CCHA Likes PSU; PA Frozen Four a good idea

Submitted by Wolverine In Exile on

Eric Lacy from detnews has new article with quotes from CCHA boss Tom Anastos on the attractiveness of Penn St to the CCHA. Some new material from the earlier post this week:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100810/SPORTS07/8100426/1361/CCHA-boss…

 

In this context, this makes total sense now for the Frozen Four placings in PA.. I wonder if the selection committee for the Frozen Four had some preknowledge of the upcoming Penn St announcement.

Other interesting tidbits:

- Penn St's president toured CCHA rinks in recent time (not specified)... likely means he was verifying needs for a Div I rink before Penn St starts the architecture bidding for the new rink they're building.

- Anastos has exchanged emails with Spannier (PSU pres).. one of those the decision is made before the vote type of deals

- Penn St is adding mens and womens hockey... if this happens will there be more pressure on UM to field a womens hockey team to make a Big Ten mens AND womens hockey conference? May go a long way to easing Title IX worries about Mens lacrosse going varsity...

Clarence Beeks

August 10th, 2010 at 6:59 PM ^

I'm a bit curious as to which comments about the Frozen Four being in Pennsylvania that you are retracting.  I can gather as much that you thought it was a bad idea, but I'm just curious as to why.

Wolverine In Exile

August 10th, 2010 at 7:05 PM ^

about the Frz4's being awarded to two sites in Pennsylvania I ranted in a post about how it was a bad idea and between this and the St Louis/Tampa decisions that the NCAA was trying to kill college hockey for good. I thought the awarding of not just one but back to back frozen fours to a state that had Mercyhearst as its pre-eminent college hockey program was assenine when Boston, Denver, Minneapolis all were available. Although Penn St will suck in D-1 for the first couple years, it's a big enough school with a big enough cache that they may be able to gett competitive in D-1 fast, and potentially be a Frz4 contender by the time the Pittsburgh / Philly sites roll around.

Clarence Beeks

August 10th, 2010 at 7:25 PM ^

Thanks for the response.  I had missed that (or at least I don't remember it).  My only minor issues with what you said, at least relating to Pittsburgh, are (1) what I said above and (2) Pittsburgh already hosts a college hockey showcase event that draws pretty well and that, combined with the high popularity of youth hockey in the area, makes it a good venue to expand the growth of the game and increase interest in the two existing teams in the area.

I suspicion is that the decisions for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh had anything to do with the potential for Penn State to add a team as it's really pretty unlikely that much of the attendance draw for Penn State hockey will come from either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh; at least on a regular basis anyway.  I'll be curious to see if any news comes out on this.

JustGoBlue

August 10th, 2010 at 7:15 PM ^

it PSU's jump to D1 seems this time, I'm still going to wait for something official before I start considering it reality.  Though, it does seem more likely than usual this time.

My big question would be, if this is true, does PSU start with a team before they finish the hypothetical arena, in say the 2011-2012 season and play in their current club arena, or do they wait for the new arena and start say a year later?  I think that with construction started on the new rink, the CCHA wouldn't mind dealing with a dinky rink for a season for a name like Penn State and it seems like the sooner they start the sooner they're getting recruits and can maybe become more of a power faster.  I'm sure the smalle schools in the CCHA especially would LOVE to have Penn State coming to their rink ASAP for the drawing power, but PSU would be farther away from making money that season because of having such a small rink and that would require more start up money.

And a smaller question would be whether Penn State making a jump creates any incentives for any other schools to think about it as well? 

Wolverine In Exile

August 10th, 2010 at 7:26 PM ^

Would Penn St play in a temp rink? Yes. Especially if the Big  Ten Network can pick up 305 more game a year where Penn St plays another Big Ten hockey team on the road. I would think the Mens team would jump up as soon as schedules allow, which I would assume would be the 2011-2012 season.

Would PSU's jump create incentives for other teams? Probably not. The biggest incentive hanging out there for college hockey is for the Big Ten teams to leave the CCHA and WCHA and form a Big Ten hockey conference. With Penn St, they'd have the requisite 6 teams (UM, MSU, tOSU, Penn St, Wiscy, Minn) without having to resort to inviting Notre Dame. The incentive comes in the form of potentially greater TV revenues by having every Big Ten hockey game televised or having another "Hockey night in Canada" type broadcast on Sat nights on the BTN since Mens BB typically doesn't play Sat night games, and its been well established that live events increase BTN ad rates. Add to this that there really aren't anymore big time schools that have club programs ready to jump to D-1, so Penn St is probably the last big story of this type for a while. I tihnk the next closest team would be Illinois, but their club program is no where near Penn St's if I remember correctly.

Wolverine318

August 10th, 2010 at 8:31 PM ^

If another D1 club program were to jump to varsity status it would be Arizona. Zona has an excellent club program that is near the level of Penn State. However, Tuscon is 2 hours away from Phoenix, the hockey mecca of Arizona. There are a lot of midwest transplants and especially wings fans in Phoenix.

Illinois is also likely. Illinois used to be a varsity D1 program and were pretty good if I remember correctly from Blue Ice. 

Clarence Beeks

August 10th, 2010 at 8:53 PM ^

I think that with construction started on the new rink, the CCHA wouldn't mind dealing with a dinky rink for a season for a name like Penn State and it seems like the sooner they start the sooner they're getting recruits and can maybe become more of a power faster.

They definitely could start NCAA play in the existing arena.  I can't find it right now, but I remember when Robert Morris entered D1 that the NCAA requires a minimum arena capacity of 1,000 for D1 hockey.  Penn State's current arena exceeds that (barely - 1,300).  That actually shouldn't hamper their ability to get started and make some money, either.  The existing capacity, while it would be the smallest in the CCHA, is only about 1,000 behind Ferris State and Notre Dame, and in line with some of the programs in other conferences.

Vasav

August 10th, 2010 at 7:33 PM ^

Penn State Hockey should be a fun addition. But I'm worried that the BTN will cause a Big Ten Hockey Conference - which would be cool except for what happens to the CCHA and WCHA. I know Brian thinks they'd survive, but they certainly would be weaker.

JustGoBlue

August 10th, 2010 at 7:48 PM ^

would almost certainly survive.  Denver, UND, CC, Duluth, SCSU are all pretty good.  If Blais stays at UNO they will probably become a pretty strong program in the WCHA as well.  Bemidji may or may not be strong in the WCHA, there are arguments both ways and I'm not going to take a side, but regardless, the WCHA should be fine.  Especially the way Minny has looked the last couple years.

The CCHA is a little bit of a different story...  If Notre Dame stays in the CCHA and Miami stays a strong program, they will probably be OK.  If Blashill and Bergeron can turn around Western and Bowling Green, the CCHA would almost certainly be fine.  It would be an 8 team conference, but with a 6 team BTHC, I'd imagine there would be quite a few OOC game between Minny/Wisco and the WCHA and U-M/MSU/OSU and the CCHA, Penn State could do whatever, but they'd probably fill out each other's schedules pretty well.  If ND gets poached by the BTHC, then the CCHA has major problems.

They lose the power names, so they'll be less able to attract casual fans just based on that, but at the same time maybe the exposure a BTHC gets, exposes all the other conferences a little bit more too.  It's a conundrum, that's for sure.

IdealistWolverine

August 10th, 2010 at 8:51 PM ^

I don't see how a program like Bowling Green could survive without the B10 schools in the CCHA.  Even with having one of the more dominant programs of the 80s and early 90s (Ron Mason and Jerry York) the school almost cut the program 2 years ago due to financial difficulties. 

If schools like Michigan and OSU aren't there, I don't see how they could survive.

Michigan Arrogance

August 10th, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^

  • Michigan
  • OSU
  • MSU
  • Minnesota
  • Wisconsin
  • Penn State

This would be: 5 Conf series x 2 games/series x 2 for home and road series. that's 20 games which is fewer than the 24-28 conf. games they play now. this seems to be the most logical way to schedule the league games.

I'm sure the B10 teams would want to schedule OOC series with traditional and local foes from teh ccha and wcha. There would be plenty of room in the schedule which would be another benefit to this kind of change.