Big 10 is awful for the people in here Minnesota. They hate the schedule. They long for playing their old foes and nobody goes to the games. The Big10 tourney was empty
With you 100% and loud and clear. Meanwhile the homers on here, certainly saying this lightheartedly because I'm one of a small minority that would love UConn fully in the BIG, get to boast about Hockey East's dominance, which I guarantee is cyclical. Honestly, I prefer strong conferences West to East. The college game is at it's best when powers from the east meet the west for all the stakes.
At least two things going right for Hockey East that got ditched for BIG hockey: traditional rivals & intimate road trips (many in the same state). In the end, the real, all time powerful conference (The WCHA) pretty much became a B league - will find this fact disappointing for the rest of my life, same goes for the demise of the Old Big East.
I could care less about partial membership, ND will help, but more for the Michigan schools, OSU and PSU. We'll see in a few years. I'm tired of going ballistic on BIG Hockey and how it really did no favors for Minnesota & Wisconsin, formerly proud WCHA members. In it's young age (BIG Hockey) we've already made one NC game in this time frame, only to yield another unexpected loss. But road trips absolutely blow
This year, we're sitting home, not because of the mediocre BIG opponents, but because we got our butts kicked by our former WCHA mates and our in-state rivals owned us. Lastly, throw in an underachieving coach who created a culture of caring more about his NHL production than winning NCs - well there you go - Gopher Hockey at a dismal low. But hey now, at least our women win.