Big Ten Hockey Tournament format announced
http://host.madison.com/sports/college/article_2e80fedc-93aa-11e0-8884-…
The 2-week tournament will have an unusual format:
Week 1--6th place team at 3rd place team and 5th place team at 4th place team (best-of-3 series, Friday and Saturday, plus Sunday if necessary)
Week 2--A 4-team tournament (single-elimination, Friday and Saturday), hosted by the regular season champion.
The good news is that there could easily be a Big Ten hockey tournament at Yost Arena in a couple of years. The bad news is that the 2nd-place team in the conference will not be able to play any conference tournament games at home, while the 3rd and 4th place teams will each have at least 2 home games in the conference tournament.
Dumb. Especially since the 2nd seed does not get to host any games in the tournament. The three-week, all best of 3 series makes so much sense, why does the Big Ten refuse?
Plus, imagine how awkward it will be if the 1 seed loses the Friday night game at home, and two out of town teams play for the championship in an away arena. Weird.
yeah but it is more efficient than the three weekend idea - good practice for the NCAA tournament too
Hopefully more Big Ten teams will pick up hockey and the playoffs can expand
Sucks for the 2 seed financially, but competitively still good for them. Like that it highly rewards the 1 seed. Obviously the three week system would be the best as far as I'm concerned, but this isn't bad.
I also hope there is a 3rd place game...I would not want to lose in the semi finals and be forced to only play once in two weeks right before the NCAAs.
Regardless of the fact Michigan may host tournaments at Yost, I would much rather have the games at a rotating neutral site. Fans from other teams would be able to attend more and the atmosphere, while not that exciting would be better than a Wisconsin/Minnesota championship game at Yost. I was hoping with so many extra weeks available to the BTHC, they would make a best of 3 semifinals at campus sites and a best of 3 final at campus sites. That IMO would be the best option, and would take away randomness that single elimination hockey gives us, not to mention it would also really reward regular season success.
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...
I bet that this format will change once the tournament is hosted at Yost or the Kohls Center, or Minnesota for three straight years. The other schools/coaches will be pissed and will vote to go to a neutral site.
to see it change after a couple seasons at Yost. Those hockey crowds at Michigan are just so partisan and sometimes those kids say the darndest things.
But honestly, that's a really good point. It seems as if they expect evey team to compete for the Conference Title, but really, the way things have been recently, it's Michigan vs. Wisconsin. Minnesota could come back soon and add into the mix. Maybe State, since Anastos is obviously the coaching equivalent of Jerry York + Ron Mason, though less likely. But OSU and PSU have a ways to go still before they're going to really compete with Michigan/Wisconsin consistentlyand they don't even have any tradition to build on and refer back to. If Michigan finds the right replacement for Red and Minnesota doesn't figure things out, it could very well be a Michigan/Wisco race for quite a long time. Edge Michigan, though obviously I'm biased.
I'm guessing that some schools were dead set against the 3-week format, and other schools were dead set against the 1-week predetermined site format that Wisconsin wanted, and everybody just kind of compromised on the 2-week format, which was probably not anybody's first preference but might have been everybody's #2 choice.
Not really a big college hockey fan but as long as Michigan wins, and Little Brother and the Cheaters don't, I'll be satisfied
i like that its hosted on a campus site. should make for a great environment for the friday night games and possibly an awkward and empty environment if the 1 seed loses on friday. i suppose its really no worse than if northern and miami play in the ccha championship game at the joe
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.
God I don't want to leave the CCHA but this is just dumb! The 2nd seed doesnt get any home ice at all come tournament time! WOW.