Two More Years Of The Worst Playoff In Sports, And It's Michigan's Fault
The farce that is the NCAA's hockey tournament continues:
The 2020 and 2021 DI Men's Ice Hockey Regional Sites have been announced.https://t.co/vCjuTiujed pic.twitter.com/GB34N0GoCq
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 19, 2019
Allentown, Pennsylvania is a little more than an hour north of Philadelphia. It is hosting the "Midwest" regional for the third straight year. The next year the definition of Midwest expands yet further, to a small town in the Rockies an hour outside of Denver. There they'll play in an AHL arena with a capacity of 5,300.
[After THE JUMP: the solution Michigan isn't implementing.]
This is explicitly anti-fan behavior spurred by the insanity that is having coaches run your tournament. Two teams submitted bids at home arenas, including a place actually in the Midwest:
With a dwindling number of schools bidding to host NCAA regionals in the West and Midwest, some teams tried a new tactic this bidding cycle: They submitted bids to host regionals at their home venue.
Although the coaching body has overwhelmingly been against putting regionals at home sites, at least two schools submitted bids at their home venues in hopes that there wouldn’t be enough neutral-site bids and the NCAA would have no other options.
Todd Milewski of the Wisconsin State Journal reported Wednesday that the Badgers submitted a bid to host at the Kohl Center. One source told the Herald that they believe that UND submitted a bid for Ralph Engelstad Arena for 2020.
Neither of them were awarded regionals, because there were enough neutral-site bids.
"Enough" bids means one thousands of miles away from any school in Michigan, Ohio, or Indiana. At the same time the NCAA is dead set against home site regionals it is perfectly willing to ship at 1 seed to face 4 seed Providence in Providence. The situation is ludicrous.
It's also an opportunity if anyone in the Michigan athletic department cares to exploit the situation. It is baffling that Michigan isn't bidding every year. While Yost is not an option, there is an arena right down the road that is perfect: Toledo's ECHL arena. It's relatively new (it opened in 2009), seats 7,400, and is home to what may be the world's most passionately followed third-tier hockey team:
Each year, you think the passion in this proud hockey city has topped out, and each year another close-but-no-cup pursuit of a championship — absent from Toledo since the Storm won back-to-back titles in 1993 and 1994 — only makes the heart grow fonder. This year, the Walleye shattered their franchise attendance marks and all but caught up to their old rivals to the west. Fort Wayne drew a league-high 7,784 fans per game. Toledo sold out its 7,431-seat arena 28 times and averaged an over-capacity 7,600 fans.
“Unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said defenseman Simon Denis, who made a cameo in Fort Wayne in 2016.
It might all seem a little looney — all this energy distilled into a Double-A hockey team — if the cowbell-clanging, bass-rattling, ear-damaging scenes weren’t so fun.
What matters is not the level of puck but the connection between team and city, and few bonds run deeper.
If there's anywhere off campus in the Midwest where you could conceivably set up a venue similar to basketball's permanent home in Dayton for the first four, it's Toledo. And it's under an hour from Michigan.
Attendance wasn't great for a 2013 regional thanks to the NCAA's consistently absurd ticket prices, but even if it ends up losing money—and it might not—is there any better ROI possible for the athletic department in terms of championship advantage than getting a bunch of regionals a stone's throw away from campus that Michigan is guaranteed to go to if they get in? This is an AD that has a 155 million dollar budget. If you're spending 100k a year to host in Toledo, well…
The money's there.
Yes, this is a stupid system. Yes, it should go to home regionals immediately. No, that doesn't appear to be happening as long as college hockey is ruled by small-school coaches who want to play 23-year-olds in Sahara-empty buildings because they prioritize nothing other than a tourney format where the overall #1 seed is 50-50 to beat the #16.
But at some point the fact that there will be a four-year period without a regional within a thousand miles of Michigan is the athletic department's fault. Spend the money. Getting a hockey regional in Toledo would be great for the fans—probably the first thing in Warde Manuel's tenure that is.
I guess it makes too much sense for it to ever happen!
Brian,
Care to expand on the new hockey recruiting rule changes? Better/worse for the student? Better/worse for the teams? Better/worse for college hockey?
My fear is that it allows the CHL to take even more talent away from college hockey...
This graphic provides an overview of the recruiting timeline under the new rules, which go into effect May 1 pic.twitter.com/y7S5dOH16u
— College Hockey Inc. (@collegehockey) April 19, 2019
This rule is good for coaches that primarily recruit players that are 20 or older from Junior teams. This rule will make it harder for colleges to get talented 18 year old freshmen. This would be a fine rule if there were also a rule to limit the age of incoming freshman, but as it stands it's a rule that benefits the same coaches Brian is complaining about that have a stranglehold of the post-season format at the expense of teams like Michigan.
Yep. There are two recruiting models in hockey. The "blue bloods" mostly follow model A: fill up with the best players available as soon as you can land them. Most of the others follow model B: fill your roster with players who have aged out of junior hockey but have no interest from the NHL.
Model A will get you great young players who often don't stay for 4 years. Model B will get you good to not-so-good players who are starting out 2 or 3 years older than the Model A players.
If you can't out-recruit somebody, then you can at least get their recruiting model declared to be illegal. That's what happened here: the "Model B" programs inexplicably have claimed that they are on the moral high ground and somehow convinced the NCAA to agree with them, and outlaw the foundation of the "Model A" approach.
I'm trying to recall how hockey recruiting goes - but don't most of the top players have to start making decisions about CHL vs. college in that 13-15 age range? It seems like this rule is a blatant screwing of the entire recruiting strategy of the only schools that actually can compete with the CHL for top talent.
Seems like another frustrating thing where the small school, overager crowd is screwing the bigger programs because they outnumber us. Isn't this just going to drive all of college hockey to abandon trying to get top talent and move to overager route?
I am down with a Hockey Regional in Toledo.
The Huntington Center (Home of the Toledo Walleye) is a pretty nice place to see a game.
Solid views and just enough capacity to provide an electric environment.
#MakeItSoNumberOne
Grand Rapids has hosted in the somewhat recent past. It's a touch further away than Toledo, but the area is full of Michigan fans.
Van Andel Arena is a terrific venue, too.
Yes, but it also takes a week to get the Dutch out of your clothes afterwards.
This system is absurd. It needs to change. It is actively hostile to the fans of the sport, as is much of what they do now. Even the Frozen Four no longer sells out.
I don’t think it’s fair to flame the Michigan AD or Warde for this. Toledo is an interesting idea, though, and worth exploring. The Toledo regional did poorly in part because of terrible circumstances—it took place at the same time as the last Grand Rapids regional (also a failure that year) and neither Michigan nor MSU made the tournament, a disaster for any western regional that depends upon fanbase attendance.
The insanity and unfairness of the committee continues apace, though. Wisconsin applied and should have gotten a slot. UMD apparently applied and of course got ignored (I think they should apply to use their old arena, which still exists in the same complex as the new one, since it’s not their “home” rink anymore, but nobody listens to me).
I don’t think it’s fair to flame the Michigan AD or Warde for this.
Nope.
Blame Colorado College.
Their non-stop whining about Yost was the precursor to non-campus sites.
Wisconsin should bid to have it in the Alliant Energy Center, just as a middle finger to the NCAA. It's smaller than the Kohl Center, and crappier, but its about 5 minutes from campus and technically not a home site.
My guess is that they were just taking a flyer. If it fit criteria, they could actually host there—Minnesota has hosted at the X, for example—but they may just have wanted to try it to see what they could do. Easier to host at home (with greater potential for revenue) than somewhere else.
They’ve hosted before. At the Resch Center in Green Bay, for example. When they don’t make the tournament they don’t get many fans.
If Michigan shakes off the funk, gets good, and gets put in the West, Loveland won't know what hit it with all the Wolverines on the Front Range.
The Can was awesome (2x) 10 years ago. Set records for attendance.
Fort Collins/Front Range Wolverine here! Would love to watch them at the BEC! GO BLUE!
Bravo
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could theoretically host a regional. UWM doesn't have a hockey team, but the Milwaukee AHL team plays there.
Only hockey programs host. And they have incentive to do so, because hosts that make the tournament are guaranteed to play at their own site.
Could UW-Madison theoretically submit a bid for the regional at UW-Milwaukee? It's not that far from Madison, it's at a "neutral" non-campus site, it's within the UW system, and it's filled with Badger fans.
I think you will find that this is incorrect. Any "member" of the NCAA (whether it is an institution or a conference) can submit a bid to host. For example, when the Frozen Four was in Washington DC a few years back, the host school was Navy.
Loveland, CO could do pretty well. Biggest concern is it's a small arena. But (1) it would obviously get DU and CC fans if they qualified, and (2) all the various B1G and Minnesota schools have a whole lot of fans in the Front Range.
(North Dakota too, but they'd go to their own regional in 2021, at least)
I wonder if DU considered the First Bank Center in Broomfield, CO. That arena's just about the same size as the one in Loveland. And it's in the Denver Metro region - Loveland is too, I guess, but it does entail a one-hour drive north on that awful two-lane I-25.
My brother in law works for the Walleye/Mud Hens. I’m gonna put in a call and see if I can make something happen. I’m kidding, about making something happen, but I will call and find out why they don’t bid.
Only college hockey programs can submit bids. This would have to be taken up by the UM athletic department itself.
Ahhhh. Welp I guess I don’t need to call that asshole anymore.
Jk he is a solid dude
I don't know that it would hurt to have the site call the AD and put a word in.
Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids would also be a solid option. It is in the downtown of a thriving city. Might be a little big (10k seats) though.
Van Andel has hosted multiple times. They have no interest in hosting again--too much inconvenience for what is essentially $0 return unless the game comes close to selling out.
What about, and stay with me here, UM and OSU file a joint bid with Toledo as the host? Is that legal? Doubles the chances Toledo lands a team they can sell tickets for, also could spread the cost if cost is a concern. Would make it really interesting if both qualify. Just a thought.
Going to Walleye games is one of the things I miss most about Toledo. Also one of the few things I miss about Toledo.
Ah fuck it, just go to home site regionals.
Can we take that one step further and ask whether the B1G conference can/should coordinate the submission of an annual bid on behalf of the member schools? Or, perhaps even cover the cost of any event loss for such an event? All B1G programs would benefit if a regional is in our conference footprint.
A fascinating idea but presumably a nonstarter. Can’t imagine the idea of U-M “hosting” anything on Ohio soil would go over well down there (even if Toledo is contested territory).
Applause!!
I love college hockey but this insanity is ruining the game. Someone must get getting their pockets lined because no rational person would set this up.
The Budweiser event center in Loveland is a great arena and considering most regionals are filled with fans disguised as empty seats it makes sense to hold it in a nice arena that you might be able to sell out and get it rocking
Hope UM plays in a regional there so I can attend.
I do think the regionals should be held on campuses but in the mean time I hope I get to see UM come back to the Denver area
Could Western, Sparty, Ferris and Michigan file a joint bid for either Kalamazoo (Kwings arena) or Grand Rapids?
Sparty is working on a secret deal to host at Jackson Prison. Capacity 5,280. It's a bit small, but quite intimate, and obviously Sparty would have an overwhelming home advantage at a maximum security prison.
Here’s another problem with a site like Allentown, PA from my recent personal experience. Getting there.
The regional matchups are announced on Sunday evening, and the games are less than one week away on Saturday and Sunday. This immediately limits options and raises costs for those traveling far.
I’m traveling from Orlando, FL, not a hub for any airline, but serviced well by all of the majors... how should I travel to Allentown? Should be easy and convenient right?
Lots of options to JFK/LaGuardia but still a 2.5 hr drive on a good day. Philly had fewer options, but still 2 hr drive. Pittsburgh even less and 4+ extra hours in the car. There’s a small airport that allegiant services, but their limited schedule completely rules that out.
I ended up making it work but most of the weekend was spent traveling to a hard to get to location for the games. Couldn’t even stay for the final bc it was impossible to get back for work on Monday.
if they want higher attendance, choose locations that people can actually easily get to on a weeks notice. Allentown doesn’t qualify .
The problem with Toledo or Grand Rapids or anything else in the midwest footprint is that no one goes to them. Toledo lost a lot of money I believe. Grand Rapids has been poorly attended. Fort Wayne and St Louis were hilariously unattended. I know the NCAA's record books show 3,000+ per game, but I recall them being quite empty. So no matter what city is close by, no one goes. The only regionals in the 'west' that do well are ones that are either in MSP or close enough to the Sioux.
No one travels for regionals and as Brian said, there is a passionate core in college hockey that thinks the current system is great. Small schools love making the tournament awful so they have a nice coin flips chance at making the frozen four and the New England schools are obviously in a position of wealth with all the regionals nearby so they think everything is ducky. It's broken and the NCAA and 75% of D1 seems content to watch it burn
Also, sure seems like Michigan's athletic department (and maybe many others nationally) are in a tenuous financial place. Yes, they're making more and more money but expenses have moved up even faster. There's gonna be a huge bubble that bursts when TV money shrinks one day
Agree with so much of this post... except somehow finding a way to beat up Warde Manual for it. That makes zero sense to me. I guess blaming Mike DeBord was a bridge too far (for once).
So that's how (nearly) non-profit accounting works!
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