Sanity prevails: B1G Hockey Tournament format changed
With Notre Dame joining the conference in 2017-18, the tournament has been expanded to a 7 team tournament.
The 1 seed will get the first round bye while the rest of the seeds play in on-campus, best-of-3 series. It will be 7 at 2, 6 at 3 and 5 at 4.
The semifinals and championship will be single elimination after that. The location of those is yet to be announced, but we can hope the conference champion hosts and there's no neutral site nonsense.
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Well that was quick
1st two rounds were best of 3, then the final four was single elimination
You can't play the tournament for weeks Gucci. Your suggestion would give the finals participants the potential to play nine games each, just for the right to get into the NCAA tournament. Not gonna happen.
Yeah me too.
I'm telling you, the Hunt in downtown Toledo would be perfect.
It's not that big, it's in the middle of the B1G map. Sure it's in OH but there are more Michigan fans in Toledo than OSU fans.
Chicago is such a terrible idea for B1G hockey that I can't even list all of the reasons. I see what you're saying, but you're absolutely wrong.
For starters, events at MSG or Brooklyn are known magnet events planned many months in advance, giving local fans time to plan and budget for a fun time watching their team--a team that usually plays so far away that they have no other opportunity to see them in person. And it's in New York.
In contrast, a tournament in Chicago doesn't have its participants defined until less than a week before the first game. You don't know if or when your team is playing; even if it makes it there is a 50% chance that the first game will take place during the working day, which would require a late use of time off, impossible for people. And if you live in the Chicago area your B1G school has already sent teams to Northwestern and Madison and Champaign-Urbana, or you've driven to West Lafayette or East Lansing or wherever, so it's not your only chance to see your team.
So that point of logic doesn't work.
Point two: The B1G hockey tournament does not draw well when played within a short drive of its largest fanbases. It has absolutely no chance of drawing a good crowd anywhere. It has been played in St. Paul twice and Detroit once. The three local fanbases that had B1G tournaments held near them, fanbases that turn out for other hockey events in droves (UM-MSU sold out the Joe again this year for the stand-alone game, see the first point) have consistently declined to attend.
Minneapolis-St. Paul is the locus of hockey fandom in Minnesota, a state that takes the sport more seriously than any other. It has, in Minnesota, a gigantic (relatively speaking) college hockey fanbase, and a sports culture that cares enough about hockey to justify talking about the college version of the sport on leading drive-time sports radio shows. Average kids know and appreciate the teams and the game. And they have what is still one of the two or three best arenas in the country to play in.
If a hockey tournament cannot succeed in St. Paul, it cannot succeed anywhere in America.
...I doubt we could do it elsewhere. I think everything should be on campus until the Frozen Four.
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For a full round robin with an 8-team conference, that would mean a 28-game schedule (2 games at home and 2 on the road against each of the other 7 teams in the conference).
Prior to the western realignment, both the CCHA and the WCHA played 28-game conference schedules, and it seemed to work out just fine for both conferences. I don't see why that wouldn't still work out for them.
You mean for the playoffs, or just more regular season events? I don't like the bye-day home-and-homes but back-to-back they can be a lot of fun, especially when you make a trip to attend the road leg.
But home-and-homes are hard for Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Penn State due to distance. It's just a long and expensive trip, period.
i don't know what the obsession is with even #s. This isn't multiple divisions like football
i would much prefer just giving the autobid to the regular season winner. That would be real sanity
I agree - I'd much prefer this format.
The one team bye is pretty weird. This beats having the useless play-in round at tournament sites, but it's still odd.
They really should just play everything at home sites. Every team in the conference has a decent arena. If they're worried about ticket sales, just make all rounds a three-game series.
There's no way to do this, but I would love an actual best-of-five series to determine a champion. Doesn't fit the college hockey format, but it would be a blast.