NHL to Sponsor Feasibility Studies on Adding More "Big" Schools to DI Hockey
Some interesting news coming out of Chicago today. A presser is being held at 4p central with the crew below to apparently discuss a study looking at brining five US colleges into DI. From the Media Advisory:
WHO: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman; NHLPA Special Assistant to the Executive Director Matthieu Schneider; USA Hockey Executive Director Pat Kelleher; University of Illinois Director of Athletics Josh Whitman; President of the Chicago Blackhawks John McDonough; Buffalo Sabres Owner and Alumnus/Patron of Penn State University Terry Pegula
Interesting names in there are obviously Illinois' AD and that Pegula is along and branded as an "Alumnus/Patron of Penn State" CHN brands this endeavor as NHL To Sponsor Feasibility Studies On Bringing More Big Schools Into D-I Hockey - emphasis on 'big' is mine. Illinois will reportedly be the first of the five to get a study. The other four haven't been revealed.
Will be interesting to see what this is all about. While Division I lacrosse is beginning to boom, DI Hockey has remained largely flat with the hope that it will catch on some day soon. Hockey is expensive and it wouldn't surprise me if the result of these studies is five schools saying "Wow that's expensive. I'll pass"
The only thing this study will show is that there probably should be less D1 teams due to the cost.
I hope I'm wrong, but I will offer the prediction/hot take that 5 Division I schools that currently sponsor hockey will drop it before 5 schools that don't currently sponsor hockey will add it.
I'll take that action.
I could see soem combo of 5 of Illinois, Syracuse, Maryland, UCLA, Navy, Simon Fraser, Penn, and Columbia adding hockey in the next decade.
Although history suggests that we will both grow old waiting for either to happen.
My 5 schools dropping Division I hockey will come from the set of Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska, Alaska-Anchorage, American International, Arizona State, Bentley, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Niagara and Northern Michigan.
Generally I think Division II public schools not in major conferences will have a hard time justifying the expense of a Division I hockey team to their state government next time the economy turns south. We're already seeing that in Alaska.
Northwestern or Stanford too could add it any time they wanted.
It'll be interesting to see if any other southwestern schools follow Arizona State's lead and fund programs.
If I had to take a stab, they are going to probably look at schools that are in areas that are of strategic interest. If you're looking at grabbing 'big' schools, an easy bet is to see if anyone else in the Big Ten wants to join (Illinois, Nebraska) and probably see who out west is interested in giving ASU some friends. My guesses other than Illinois are:
- Nebraska - their basketball arena can be used for hockey
- Iowa - I think a big arena is still being planned for neighboring Coralville
- Colorado - ASU conference-mate, near CC & DU
- Washington - if Seattle is reasonably likely to land an NHL team one day, maybe they look at if it's plausible for UW to piggback off that momentum / share an arena?
- Syracuse - biggest name in NYS which only plays club while the rest of the state has 10+ DI teams.
- Buffalo - Pegula's stomping ground and could be a part of the reason he's tagging along. A lot of hockey momentum in the city with the combine and the World Juniors going there. Biggest school in the SUNY system I believe and I know they are trying desperately to be good at something and follow Louisville's model up the food chain.
Wouldn't surprise me if they're interested in USC/UCLA, but it would surprise me if that interest was reciprocated
Isn't Colorado's athletics department still broke? Colorado State might be the better bet for a 4th Colorado school.
Buffalo is a good one - no SUNY schools have good hockey and they could be the big addition athletically to the SUNY system. UAlbany has added serious teams in football and lax and W hoops.
I thought that too, but I think it's best not to encourage Rutgers to compete at anything.
Nebraska is likely one. There is a USHL team in Lincoln and a rink that sits over 4000. Plus Nebraska-Omaha has a successful program so they'd have a built-in non-conference rival.
This may be college hockey urban lore but I've heard many times that there is a (gentleman's) agreement in place that UN-Lincoln will not field a hockey team and UN-Omaha will not field a football team.
Call me a muggle, but the NHL is offering to pay for a study of the feasibility of 5 more universities agreeing to join an unfunded, minor league hockey system feeding players to the NHL. This is a study about other people spending their money to benefit the NHL. I'm not seeing why the universities will be listening. Hot take, the NHL funded study will make a whole punch of questionable assumptions to write a report that says it will be a money-maker for the universities, and no one will take their conclusions seriously.
Adding Hockey (potentially): Iowa, Ill, Neb., UWash, Colorado, Tenn. Outside shot at a Cali or Carolina school. Syracuse? I doubt that- they don't make much hay outside of lax and hoops and really have no interest in adding more sports. I also doubt NW would add hockey, b/c what NW alum would want to put up Pegula money?\
Contracting? Outside of the Alaska budget issues recently, I haven't heard anyone would want to. Can't imagine LSSU/TECH/NMU would want to drop. Maybe Ferris St? I don't think anyone in HE or ECAC would drop either.
That will probably give us a clue about the next 5 schools to add hockey.
So there's Arizona State, and Penn State, and...uh...hmmm. Nebraska-Omaha? But that was 20 years ago, right? Bemidji, I think. RIT maybe, although that was just a move from D-3 to D-1. Or possibly one of the other Atlantic Hockey teams. There's Findlay and Wayne State, but they have dropped hockey since they added it, so I'm not sure they count.
I think it has been 15-20 years since the last 5 joined, and there's no reason to expect it to be much less than 15-20 years for the next 5.
Quinnipiac? Lowell? Mercyhurst?
UNLV is another candidate. I assume they could share that arena and there were already rumblings of UNLV wanting to make it to DI
I wish they would discuss bringing "big ice" to the NHL.
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