Brainerd Dispatch: Maturi: Big Ten hockey was inevitable

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Some good discussion on the new Sue-per Conference over on GPL.

http://www.gopherpucklive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=10737

In short, new conference to be officially announced this Wednesday. UND, CC, Denver, UNO, UMD, and Mia-OH. With the likely possibility of Notre Dame, and the less-likely possibility of Western Michigan thrown into the mix as well.

The MNSCU schools (Mankato, St. Cloud, and Bemidji) will probably stick it out as a group from here on out. Rumors were that, if Western Michigan declined its invite to the new conference, then SCSU would be invited. The folks at SCSU then promptly gave the new conference a nice old middle finger saying it would never bail.

Plenty of blame tossed all around for the 'demise' of the WCHA. I'm just going to blame Barry Alvarez and all the greedy fools at UND. It just feels right to hate on them, doesn't it?
 

MrGopher said:
Some good discussion on the new Sue-per Conference over on GPL.

http://www.gopherpucklive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=10737

In short, new conference to be officially announced this Wednesday. UND, CC, Denver, UNO, UMD, and Mia-OH. With the likely possibility of Notre Dame, and the less-likely possibility of Western Michigan thrown into the mix as well.

The MNSCU schools (Mankato, St. Cloud, and Bemidji) will probably stick it out as a group from here on out. Rumors were that, if Western Michigan declined its invite to the new conference, then SCSU would be invited. The folks at SCSU then promptly gave the new conference a nice old middle finger saying it would never bail.

Plenty of blame tossed all around for the 'demise' of the WCHA. I'm just going to blame Barry Alvarez and all the greedy fools at UND. It just feels right to hate on them, doesn't it?
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I don't know. I dislike the Sioux with every fiber of my body (especially the current regime) but it feels hypocritical to blame North Dakota for trying to do what's best for them when we were complicit in the move that set the whole thing off. After a few exchanges with Maturi I do believe that underneath all of the "what a great opportunity Big Ten hockey brings" BS he was against the move and tried to fight it behind the scenes.

Herb Brooks has to be rolling in his grave seeing how badly Minnesota leaving the WCHA is going to hurt hockey in this state. And if it is true that SCSU turned down the chance to leave the WCHA I have a new found respect for them.
 

I am saddened by the fracturing of college hockey as I knew it. But here are some potential positives I will take from it.

1) More conferences with smaller numbers of teams = open door for expansion for new hockey programs. Expansion of the sport.
2) The new Sue-per conference is trying to work out a deal with Versus. Hopefully more conferences work out tv deals. Exposure of the sport.
3) Air Force hockey shouldn't have to be in Atlantic Hockey anymore. Yay Falcons!
4) Alabama Huntsville shouldn't have to be stuck as an independent. Yay Mustangs!
5) Maybe, just maybe, Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Anchorage will be in the same conference. Yay Sarah Palin!
6) Potential for smaller Minnesota, Alaska, and Michigan schools to get an automatic bid into NCAAs. Yay Mavericks, Seawolves, etc.!
7) Open door for rivalries of conferences and new OOC formats. Think BigTen-ACC challenge.

We'll just see. I will miss the old WCHA though, even if the BTHC turns out to be awesome.
 

Couple comments on the new conference.

I'm tired of listening to Sue fans blaming the Gophers and Badgers for this. The Gophers and UW had no choice but to leave. Neither did UM, MSU or OSU. They were and are obligated to the Big Ten, and unlike say, the Pac-10, which has associate members in certain sports (like Fresno State in Wrestling) the Big Ten doesn't do that so there was going to be no bringing along UMD and UNO for the ride, even as adjunct schools to current Big Ten teams in the Gophers and Huskers.

I understand to some extent why they're doing this - it's for prospective TV money and exposure. Otherwise why include Notre Dame (national attention based on name alone) and UNO (bigger market, but not a traditional hockey power)? SCSU would be a better fit from a talent perspective, but St. Cloud isn't much of a TV market. Which begs the question, why Miami, OH and Western Michigan. It's not as if Dayton or Kalamazoo are major TV markets. I suppose if it gets you on in Cincinnati or Detroit, maybe, but not if nobody watches. Obviously Denver and CC make sense, and UMD being the the current champs with a new state of the art arena does as well.

Still, this is going to hurt college hockey in the long run, and I think it stinks. I think the Big 10 hockey conference stinks too, but was willing to accept it for no other reason than it hurts UND.
 


discochris said:
Couple comments on the new conference.

I'm tired of listening to Sue fans blaming the Gophers and Badgers for this. The Gophers and UW had no choice but to leave. Neither did UM, MSU or OSU. They were and are obligated to the Big Ten, and unlike say, the Pac-10, which has associate members in certain sports (like Fresno State in Wrestling) the Big Ten doesn't do that so there was going to be no bringing along UMD and UNO for the ride, even as adjunct schools to current Big Ten teams in the Gophers and Huskers.

I understand to some extent why they're doing this - it's for prospective TV money and exposure. Otherwise why include Notre Dame (national attention based on name alone) and UNO (bigger market, but not a traditional hockey power)? SCSU would be a better fit from a talent perspective, but St. Cloud isn't much of a TV market. Which begs the question, why Miami, OH and Western Michigan. It's not as if Dayton or Kalamazoo are major TV markets. I suppose if it gets you on in Cincinnati or Detroit, maybe, but not if nobody watches. Obviously Denver and CC make sense, and UMD being the the current champs with a new state of the art arena does as well.

Still, this is going to hurt college hockey in the long run, and I think it stinks. I think the Big 10 hockey conference stinks too, but was willing to accept it for no other reason than it hurts UND.
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I think TV plays a role, but a secondary one here. The primary issue with this new conference is more about the leadership and structure of the WCHA and the CCHA. Without the BigTen schools in those conferences, all of a sudden the "little" schools outnumber the "big" schools. All of a sudden, schools who wanted to spend more and step up their game are going to be outvoted by bemidji st and mankato and michigan tech. This is about aligning "like-minded" schools. The heavy hitters don't want to be held back anymore by the little guys.

Miami and possibly Western Mich don't represent giant media markets, but they represent athletic departments willing to seriously invest in their hockey programs.
 


New Conference name: National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Yawn.
 

After hearing the MSN-Mankato coach open his yap, I couldn't help but think that the whiny MNSCU school will hardly be missed.
 



MrGopher said:
Doors might be opening already for some folks... MSU-Moorhead might actually, finally get their shot to join the WCHA.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/326306/group/Sports/
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That would make me happy. It'd be nice to be able to actually root for my own alma mater in something. When that came up before, there was a lot of discussion on whether the NCAA would allow any more schools to opt up to D1 in one sport alone (which of course is the case for many hockey schools, as well as sports like Lacrosse.). As I understood it, the ban on this only applied to D3 schools opting up to D1 for one sport because they aren't otherwise allowed to offer scholarships, but others have said it would apply to any school that isn't D1 across the board, and MSUM is barely even a D2 school, much less a D1 candidate across the board.
 

MrGopher said:
New Conference name: National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Yawn.
Click to expand...

Yep. even the National Collegiate Hockey Association would have been better and followed a little bit of alphabet soup tradition.

MrGopher said:
Doors might be opening already for some folks... MSU-Moorhead might actually, finally get their shot to join the WCHA.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/326306/group/Sports/
Click to expand...

I'd cheer for the MSU-Moorhead Dragons if they joined WCHA remanants, er, the NCHC.
 

I think it was a big vs little argument as well. The Gophers and Badgers routinely put 10k people in the seats, while its only 2200 at Mankato...and thats when the Gophers are in town. Just like the NFL with Dallas and Cinci.
 

St. Cloud State and Western Michigan have been invited to the new NCHC. Huskies have an announcement coming tomorrow at 1 p.m. about its decision. WMU will also announce its decision Thursday.

EDIT: SCSU and WMU have accepted making "The National" an 8 team-league.
 



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