JHendo

November 18th, 2014 at 9:13 PM ^

Stay friends with her, go and visit one time, and have the time of your creepy young adult life.  As someone who married an ASU grad and lived in Tempe for 5 years, the rumors about the attractiveness of ASU students is absolutely true.

JWolve

November 18th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^

I almost went to ASU for grad school. It's a nice campus, but holy hell their summer is as hot as our winter is cold...It's a good institution, though. Good for them, and good for hockey.

Brodie

November 18th, 2014 at 4:12 PM ^

this is huge for college hockey... the number of kids from California and Texas creeping into the WHL over the past few years has astronomical, until now they really only had Denver as an option close to home. Giving them a real name brand school in the west is going to do wonders.

gwkrlghl

November 18th, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^

Hockey in CA I know is growing, Texas as well. And I have to assume the WHLs presence in the pacific NW means there's talent out there.

ASU gives college hockey a solid presence in the west for the first time in forever. ASU, Denver, Air Force, and Colorado College could be a solid foundation of a future west coast conference.

Oklahoma and Central Oklahoma are both ACHA powers that could be encouraged by ASU's entry. I certainly think the $$ part of moving up means OU is much more likely though. Pac12 schools are probably also raising their eyebrows inquisitively at this

Fhshockey112002

November 18th, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^

Have had great success at the club level very similar to Michigan Lax. Great for western expansion of college hockey, hopefully can complete early with Colorado College, Denver, and UND.

Sauce Castillo

November 18th, 2014 at 2:54 PM ^

A lot of the pac12 schools out there draw pretty good crowds for their club games.  Hopefully at least 5 other teams from the pac12 jump on the board and they can be a conference that gets an auto bid to the tourney.  Would be a huge movement for college hockey.

gwkrlghl

November 18th, 2014 at 5:51 PM ^

Those are quite the rumors and I haven't heard anything of Stanford or Cal. (Not that I am an insider by any means)

This is a way cool for college hockey, but the elephant in the room remains that PSU and ASU both needed massive private donations to move up. I think schools will only move up when they have the donors to get them there. All the Pac12 schools have a solid ACHA D-II league called the Pac-8 and I would assume many are comfortable there (unless they get $$$$$)

gwkrlghl

November 19th, 2014 at 5:21 AM ^

I think Nebraska is only a matter of time. They have an arena, a conference, an in-state rival, and local USHL teams to recruit from. It's just a matter of fundraising a bit.

UC-Boulder makes a ton of sense in the same way Buffalo does. Hockey state and a ton of local teams already play. I'm not sure they have a decent ACHA program though, but with ASU in now, they could make a really solid west conference with the colorado schools, Colorado, ASU, and perhaps Arizona

justingoblue

November 18th, 2014 at 3:16 PM ^

Appalachian State. They hired Red Berenson, Jim Harbaugh, John Beilein and Rich Rodriguez as coaches and the Yost family is allowing them the exclusive right to name their stadium after Fielding Yost.

In related news, the USNTDP is moving to Boone and ASU will be visiting Ann Arbor for the 2015 home opener.

Unsalted

November 18th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^

I hope this brings more college hockey to the west. Currnetly Colorado is the western edge of D1 hockey in the lower 48. I would like to see Michigan get out here (Colorado) every few years other than just tourney appearances. DU, CC, and AFA all have nice college hockey facilities.

goblue16

November 18th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^

There have been rumors of cal and stanford adding hockey. Is there another team out west other than Air Force?

Unsalted

November 18th, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^

Of course. With nothing west of Colorado former DU coach George Gwozdecky recruited well in Alberta and BC. Gwozdecky was a really good coach, back to back NC, 2003-04 and 2004-05. DU lost their mind and fired him 2013 despite only 2 losing seasons in 19 years, the last being 1999-2000 . He has ties to MSU, he was an assistant there in the 1980s. I'm glad Sparty never went after him. 

AnthonyThomas

November 18th, 2014 at 7:49 PM ^

Mentioned above but Michigan is as close or closer to Colorado than California and Arizona. Pacific coast kids have been totally neglected. I'm surprised University of Washington doesn't consider a program. I'm sure they could recruit British Columbia pretty well. 

jocular_jock

November 18th, 2014 at 5:07 PM ^

I thought for a second it was Appalacian State and then "The Horror on Ice" and then reality set in. Nonetheless kinda interesting because Phoenix had a hard time supporting a pro hockey team.