lake State had 17,865 overall attendance at 33.3 capacity over 16 games while their main rival St. Thomas had 14,426 a capacity of 57.2 over 18 games. If you are saying what's true than thank God for MSU alums or attendance at Lake State's 4,000 seat arena would be under suspect. Let's just hope and pray the Lakers are still around playing D1 hockey in the age of NIL deals.
 
4four4 said:
Last year Lake State had 17,865 overall attendance at 33.3 capacity over 16 games while their main rival St. Thomas had 14,426 a capacity of 57.2 over 18 games. If you are saying what's true than thank God for MSU alums or attendance at Lake State's 4,000 seat arena would be under suspect. Let's just hope and pray the Lakers are still around playing D1 hockey in the age of NIL deals.
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Sorry, I meant MSU alumni in the St Paul area attending UST games when the Mavs are visiting.
 
MikeMidd said:
And wonder about some of the AHA schools, like Mercyhurst, Robert Morris - relatively small schools, comparatively small endowments.
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Mercyhurst actually is in the process of going the other way, moving all of their sports from D-II to D-I. This is their 1st year as a D-I program.
 
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