Rumor: Arizona State to the B1G for hockey

Submitted by DISCUSS Man on

i'm a regular over at uscho and the Arizona State Hockey thread has been getting a lot of buzz lately as multiple people are claiming that the rumors of ASU to the B1G for hockey are true.

one post-

ASU will be joining the Big 10. Expect an announcement soon. They've already begun notifying their recruits.

Also, from a Michigan poster-

Take it FWIW, but I'm a donor to Michigan's program and I've heard through the grapevine recently that Arizona State is in fact going to be added to the B1G as an affiliate member for hockey. There were discussions on group trips for alumni/donors to AZ for games. The same scenario where Johns Hopkins was added as an affiliate member to create the B1G's sponsorship of lacrosse.

Also that another full-time B1G member school is seriously looking to add hockey now that they have a facility that's in the works.

thread: http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?111266-Arizona-State-Moving-To-D1…

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stephenrjking

September 25th, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^

I think a huge plus to their recruiting will be the small but fertile niches of western hockey that exist in places like California. Tempe isn't exactly close to LA or San Jose but it's a whole lot closer than anywhere else. And as far as travel is concerned I don't think the slight improvement in proximity afforded by the Colorado schools makes much difference. Once you have to fly somewhere the destination isn't that important.

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stephenrjking

September 25th, 2015 at 12:19 PM ^

Interesting. I suppose it fits the profile of a distance-travel conference with large universities, but ASU isn't exactly a unique place like Hopkins, either. This, along with the rumored "other program," would certainly make the schedule and the playoffs more sensible, though. The biggest problem with B1G hockey by some stretch is that MSU and Wisconsin aren't even trying to be good right now, and Michigan is comatose for another year. Those are three of the top programs in college hockey history wildly underperforming; meanwhile, schools where hockey is the only major sport continue to surge. Two extra schools won't fix that, but maybe some of this new blood can start making tournaments and prop up the old boys. BTW, what's your USCHO handle?

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stephenrjking

September 25th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^

Never happen, the B1G so far has kept affiliate members limited to schools that would at least be plausible members from a school/academic standpoint. And though UMD joining would be lights-out awesome for me, it's just not in the same ballpark. Unfortunately.

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Wolverine Devotee

September 25th, 2015 at 12:35 PM ^

They certainly won't be a tomato can. They're the only school in the country that can sell warm weather and......those coeds. They're gonna be a bitch to recruit against in terms of that, but they're going with their club coach as their varsity head coach so I don't know how that will work out.

PSU hired a proven coach for their varsity team and PSU has already passed OSU and OSU has been playing hockey for 50 years.

PSU is already the 3rd best team in the B1G (not that that means much).

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jg2112

September 25th, 2015 at 1:02 PM ^

Signing NTDP players isn't the way you win in modern college hockey. If it was, Michigan and Minnesota would have a lot more national titles in the last 15 years.

How you win is recruiting high-end kids with significant experience in high school (Minnesota kids only) or juniors, and then keeping them in your program more than one year. 

I'm sure Michigan fans enjoyed having Trouba and Larkin around for one year, but I'll bet if they'd have brought in Luc Snuggerud, for example (who is now in year two at Nebraska-Omaha), there'd be a bigger payoff for the Wolverines having him around for 4 years.

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SAMgO

September 25th, 2015 at 2:18 PM ^

This is right, and frankly Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth are the only schools who have a prayer of fielding a championship team with just high end high school kids. The concentration of young talent isn't good enough anywhere else in the country, so the other teams that win it all will be clogged with 25 year old Canadian seniors. That's how Union won it, but then you have to immediately rebuild when they all graduate.

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UMFanInFlorida

September 25th, 2015 at 12:47 PM ^

This doesn't make much sense (obviously) for a couple reasons.  

One, geographically the NCHC is a much better fit for ASU.

Two, there are rumblings I've seen through other message boards that Western Michigan and Miami aren't so happy any more in the NCHC and a revived CCHA might be a better fit.

If I were in charge, here's what my conferences would look like with the realization that the Big Ten probably isn't going away:

[Revived] CCHA 8 teams: Ferris, LSSU, NMU, WMU, BGSU, Miami (NTMBIHSYTM), Huntsville, UAF

[Merged] NCHC/WCHA, 10 teams: Denver, CC, N. Dakota, St. Cloud St., Duluth, MSU (Mankato), Bemidji, MTU, UAA, UNO

I'd honestly give good thought towards MTU in the CCHA for geography and rivalry reasons, but 8 and 10 are even numbers for the CCHA and NCHC/WCHA respectively.

And I've love so see what was the old CCHA come together w/ or w/o Notre Dame, but i just don't think the Big Ten will give up hockey any time soon.

 

Key:

NTMBIHSYTM: Not That Miami But It's Hockey So Yes That Miami

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doggdetroit

September 25th, 2015 at 2:07 PM ^

Lot of transplants from the North in those states. California is actually the #7 state for hockey participation, just behind Ilinois:

http://unitedstatesofhockey.com/2014/06/17/u-s-hockey-participation-num…

Arizona ( #25) isn't as high, but ASU would be just 5 hours away from Southern California and the only division 1 hockey program near by. And aside from Alabama - Huntsville, it would be the only warm weather school with division 1 hockey, making it a big draw nationally. There are also more B1G alums in the Phoenix area than there are Pac 12 alums. You add B1G teams to the schedule and that will help drive interest, more so than playing little known NCHC or WCHA teams.


 

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Canadian

September 25th, 2015 at 8:05 PM ^

My dad played in a Chrysler event at comerica a couple weeks before winter classic and there was a guy from a Mexico plant (who was Mexican) playing. Wasn't good by any means but was shocked he wasn't just falling all over the place. Had some sweet gloves done up to look like the Mexican flag.

Funniest part was he was announced and got a big applause from the other players and people in attendance and then my dad was announced right after and had 2 people clapping; me and my brother lol

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mgoblue99

September 25th, 2015 at 1:04 PM ^

For my money as a fan, I'd rather play series against the teams from Alaska than from Arizona. Has more of an appeal to me as a hockey fan, but maybe that's just my personal preference. On the other hand, travel costs to Anchorage or Fairbanks likely dwarf what it costs to send a hockey team to Phoenix for the weekend. 

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Olaf

September 25th, 2015 at 1:14 PM ^

This is a terrible idea. Arizona State has nothing to do with the B1G. We should have just stuck with the CCHA if this was the case. At least we had local colleges like Northern, Western, and LSSU. I hate Delaney.

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Olaf

September 25th, 2015 at 1:28 PM ^

Well to be honest with you I really don't mind because for one, I don't even follow lacrosse. But another point is that they are at least inside the B1G footprint. And they have an established program. This just smells like a total Delaney move in wanting to "expand the footprint to attract west coast television viewers".

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