Pat Reusse: Muddled Big Ten basketball schedule a result of Jim Delany's meddling

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BleedGopher

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per Pat:

Carry around a schedule because there are 16 games left to be played on every day of the week. There are only seven remaining Big Ten games in the Barn, since one was played in early December and another was stolen by Delany for Madison Square Garden — vs. Ohio State — on Jan. 20.

The Big Ten tournament also will be held in Madison Square Garden. It’s a week early, since the Big East (a 10-team conference splendidly dedicated to basketball) has the March 7-10 dates in New York.

That means the Big Ten regular season ends on the last weekend of February, the tournament ends March 3 and teams such as the Gophers will have a minimum of 12 days off before the start of the NCAA tournament … all for Delany’s Folly.

These are ridiculous days for Big Ten basketball.

http://m.startribune.com/muddled-bi...m-delany-s-meddling/467218653/?section=sports

Go Gophers!!
 

It does seem sort of ridiculous, but I'll wait until after the first weekend of the tourney to decide whether or not I like it. Having 12 days off might, and I repeat, MIGHT end up helping B1G teams come tourney time?
 


Pat, as usual, is right. The quest for money is ruining basketball. Big Ten hockey completely ruined Gophers hockey.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Pat, as usual, is right. The quest for money is ruining basketball. Big Ten hockey completely ruined Gophers hockey.
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The quest for money has the potential to ruin just about anything and everything, for the losers. But it wasn't Big Ten hockey that "completely ruined" Gophers hockey. The Gophers themselves are the most to blame. Unfortunate timing was partly to blame. NHL teams caring only about their needs is partly to blame as well.

And the reality of things is that college hockey has always been a niche sport and with Title IX issues and the high cost of having hockey, there is very little incentive for schools to start up hockey, and in fact there is far more incentive for schools to drop hockey.


What did Penn St starting up hockey do for college hockey? It brought millions of dollars into the sport, meaning the millions needed to start up PSU's program, it added another decent rink to the mix, another large fan base, and it inspired someone within the Arizona St community to do the same as PSU, which added more money, and another fired up fan base, and now it's inspired the NHL to look into helping out the next program, with Illinois being the first they will look into.

These things are all HELPING college hockey, not to mention additional money from the B1G from earnings from the BTN. Sure, it sucks for Gopher fans, losing a lot of rivalries for one, but we might have done worse the past couple of seasons if we had remained in the WCHA. SCSU, UMD and Mankato would all still be beating us and finishing ahead of us in the WCHA Conf, as well as UND and DU.

A lot of the benefits of this won't be felt or noticed for years, maybe even decades, but they will be felt and noticed eventually.
And we're still Minnesota, we still are the state of hockey and we still have the most in the way of resources and over time our B1G mates will be our rivals and we'll still play old WCHA rivals in the ooc part of the season and in the NCAA tourney, too.
 


I’m probably going to dislike the condensed schedule and the early tounrey. But I actually liked the two big ten games early so winter break was non-conference.
 

Some guy said:
I’m probably going to dislike the condensed schedule and the early tounrey. But I actually liked the two big ten games early so winter break was non-conference.
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Is it for money? Or for scheduling? Maybe it isn’t useful (the Big Ten schedule) but I don’t see it for money unless the Big Ten sees Madison Square Garden as a pivotal place for the tourney. And if this is so, why would the Big Ten automatically subordinate the Garden schedule to the Big East?
 

macgopher said:
Is it for money? Or for scheduling? Maybe it isn’t useful (the Big Ten schedule) but I don’t see it for money unless the Big Ten sees Madison Square Garden as a pivotal place for the tourney. And if this is so, why would the Big Ten automatically subordinate the Garden schedule to the Big East?
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To add why is the Garden the only place to play? No where else out east would work?
 

macgopher said:
Is it for money? Or for scheduling? Maybe it isn’t useful (the Big Ten schedule) but I don’t see it for money unless the Big Ten sees Madison Square Garden as a pivotal place for the tourney. And if this is so, why would the Big Ten automatically subordinate the Garden schedule to the Big East?
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I think Delaney would say it is to “grow the brand” on the east coast.


Not for the short term money. To grow the brand = long term money. No idea if it will be successful or not, but Delaney has a history of success.
 




Not a fan of taking away home games for conference footprint/profitability measures. We like college sports because it has meaning/tradition that pro doesn't have. Save the home games in London for pro sports. People have kept their gopher season tickets precisely because it means more than just sports. They'd have dumped their tix after numerous crappy bball/football seasons if the U of M didn't have greater meaning because of family, culture & history. Keep the conference home games at home.

Not really bothered by conferences expanding or morphing (+ Rutgers, Maryland for B1G), as long as geographical/natural rivals stay in the same conference (our Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Indiana etc.), I'm cool. No $ reason to break up rivalries anyways + fans would riot.
 

KillmeNow said:
The quest for money has the potential to ruin just about anything and everything, for the losers. But it wasn't Big Ten hockey that "completely ruined" Gophers hockey. The Gophers themselves are the most to blame. Unfortunate timing was partly to blame. NHL teams caring only about their needs is partly to blame as well.

And the reality of things is that college hockey has always been a niche sport and with Title IX issues and the high cost of having hockey, there is very little incentive for schools to start up hockey, and in fact there is far more incentive for schools to drop hockey.


What did Penn St starting up hockey do for college hockey? It brought millions of dollars into the sport, meaning the millions needed to start up PSU's program, it added another decent rink to the mix, another large fan base, and it inspired someone within the Arizona St community to do the same as PSU, which added more money, and another fired up fan base, and now it's inspired the NHL to look into helping out the next program, with Illinois being the first they will look into.

These things are all HELPING college hockey, not to mention additional money from the B1G from earnings from the BTN. Sure, it sucks for Gopher fans, losing a lot of rivalries for one, but we might have done worse the past couple of seasons if we had remained in the WCHA. SCSU, UMD and Mankato would all still be beating us and finishing ahead of us in the WCHA Conf, as well as UND and DU.

A lot of the benefits of this won't be felt or noticed for years, maybe even decades, but they will be felt and noticed eventually.
And we're still Minnesota, we still are the state of hockey and we still have the most in the way of resources and over time our B1G mates will be our rivals and we'll still play old WCHA rivals in the ooc part of the season and in the NCAA tourney, too.
Click to expand...

I guess we won't know for sure as the gains for the sport are yet to be realized, but I am skeptical that the gains in these new markets will replace the fans that are now indifferent to college hockey. And there are plenty of those out there. As you said college hockey has always been a niche sport. Might trying to make it more than that going to drive away those fans of the niche? I guess it remains to be seen.
 

Agreed, placating to the worst athletics program in the B1G by having the tournament at The Garden doesn't seem like a smart decision. Add on top of it, this is probably the worst the conference has been since the 2004-2005 means there will be a lot of empty seats, which will be a bad look for the conference. I will never understand the reasoning for not having it Indiana or Chicago every year.
 



Pat R is correct as usual (this will be anathema to hardcore gopherholers). We didnt need Maryland or Rutgers-ugh! A terrible home BT schedula this year including giving up a home game th Madison sq Garden where there will be a half filled arena. I long for the old days when you played the other 9 teams twice home and away. Money ruins everything in sports sooner or later
 

Jmarksor said:
Pat R is correct as usual (this will be anathema to hardcore gopherholers). We didnt need Maryland or Rutgers-ugh! A terrible home BT schedula this year including giving up a home game th Madison sq Garden where there will be a half filled arena. I long for the old days when you played the other 9 teams twice home and away. Money ruins everything in sports sooner or later
Click to expand...

Ezackly right! Quintessential case of less being more.
 

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