Looks like Memphis to Big East

[whaler11]

Quebec and Winnipeg do have more hardcore hockey fans. We may be sandwiched between Boston and New York. But the NHL and their fans don't forget we are the largest market without a pro sports franchise. The NHL or NBA would work wonders here, with the NHL more likely to come. Had the Whalers been better managed, they would have stayed.

The NHL has made it clear they want no part of Hartford on many occasions. The NHL won't put a team in Hamilton to protect Buffalo and Toronto, so you can't really just brush off Boston and New York. The NBA wouldn't put a team in Hartford in 10,000 years.

Winnipeg built a building on spec - do you think that is going to happen here? You can't even think about the NHL without a state of the art arena. Hartford is moving further away from the NHL, not closer.

 

[zls44]

Who expected a franchise back in Winnipeg?

Everyone who follows the league.

 

[junglehusky]

you guys serious about lowering standards for athletes? I can't tell if certain people are being serious or sarcastic and it's a bit worrisome. UConn is still an institution of higher learning, and seeing as I have an undergraduate and graduate degree from there, I'd like to see those as continue to rise in prestige, not be sullied at an attempt to get into a better conference. I'm all for high admission standards. You can't make grades in high school? How are you going to do that in college?

UConn's admissions department wants the best applicants it can get. And I'm not talking about athletes. Honors kids, valedictorians... there was a period where every year the number of HS valedictorians who enrolled at UConn went up, and every year it was part of a press release. Admissions would looooove for UConn to be in the same league as UVA/UNC or Wisconsin/Michigan since those are some of the schools those kids like to apply for. A few sports columnists might make a stink about changing conferences but believe me, joining the ACC or the B10 wouldn't hurt UConn's reputation, it would only help.

 

[AJC88]

UConn's admissions department wants the best applicants it can get. And I'm not talking about athletes. Honors kids, valedictorians... there was a period where every year the number of HS valedictorians who enrolled at UConn went up, and every year it was part of a press release. Admissions would looooove for UConn to be in the same league as UVA/UNC or Wisconsin/Michigan since those are some of the schools those kids like to apply for. A few sports columnists might make a stink about changing conferences but believe me, joining the ACC or the B10 wouldn't hurt UConn's reputation, it would only help.

I think you are misinterpreting what I was saying. I was commenting about the people on this thread who were insinuating that to play with the big boys we need to act more like an SEC team and accept partial qualifiers.

 

[junglehusky]

Ah. I kind of glossed over the first sentence in your post which led to the misinterpretation. Also I've been hanging out with my friend Mr. Jack Daniels. (just for a bit).

 

[mattp]

Quebec and Winnipeg do have more hardcore hockey fans. We may be sandwiched between Boston and New York. But the NHL and their fans don't forget we are the largest market without a pro sports franchise. The NHL or NBA would work wonders here, with the NHL more likely to come. Had the Whalers been better managed, they would have stayed.

when you consider how bad they were on the ice, attendance was amazing. if they could have managed the playoffs every 3 years or so the place would have been sold out.