On the advice of counsel, I am not going to touch that comment.
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Wisconsin Women's Hockey 2025-2026
- Thread starter robertearle
- Start date
Timothy A
Let's go RED!
I'd like to think that at a public university like UW she could not have gotten away with her shenanigans, but being a fringe sport and the fact that schools like Penn St, UM East and MSU East got away with worse things in bigtime sports than what she reportedly did makes me think she would have.
TWSNBN Wrestling had a future member of Congress on staff and that didn't stop Richard Strauss.
robertearle
Well-known member
BTW: That future member of Congress is a UW Badger, All-American, two time (?) NCAA champion, whose photo is in the hallway of the Field House as we type.
(Not to get political, but I cringe every time I see him on TV, or in the Field House.)
robertearle
Well-known member
We should start a pool on when we'll finally get a non-conference schedule and a date to buy tickets.
I'm already out, because I would have taken this week.
I'm already out, because I would have taken this week.
badgersice
New member
I feel like schedules all over the country are taking longer than they normally do, men's and women's. For instance, last year we got schedules for the Alaska and UAA men's teams in May and June, respectively. It's mid-July this year and nothing for either of them. 23/45 teams in women's D1 still haven't officially announced their full schedules yet.
As for the Badgers, they do have three weekends already set up but because one of those is the Ice Breaker Tournament, the team gets a fourth for free should they choose to use it.
Based on my research, it's:
10/3-4: vs Maine
10/17-18: Ice Breaker Tournament; Schenectady, NY (Hosted by Union): vs Vermont in the semi, Saint Anselm/Union the following day
11/28-11/30: Smashville Showcase; Nashville, TN: Mercyhurst, Stonehill. 11/28 is Mercyhurst vs Stonehill, 11/29 is Mercyhurst vs Wisconsin, 11/30 is Stonehill vs Wisconsin
And then that extra weekend, which could be 9/19-20, 11/7-8, or 1/2-3. I would guess it's either that first weekend of January or nothing.
A team like Wisconsin that goes deep into the playoffs each year and has a bunch of players that do rivalry series and Olympics might as well schedule 2 fewer college games.
robertearle
Well-known member
Thanks.
Either I had forgotten about "Ice Breaker", or I never heard that one in the first place. And I had been checking schedules looking at that Oct 17 weekend, but Vermont has yet to post a 25-26 schedule, the ECAC composite schedule shows Union vs St Anselm on Friday, and "TBD" on Saturday. I guess because the ECAC composite was there, I never looked at Union's page specifically.
So now, if the home schedule is set, explain why we haven't gotten notification of ticket sales.
(Part of me fears "assigned seating", or "reserved vs general admission" sections. But if they were going to go to that, they would have had to start that process long before now... I hope!)
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robertearle
Well-known member
Since St Thomas joined the WCHA, taking the number of conference games back to 7 x 4 = 28, three non-conference regular season weekends is "standard". So, "Ice Breaker" being the third that I wasn't aware of means the schedule is complete
badgersice
New member
For what it's worth, the Ice Breaker Tournament comes with a schedule exemption per NCAA Ice Hockey bylaws that doesn't count games played in the Ice Breaker towards the 34-game maximum. This exemption also applies to the US Hockey Hall of Fame game and games played in Alaska, though the latter two don't really apply to women's hockey. Any teams in the Ice Breaker can play up to 36 games in a season. Most women's teams don't use this - Ohio State and Penn State didn't last year, for instance. Northeastern did back in 2023-24, though. I wouldn't be surprised if MJ doesn't add an extra series just because of how much the best players on the team will be taxed this year between college and international games, but he has the option to add that extra series if he wants.
I agree that the 11/7 weekend is likely off the table because of the Rivalry Series - the only WCHA teams playing that weekend are St. Thomas and Bemidji State against one another, and neither team has any players that would be missing. The UW team social media had posted a countdown to the season opener being the already established series in Bemidji on September 26 and 27. That just leaves that first weekend of January where the team could schedule an extra series if they'd like to. There are still some high profile names that currently have openings there - Colgate, Northeastern, Princeton, to name a few. I will say, the fact that the team hasn't released the non-conference schedule yet despite having the six-game slate figured out makes me think there's a chance of adding an extra series.
I'll bump my schedule spreadsheet again so you can see how everything is coming together across all five conferences.
docs.google.com
I agree that the 11/7 weekend is likely off the table because of the Rivalry Series - the only WCHA teams playing that weekend are St. Thomas and Bemidji State against one another, and neither team has any players that would be missing. The UW team social media had posted a countdown to the season opener being the already established series in Bemidji on September 26 and 27. That just leaves that first weekend of January where the team could schedule an extra series if they'd like to. There are still some high profile names that currently have openings there - Colgate, Northeastern, Princeton, to name a few. I will say, the fact that the team hasn't released the non-conference schedule yet despite having the six-game slate figured out makes me think there's a chance of adding an extra series.
I'll bump my schedule spreadsheet again so you can see how everything is coming together across all five conferences.
2025-26 NCAA Hockey Schedules
badgersice
New member
The other possibility is that UW Athletics could be looking to do another Fill the Bowl game this year - the last was three years ago in 2022-23 and the previous one before that was three years prior in 2019-20. In that case, they'd be waiting on the UW basketball and men's hockey schedules so they can figure out which dates would be open to move a women's game to the Kohl Center. This is purely speculation, of course.
robertearle
Well-known member
The "big game" for that would be Ohio State Feb 6 or 7.
Of course, that's also during the Olympics; I don't know if the missing players makes that series less interesting, or more interesting...
Adding, FWIW: The Big Ten didn't announce the conference men's hockey schedule last year until August 28th.
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badgersice
New member
It's been late august for the past few years now, and I don't think that's gonna change any time soon unfortunately
Really Badgers? Vermont, Union, St. Anselm, Mercyhurst and Stonehill?
I'm a casual enough fan that I'm sure someone is going to explain the constraints that keep them from playing, instead, some of the top ECAC or Hockey East teams (IDK, maybe Maine arguably qualifies?). Or Penn State! Just seems like it'd be good for everyone if there were more matchups of elite non-conference foes, instead of these four games that will probably accumulate a total score of like 24-1.
(well, maybe these games are good for the St. Anselms and Stonehills - but as a fan I'd like to see more competitive hockey)
robertearle
Well-known member
Maine is the second half of a home-and-home, and against Maine head coach and former Badger Molly Engstrom.
The other thing I note is that - assuming they get Union, and not St Anselm - they will have at least one game against a team from each of the other four conferences. And those games and teams can serve as "common opponents" when the pairwise comparisons are being made; Wisconsin will have a 'common opponent' with every team in the NCAA.
Beyond that, I have no idea how difficult or easy it might be to get teams to commit to home-and-home series vs Wisconsin. I know the football team can get 'smaller' schools to come to Madison, because UW can afford to pay them well from the sellout crowds. Likewise for the volleyball team. I would think the same applies to sellout crowds at LaBahn, albeit on a smaller scale.
But yes, the quality of opponents has been going down recently - the last two years had BC, before that Penn State and Quinnipiac, etc.- This group is pretty disappointing.
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Timothy A
Let's go RED!
MJ does like to spread the wealth so to speak and have UW play lesser known teams for the good of the game. I love a good blood bath as well, so it's a win-win.
I also agree that teams are not beating UW's door down to play them, so narrative that MJ only like to play weak sisters of the poor is not entirely accurate due to both points.
In the past I have been against a fill the bowl game especially against a quality opponent based on the rink size difference negating their home ice advantage, but now with the KC rink getting shrunk are Labahn and the KC the same size now?
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Todd M wrote an interesting article in which he puts together the best Badger team of the 2000's. Here's a link but there's probably a firewall.
madison.com
Meet our Wisconsin women's hockey All-Badgers Quarter Century Team
The Badgers women's hockey program boasts loads of national champions and Olympians, so picking the best of the best proved difficult. Here's our picks for the top team.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
The Hall of Fame game does occur most years. It has typically been played in a HS rink, and because it is a single game, it usually matches two Minnesota teams, as others are less likely to want to travel to play one game. I did see Lindenwood play Bemidji in Eveleth one year, but that was in the early years for the Lions, when they would go just about anywhere to fill their schedule. They also probably had a game or series versus some other Minnesota team on either end of that, to make the travel more worthwhile.