Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol. XXXIII: A Fanbase Gets Smarter When All The Idiots Jump Shi
I understand your frustration at hitting new lows, but BGSU is not a good comparison. For one thing, why not LSSU? CC? Michigan Tech? RPI? Even Maine and Sparty have taken big tumbles from their glory years. It happens. The Badgers and BGSU are hardly the only programs to hit the skids.
BGSU hockey suffered from years of institutional neglect, with poor administrative support, mediocre coaching and teams, attendance drop-off, and a crumbling arena that couldn't even maintain good ice. But none of that was the worst. We didn't hit rock bottom until the program was put on the chopping block due to budgetary squeeze.
Your program's problems, while no doubt painful, don't remotely approach the lack of support and existential crisis that BGSU hockey went through. Sucking on the ice is one thing--almost getting program termination is a whole different level of angst. The only other current program that has been through that kind of pain is UAH.
The Badgers just suck, and apparently need a new coaching staff and/or AD. Entirely fixable. Your program still has swimming pools full of B1G $$$, and will never go to the chopping block. Maybe ya'll will bleed until necessary changes are made, but the program will be fine.
However long that takes--rest assured, the Badgers will never face the challenges that BGSU hockey has worked to overcome.
They may not be headed towards a situation where the program is at risk of actually getting dropped, but the things that need to be fixed, even if they happened this evening, would take a few years to actually "fix" the program. With an additional year before next summer, we're looking at multiple years. People were completely apathetic towards the 2013-14 team here. Even die-hard UW hockey fans have a tendency to forget that, while they did lose one game at the beginning of the NCAA tournament,
they were ranked #4 in the nation at the season's end. A year and a few months later, and it's even worse.
My issue/fear is that these negative things compound on one another. Until they hit the reset button, UW will be a
far less attractive destination for recruits than it was 4-5 years ago. When die-hard fans lose interest and casual fans let Badger hockey completely fall off their map, re-building the program is a daunting task. To speak in Mike Eaves-style metaphors, the uphill climb is much larger than the downhill descent, and as time goes by without turning uphill, the uphill climb increases exponentially (certainly faster than linearly, anyway). Why I chose Bowling Green as an example is entirely just because I knew that that program was a powerhouse at one point, and they haven't sniffed "powerhouse" status in a couple of decades. That's the parallel I'm going for.
Some of your other examples may be fair. Some aren't the same. Michigan Tech, for example, may not carry the same confidence/optimism for on-ice success that they once did, but hockey is still pretty much
the way of athletic life in Houghton, and their games are
the spectator sport. From what I understand, the crowds are still pretty raucous. It
is true that Wisconsin's student section, at its worst/smallest, is about as big as most large-ish student sections at other schools (Michigan and Penn State, for example). The difference between now and when they were always selling out, however, is huge. Unless a student is in the same room as a diehard hockey fan, they almost certainly aren't watching games on TV.
Again, I know UW isn't really close to dropping their program. That said, "existential crisis" isn't a bad descriptor for what's going on. Both in the eyes of the Madison area sports-watching public and hockey prospects, the the meaning of what Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey
is has been changing for the worse. Also: "institutional neglect," with poor administrative support," "mediocre coaching and teams," and "attendance drop-off" are all relevant.
I'm going to assume that the institutional neglect and poor administrative support you speak of make our athletic department look like North Dakota's in terms of hockey support. I mean, LaBahn Arena was built. It has swimming offices and team rooms of some kind(?)...I'm not sure...but its main thing is hockey. The hockey team had more leeway with the contracts offered to candidates for the Associate Head Coach job this summer. That said, there is a huge difference in how the athletic department treats football/basketball and how they treat hockey, at least publicly. They remind everyone of every little thing in football and basketball. It has improved a little bit for hockey in the past 2 seasons, but it's not great. I keep bringing up the 2013-14 season because it just screams "gigantic missed opportunity" to me, i.e. a missed opportunity to get the casual fans on board. Oh, and accessibility to the program is dreadful.
My point in all of this is that unless
gigantic changes, as well as smaller (but easier to do) changes are made, we could see a permanent* shift in what Wisconsin hockey is.
*I don't really mean "permanent" - we can't predict the future. However, I'm talking about shifts that last a couple decades or more, not just a recruiting cycle and a bit of bad luck with a couple stars leaving.
"Mediocre coaching and teams" hit us in the face last year. We knew the 4-year cycle issue would make the team mediocre, but this past year has actually been worse than just the 4-win season. "Attendance drop-off" has been going on since I got here 4 years ago...I don't think I'm
that repulsive! This drop-off has gone hand-in-hand with the issues of how hockey has been treated, as it hasn't only been tied to team performance.
All of that is just off the top of my head, and I know it's not the same magnitude of what Bowling Green went through - the absolute "level" isn't as low - but there are
big issues that could drive the program into a dark age if they don't hit the reset button. And in the back of my head, I know that a hockey turnaround is much harder than a football turnaround.
I know I'll probably be a very happy person as I walk into the Kohl Center for opening night this upcoming season - that's how it always is. Seeing how many Badgers people completely missed out on the really cool storylines of the past few years is disappointing. The current state of the team is downright disturbing. It may be darkest before the dawn, but I really don't want that dawn pushed away.
