What If? - Big Ten Hockey
Something that just came across twitter from College Hockey News that has me thinking:
"You thought last offseason was "college hockey Apocalypse"? .. now imagine Penn State getting booted from Big Ten ..."
Now I still am skeptical that the B1G will boot Penn State...but lets just assume for a moment that they do. Then all hell breaks loose in the world of College Hockey:
If PSU gets booted, there are only 5 Big Ten teams remaining in D1 hockey...not enough to form a conference. Where do these teams go? Do they stay together and try to get in the NCHC? Do they try to get in the WCHA? Do they go into survival mode and try to get in where they can at the expense of fellow B1G schools? The other conferences would have all the leverage over the B1G schools.
This is a very unlikely situation...I don't see it happening. However, all these reports about different organizations deciding how to drop proverbial bombs on PSU could cause another crazy summer(s) in the world of college hockey.
I think this is a very interesting what if scenario. What do you think would happen?
Just get ND to switch with PSU. There simple fix, PSU goes back to being independent, and ND joins the Big Ten.
Although I highly doubt the Big Ten boots PSU out.
ND doesn't want to join the Big Ten.
No way the B1G lets ND in without them being full members. The have it good in Hockey East anyways.
decisions this big take time to make is the numerous consequences of a course of action. The Big Ten will have contingency plans for hockey before doing anything to Penn State.
along those lines, the consequences of booting penn state would be extremely far-reaching and a complete pain in the ass for a whole bunch of people. i'll eat my own leg if that happens.*
*i won't actually eat my own leg if that happens.
How do the consequences of booting PSU compare to those of adding Nebraska?
That's a really good question. I'm definitely not an expert on this, but I'd imagine that if Penn State were to be booted, everyone would want to be sure that Penn State landed in another conference right away (since dealing with one move from Big Ten to independent and other from independent to some other conference seems especially brutal). With the time it would take to do all of that - and the time just to make that decision (and deal with any challenges) - I'd imagine that the process would take at least a couple of years. I think the general public opinion at that point would be, "Why are we doing this again?" If this punishment feels poorly targeted now, it'll feel even more poorly targeted when we've distanced ourselves a bit from the emotions of the moment.
My guess is that Penn State will self-punish with guidance from the NCAA and Big Ten, and those punishments will include a postseason football ban, AD-wide probation, and a shit-ton of monitoring and apologizing.
As to your first point, I'd be shocked if the Big East wouldn't take them. I agree that your last guess is a likely outcome, but I also think that's the minimum punishment. I think it's important that PSU address their cultural and institutional problems. I'm not sure they are willing do so in a meaningful way. I'm reminded of OSU's initial punishment for Jim Tressel. They really seemed to think that was enough. I get the feeling that some of PSU's BoT are just as clueless. At the very least PSU should be made aware that the death penalty and expulsion are on the table.
for locking in my grammatical error with a non-promise!
Seriously though, I don't think expulsion is very likely. Then again, Brian did link to a Chronicle of Higher Education article about that possibility. We're not going to eleven, I think we all realize that. At this point, I wouldn't be terribly surprised by anything, including hearing that ND gets swapped for Penn State. As unlikely as that may seem, everything else has been crazy and unforeseen as well, so who knows.
Sorry about that, but what's the grammatical error? I think the "is" is correct.
Maybe it is, but it looks incorrect, at least to me. MGoEnglishProfessors?
"...decisions this big take time to make is the numerous consequences of a course of action."
I think it would be "ARE the numerous consequences..." Not an english professional by any stretch, but just my thought.
It's correct. "Part" is singular.
But wouldn't "consequences" be what it's referring to?
Maybe not, the more I think about it, the more befuddled I get. That's your guys word of the day. "Befuddled." Try to use it in a sentence today.
It's one of the reasons why the death penalty should never be instituted IMO. Tons of restaurants and hotels are going to be in rough shape if they went a year without that 7-8 weekends a year where they make a ton of money. If they're dependant on those weekends, which I'm guessing some are, that would totally blow.
over the weekend. As best I can determine, the only D1 football schools not in the B1G are Notre Dame, Air Force, UCONN, BC and a few MAC schools. The only real option for a replacement in all sports is ND and maybe BC. That means the B1G would have to stoop to taking a school for just hockey, persuade ND (or BC) to join the ranks, or convince an existing B1G school to graduate to D1. (Nebraska???) Or, blow things up again!
Saw MSNBC post an article that the B1G is considering expelling the B1G.
IF the B1G kicks out penn state, I think boston college would be a great replacement as a FULL member. You get the boston TV market, their hockey dynasty that has won 3 out of the past 5 national titles (Michigan beat them last year, by the way).
Would love to have them and have the arguably the top-3 programs of all-time in the conference. Michigan, BC and Minny.
I think this is totally unrealistic. However, I will say that I have long wondered why BC never comes up in the B1G expansion talk, since it is in a large market and brings a number of sports to the table.
BC has been good for the past 15 years, but they are not a top-3 program all-time. Not yet. North Dakota and Denver, among other teams, have a lot to say about it.
first of all, the B1G isn't gonna boot Penn State. itd be stupid. really stupid. and amazingly reactionary. penn state will pay for this. dearly. kicking them out of the conference hurts the other conference members as much as it hurt penn state.
2nd of all, trying to speculate on who might join in their place is exclusively a football and academics issue. Hockey, basketball, underwater basketweaving, or anything else won't matter two shits.
Lastly, honestly, do you really think there wouldn't be a conference that wouldn't immediately snap up Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin? Those are four of the dominant hockey powers over the last two decades. Ohio might be left hanging a bit, but I doubt it given the name brand.
well, unless illinois, northwestern, or somebody else can find their own terry pegula (not likely), there are only going to be 5 B1G hockey schools.
they gotta go somewhere. even if they're only in a league for 5-6 years (the bare minimum for the amt of time needed to spin up a D-I caliber program), its still a huge bonus for the league.
but like i said, the entire discussion is rather pointless, cuz penn state isnt going to be kicked out. and whats the point of crippling penn state hockey, a program which hasn't even started up yet?
maybe.
What's the rationale for "a couple years"? If the B1G still has PSU in two years, it will have weathered all of the storm it needs to weather, and mending fences will be well under way. At that point there is no reason to ditch them. The B1G will have already paid the price, but then would lose the item they purchased.
Next time I'll try to fit more colloquialisms in...
I think that most likely the conference stays together and we just forfeit our autobid until a Illinois or Indiana can slide up. The B1G teams should be good enough that we would still get 2-3 bids on a yearly basis regardless of any auto-bids
Or they could possibly add Miami (OH) as a one-sport member
If the Big Ten kicks out PSU, I will eat a lemon.
with an army of cyborg vampire wolverines and seize control of UND, installing Ragnafang the Unforgettable on their Board of Trustees in charge of our puppet regime, then re-align the school with the B10.