USCHO: Notre Dame Hockey to B1G in 2017
Have to think this means someone else in the conference is starting a program?
http://www.uscho.com/2016/03/22/sources-notre-dame-leaving-hockey-east-…
Yeah, idiots. Why don't they join the ACC hockey conference? If one doesn't exist, tough shit.
But seriously I agree that this is a bit ridiculous. They're trying to sneak in the big ten through the back door.
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I'd take Notre Dame if it meant we could kick out Rutgers.
March 23rd, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
The ACC doesn't have hockey so the answer should be tough shit. Notre Dame should either join the big ten or not, fuck letting them in for one sport.
"To HELL with Notre Dame"
~Bo Schembechler
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This would be stupid if they let ND join for just one sport. One of the biggest strengths of the Big Ten is nobody getting special treatment. If they want to be an east coast school, let them be an east coast school. For all sports.
But after Rutgers, I wouldn't put anything past Delaney.
There's already a precedent - Johns Hopkins.
I didn't like that one either because that set a precedent for moves like this, but at least Hopkins is D3 in most sports with the one glaring exception that needed a landing spot. ND would be a great addition to the Big Ten in most sports, but they only want to join when it's convenient for them.
March 23rd, 2016 at 12:56 AM ^
Or when, you know, Michigan whines and keeps them out. Twice.
Johns Hopkins is in the Big Ten for all sports where they participate at the D1 level. It's just that that's only one sport. Hopkins is clearly a special case. Having them play Big Ten basketball or football would be an absolute bloodbath and wouldn't be good for anybody involved.
ND is not a special case. There is no reason for them to be in different conferences for different sports. So you picked the ACC as your conference and they don't have a hockey league? Tough shit. Shoulda thought about that before. Either join the league or don't.
to see the writing on the wall and this is the first foot in the Big Ten door...ND is going to have a very difficult time getting into the CFP without being in a conferenence. Remember the Committee has said repeatedly they value conference champions above all other criteria
One would hope. I imagine playing in the ACC is a logistical pain for every sport that's not football and men's basketball because of the budget.
ND would have been in the playoff this last year had someone covered that Stanford TE in the dying seconds. Frankly if you aren't undefeated or a 1 loss team you really don't deserve to be in it at all.
I wish the Big Ten had told them no, but okay--here we are. I don't think the Big Ten will keep the league at 7, though, so I have to imagine that somebody will end up being the 8th member of the league, and I think Arizona State is a likely guess--they are the only independent in hockey.
An 8-team league gives you a perfect 28-game conference schedule and also a first round playoff at home sites. I think 8 is just the right size for a college hockey conference.
Adam Wodon tweeted that he talked to ASU and they are in the final stages of working out details to join a conference. That it is "down to 2."
Seems obvious that this means the B1G and the NCHC. Whether this was the key move to convince them to join the B1G or not, I don't know. NCHC does have, in the Colorado schools, a couple of opponents that are significantly closer than the rest of the college hockey world.
doesnt excite me one way or the other...the very sound of it in the BIG just seems odd but whatever..Really wish these other BIG schools would get on board and start playing Hockey...I mean WTF? Nebraska? Iowa? Indiana NW? Ill? I mean you are in a hockey hotbead area get on BOARD...I will always needle them saying you are not a TRUE Big Ten School unless you have a hockey team...Nebraska fans hate that
Nebraska can't play hockey. There was some sort of agreement a long time ago that Nebraska-Lincoln got the football team and Nebraska-Omaha got the hockey team.
Do you have a reference for that? I never heard that.
I have no sources so I don't know if it's true or if it's echo chamber, but I had heard that in exchange for some budget cuts in UNO's athletic department (including football?) that UNL would let UNO be the only Nebraska hockey team
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But with the NCHC at 8 teams, I would wonder if talk of ASU to the NCHC is a signal that the NCHC is expecting to lose a team to the Big Ten.
So logic and guesswork get us here: the Big Ten has offered an NCHC team, and if they say yes to the B1G, the NCHC will take Arizona State, while if the NCHC team says no to the B1G, the B1G then takes Arizona State.
So who would that be? I assume we can throw out Colorado College & Denver right away. St Cloud & Minnesota-Duluth seem unlikely as well, although Minnesota might lobby for them. Western Michigan & Miami also seem unlikely--the Big Ten doesn't need to associate with the MAC, and wouldn't see that as helpful for their image. So that leaves us with North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha. I assume we can reject Nebraska-Omaha (Nebraska would likely exercise a veto even though they don't have a hockey team). So...North Dakota to the B1G?
(NOTE: this is all wild speculation, and not based on anything I know or anything I have heard).
for an affiliate membership. The do offer a lot of tradition and the biggest following in college hockey plus natural rivalries with Minnesota and Wisconsin (to a lesser degree). Not much from the academic or TV market side, but for hockey it's as big a name as they come
Plus, given Ohio State's apathy for hockey, the Big Ten could use a large mouth breathing fanbase to fill the gap that OSU resides in for football and MSU for basketball
NCHC isn't the other conference.
The implication there being it's between the BTCH and the WCHA? Sure seems like we'll see ASU in the Big Ten soon enough if that's the case
March 22nd, 2016 at 10:32 PM ^
I get it ---- the primary rationale in expansion any more is to "grow the Big Ten Network", and now Delany and the school Presidents can make their case for BTN being on basic cable in the Desert Southwest.
I'd feel a bit better about this if Phoenix were more of a proven hockey market. The Coyotes blame their arena for their poor attendance: the arena is "too far away in Glendale." I frankly think that is crap. Yes the Phoenix Metro area sprawls like crazy, but their arena is not THAT far away, it is right next to the Arizona Cardinals stadium and it's only 15 miles away from Chase Field in downtown Phoenix (using Chase Field as a proxy for the center of the Metro area).
Reportedly ASU and the Coyotes are thinking about building a joint-arena in Tempe. I guess that's good for ASU, although I doubt it really helps the Coyotes' long-term (ASU itself is 11 miles away from Chase Field). But does ASU hockey eventually become another Ohio State hockey? Big arena, sizeable market, but a fanbase with only tepid long-term interest in hockey because hockey just isn't highly ingrained into the local culture?
March 22nd, 2016 at 11:41 PM ^
March 23rd, 2016 at 12:49 AM ^
Unless they want to play in a conference tournament with better attendance.
(a) The Big Ten has better attendance for their conference tournament than the WCHA, or at least they did this year. Dismal either way, but the Big Ten's was better for both the semifinals and the final.
(b) Why the hell would they care about that anyway? It's not like the teams get a cut of the conference tournament money (that money goes to the conference directly). They only care about what teams bring more fans into their own arena.
I guess I can see how Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin would be no more attractive than Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State-Mankato, Ferris State, Bowling Green, Alabama-Huntsville and Alaska...wait. No, I can't.
College Hockey News reporting the same re: Notre Dame, so this appears to be happening.
Fuck ND....wish they would pass a rule in football that you have to play in a conference championship game to be considered eligible. Do like most everyone else or go fuck yourself.
While I'm ranting, let's have four conferences in football with two divisions of ten teams so we can go back to the old Big Ten, have the winners of each division play for the conference championships and have the four winners play in a four team playoff (really an eight team playoff).
Fun to bring back the rivalry.
Are we cool enough for Notre Dame now that their hockey program needs a home?
I imagine they realized playing in a New England league was crappy for all involved. Fanbase, parents, students travel all sucks more. They can just about bus trip the whole Big Ten. They fit into Hockey East about as well as they fit into the ACC now
This must mean Rutgers to the curb and ND to the B1G for all sports. There. Fixed.
There's little doubt the Big Ten would love to do that.
FANS want to do this, but if you think the CONFERENCE powers want to dump Rutgers, well, you're off base. By a mile.
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