Irony of Ironies

[Whale22]

The long neglected hockey team is the only program with a clear, bright possibly exciting future. Joining the best college hockey conference out there. Who would have thought just 5 years ago someone told you UConn hockey would be Hockey East and there was no more Big East? Still remember waking up after that Iowa St loss hearing Cuse and Pitt were gone. Something about that am told you it was beginning of the end.

 

[upstater]

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

One Big Ten team in the top 25.

Just one.

WOW.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Unless Football and Basketball find a home who's going to finance this Hockey experiment.

 

[kingdobbs]

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

One Big Ten team in the top 25.

Just one.

WOW.

Yeah, three of the "Big four" of the future B1G hockey are having rather poor years, and Ohio State is good but not great (which is par for the course for Buckeye hockey).

They will not be a supremely dominant league in the alignment of 2013-14 and beyond. Good, yes. Potentially the top league nationwide, yes. But Hockey East and the NCHC will be yearly challengers for that (under this year's results, HEA with 4 of the top 6 is clearly the #1 going into the halfway point).

 

[Mr Blueskin]

Yeah, three of the "Big four" of the future B1G hockey are having rather poor years, and Ohio State is good but not great (which is par for the course for Buckeye hockey).

They will not be a supremely dominant league in the alignment of 2013-14 and beyond. Good, yes. Potentially the top league nationwide, yes. But Hockey East and the NCHC will be yearly challengers for that (under this year's results, HEA with 4 of the top 6 is clearly the #1 going into the halfway point).

Have a very good feeling that the Big Ten Conference will not be staying at just 6 teams...what do you know? Another positive for UConn to help the Big10 with...AAU, Herbst big academic moves, Northeast market to help Rutgers fullfill NY and NE, upgrade in hockey..just be patient everybody.

 

[Gurleyman]

We need more Krygier brothers, pronto.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

 

[kingdobbs]

Have a very good feeling that the Big Ten Conference will not be staying at just 6 teams...what do you know? Another positive for UConn to help the Big10 with...AAU, Herbst big academic moves, Northeast market to help Rutgers fullfill NY and NE, upgrade in hockey..just be patient everybody.

Hockey's an expensive sport to upgrade into, especially if you want to try and play in a league that has four teams which represent about 1/3 of all total championships won, and it only gets harder if you're starting that from square one.

I see zero of the 6 (8 in a few years) remaining B1G teams adding hockey in the next ten years. If anyone joins B1G hockey in that period, it will be from a very short list of BC, Notre Dame, and UConn (the only current D-I hockey programs that have a non-zero chance at a B1G invite, no matter how infinitesimal the actual chance may be). And none of them will be joining the B1G *because of* hockey.

 

[timdawg]

The irony of ironies is that we upgraded in football to protect our basketball programs. And it ended up duck*ing us.

 

[kyleslamb]

Hockey's an expensive sport to upgrade into, especially if you want to try and play in a league that has four teams which represent about 1/3 of all total championships won, and it only gets harder if you're starting that from square one.

I see zero of the 6 (8 in a few years) remaining B1G teams adding hockey in the next ten years. If anyone joins B1G hockey in that period, it will be from a very short list of BC, Notre Dame, and UConn (the only current D-I hockey programs that have a non-zero chance at a B1G invite, no matter how infinitesimal the actual chance may be). And none of them will be joining the B1G *because of* hockey.

Illinois and Indiana both have club teams and have been doing feasibility studies about adding hockey. I will be somewhat surprised if one or both don't add it within the next 3-5 years. It's already been pretty far along in research.

 

[kingdobbs]

Illinois and Indiana both have club teams and have been doing feasibility studies about adding hockey. I will be somewhat surprised if one or both don't add it within the next 3-5 years. It's already been pretty far along in research.

Illinois would be "next most likely" as far as I'm concerned, but Penn State was "next most likely" for something like fifteen years.

I love hockey, but it's not a growth sport at the varsity level. I'll believe any feasibility study means something when there's also a report of a big money donation from an alum to kickstart the program, a la Terry Pegula and PSU.

 

[kyleslamb]

Illinois would be "next most likely" as far as I'm concerned, but Penn State was "next most likely" for something like fifteen years.

I love hockey, but it's not a growth sport at the varsity level. I'll believe any feasibility study means something when there's also a report of a big money donation from an alum to kickstart the program, a la Terry Pegula and PSU.

The Big Ten projections have them adding another $15-20 million in conference revenue over the next 5 seasons. That will go a long way to affording a hockey program, though. Most hockey programs are spending between $800k-$1 mil on hockey in expenses. That, of course, means they'll have to spend about $1.6-$2.0 million because of Title IX. Nonetheless, if the Big Ten comes anywhere close to their projections, there will be no issues starting hockey.

 

[upstater]

The Big Ten projections have them adding another $15-20 million in conference revenue over the next 5 seasons. That will go a long way to affording a hockey program, though. Most hockey programs are spending between $800k-$1 mil on hockey in expenses. That, of course, means they'll have to spend about $1.6-$2.0 million because of Title IX. Nonetheless, if the Big Ten comes anywhere close to their projections, there will be no issues starting hockey.

One thing to consider is that hockey is actually a growth sport in the northeast and midwest. It used to be Eastern Mass. and small pockets of the northeast (Providence, New Haven), and Detroit, Milwaukee, Minnesota. But now, you're seeing a huge jump in numbers everywhere. In Buffalo, where I currently live, there's a hockey mania at the youth level with a 1,000% jump in participation in the last 10 years. Players like Patrick Kane coming out of Buffalo are not a surprise given the numbers that participate and the intensity of the leagues. Even the high schools play in Ontario leagues. The point is, there is room for growth in the northern half of the country. The problem is, more and more kids are opting for junior hockey.