Big Ten Hockey Tournament format announced

I was thinking how horrible it is for a 2-seed to have a bye that first week, maybe only play one game and then still not host anything though it can be almost as bad for the one seed.  I'm pretty sure Red (and the rest of the CCHA coaches) has mentioned how much he dislikes the bye in the CCHA format and that still leaves for a solid two weekends (for Michigan, at least) of hockey before the tournament.  There's a benefit to the extra rest and practice, but there's also the downside of not having actually played a real game in a while 

I agree the three week format is probably best for determining a champion.  BUT!  I think it was Wisconsin that was publicly dead-set against it, so I didn't think it was going to happen.  This is probably the next best option.  At least until/unless they chance the NCAA format, some one and done is almost needed for the practice of the thing.  The home-arena is a surprise, but I guess this way at least somebody's fans will probably be there.  The only thing is that while Minneosta/Wisconsin/OSU have pretty huge rinks (though Minny/Wisco can do a pretty decent job of filling them, depending on the year and the game), Yost/Munn are only around 7,000 and Yost at least already sells out or close to it pretty regularly, so it will be interesting how they allot visiting team tickets for that.  I think PSU is slated to be around the size of a Yost, maybe a little bigger, but I don't know how much of that they will consistently sell, yet (though if they're winning the Big Ten, they're probably good enough to sell quite a bit of it to there own fans).

The other question is, since they are talking about the NCAA playoff format, is there a chance this is a harbringer of what's to come with that?  I bet the Big Ten could find out what's happening/what's most likely to come out of that talk if they want and might be proactively trying to mimic it as much as possible.  I know Frozen Four (and maybe Regional?) sites are set through about 2014, but after that...

That's the big issue, I think.  Of course you are right--Wisconsin v Minnesota at Yost will still have a better atmosphere than Wisconsin v Minnesota at Joe Louis Arena.  The article doesn't say, but I would imagine that they need to have a consolation game just to ensure that the host team's fans will have 2 guaranteed games.

I will say this--any successful movement away from pre-determined neutral sites in conference playoffs might make the NCAA realize that they should move away from the pre-determined sites in the NCAA regionals.