When Will The College Hockey Season Start? | The Boneyard

When Will The College Hockey Season Start?

Here are the HE related tweets from Mike McMahon referenced in the article:

Mike McMahon @MikeMcMahonCHN Aug 28
Some Hockey East tidbits: The league's Return to Play Taskforce has been meeting since early August. The task force consists of medical experts, people in facilities at HEA schools, etc. Basically, everyone is represented. (1/3)

Mike McMahon @MikeMcMahonCHNAug 28
(2/3) The task force, in the following weeks, will provide the athletic directors with some guidance and recommendations. The ADs will then decide the best course for the 2020-21 season.

Mike McMahon @MikeMcMahonCHN Aug 28
(3/3) From what it sounds like, I wouldn't expect anything to start for at least a few months at the earliest. I keep hearing early January. Perhaps the Jan. 8/9 weekend (that's been brought up a few times).
 
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My guess is: January, conference only or conference plus two play*, most schools won’t allow fans in the building.

League by league:
Hockey East - basically already in a Boston metro “bubble”. Unlikely to meaningfully change though they might consider shifting away from home and home scheduling.
ECAC - May consider an “Ivy schedule” and an “Empire plus QU schedule” especially due to my perception that the Ivies are more likely to quit on the season than any other grouping.
Atlantic Hockey: May strongly consider an East and West schedule split to minimize travel.
B1G: Second most likely to just up and cancel.
NCHC: Least likely to change.
WCHA: The CCHA 7 are probably wishing this was the year that they split off instead of next. The league least likely to want conference only scheduling and most likely to be screwed by it.
Independents: Arizona State is hoping there’s not conference only seasons; I think they’ll be able to salvage enough dates in a plus two season. LIU thinks they can start hockey this year but I’m skeptical unless they think they can ally with Atlantic.

IF there’s a tournament, look for them to consider a single site bubble at the Frozen Four site (too bad this isn’t the year the FF is in Boston and they could literally host the whole thing between the four Beanpot schools as “regional” hosts plus the Garden). Conference only play will wreck the metric the NCAA uses for selection, so look for something idiosyncratic for this season only like “all six leagues send two teams automatically, and the four at-larges are basically selected by the committee by the equivalent of throwing darts at team logos”.

*The several conferences will do everything they can to keep the Beanpot and GLI on schedule.
 
I think a bigger question is when will it end. If there is a 2nd wave which some expect around November/December combined with the seasonal flu which is largely being ignored it is entirely possible that play will start in November and end in January.
 
Had to be honest, I thought they would do Ivy and non-Ivy.

I mean it basically is, just with Cornell and Quinnipiac switching sides. But it does seem to confirm that my speculation was somewhat erroneous, that speculation being that if the Ivies cancelled things on their own, the other six might still make a go of things; this suggests to me theres consensus that if the Ivies wouldn’t play, the league is not playing period.

Though with all that being said, I still think there’s a dark horse shot that if the league cancels, Clarkson and St Lawrence say “hey, you just want to play each other every weekend?”
 
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I sort of think that the ECAC plan makes some sense if you play. A different alternative would be scrap leagues entirely for this season and play strictly local as much as possible.
Metro Army Sared Heart QU Yale I91 UCONN UMass VT Holy Cross Northeast Merrimack UNH Maine Bentley. You get the concept.
 
freescooter said:
I sort of think that the ECAC plan makes some sense if you play. A different alternative would be scrap leagues entirely for this season and play strictly local as much as possible.
Metro Army Sared Heart QU Yale I91 UCONN UMass VT Holy Cross Northeast Merrimack UNH Maine Bentley. You get the concept.
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I mean, in all honesty, the Eastern leagues are probably set up well enough to permit regional bubbles that to actually break them up for strict geographical ones is mostly moot.

HE S: NU, BU, BC, PC, UConn, UMA
HE N: Maine, UVM, UNH, UML, Mack

ECAC E: Harv, Dart, Brown, Yale, Qpac, Prin
ECAC w: Corn, Colg, UC, RPI, Clark, SLU(t)

AH E: Army, AIC, HC, Bentley, SHU
AH W: RMU, RIT, Niag, Can, Mercy ( sits fine in either bubble so it’s moot where they actually go).
 
The thing is in New England it is probably feasible to have inter league play with other New England schools. I mean is Yale going to have a weaker testing protocol than Providence? Is the Boston side of the BU Bridge safer than the Cambridge side? Much different for the western leagues though
 
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Unsurprising decision.

I would say it puts out there about a 95% possibility that the ECAC declines to compete as a league. About a 50% chance they do so but allow the other six to compete independently. And a pretty decent but dark horse chance that Clarkson and St Lawrence decide to say “duck it we will just play each other every weekend. It’s what we’ve always wanted to be honest.”
 
kingdobbs said:
Unsurprising decision.

I would say it puts out there about a 95% possibility that the ECAC declines to compete as a league. About a 50% chance they do so but allow the other six to compete independently. And a pretty decent but dark horse chance that Clarkson and St Lawrence decide to say “duck it we will just play each other every weekend. It’s what we’ve always wanted to be honest.”
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Maybe we're see a pair of temporary, Covid-19 hockey leagues this winter as the the survivors join forces each with a relatively compact footprint.

A) Canada South League: 1) St. Lawrence, 2) Clarkson, 3) RPI, 4) Union, 5) Colgate, 6) Canisius, 7) Mercyhurst, 8) Niagara (I believe RIT has already opted-out of the season).
B) Coastal Hockey League: 1) Army, 2) Sacred Heart, 3) Quinnipiac, 4) AIC, 5) Holy Cross, 6) Bentley
 
Mr. Conehead said:
Maybe we're see a pair of temporary, Covid-19 hockey leagues this winter as the the survivors join forces each with a relatively compact footprint.

A) Canada South League: 1) St. Lawrence, 2) Clarkson, 3) RPI, 4) Union, 5) Colgate, 6) Canisius, 7) Mercyhurst, 8) Niagara (I believe RIT has already opted-out of the season).
B) Coastal Hockey League: 1) Army, 2) Sacred Heart, 3) Quinnipiac, 4) AIC, 5) Holy Cross, 6) Bentley
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You can add Robert Morris and LIU (they have a new men's ice hockey program starting this season) into this mix as well.
 
Mr. Conehead said:
Maybe we're see a pair of temporary, Covid-19 hockey leagues this winter as the the survivors join forces each with a relatively compact footprint.

A) Canada South League: 1) St. Lawrence, 2) Clarkson, 3) RPI, 4) Union, 5) Colgate, 6) Canisius, 7) Mercyhurst, 8) Niagara (I believe RIT has already opted-out of the season).
B) Coastal Hockey League: 1) Army, 2) Sacred Heart, 3) Quinnipiac, 4) AIC, 5) Holy Cross, 6) Bentley
Expand ...
What about Air Force?
 
Mr. Conehead said:
Maybe we're see a pair of temporary, Covid-19 hockey leagues this winter as the the survivors join forces each with a relatively compact footprint.

A) Canada South League: 1) St. Lawrence, 2) Clarkson, 3) RPI, 4) Union, 5) Colgate, 6) Canisius, 7) Mercyhurst, 8) Niagara (I believe RIT has already opted-out of the season).
B) Coastal Hockey League: 1) Army, 2) Sacred Heart, 3) Quinnipiac, 4) AIC, 5) Holy Cross, 6) Bentley
Expand ...

Unlikely, for a few reasons.

AH has already booked their schedule for the year and is due to start playing games next weekend (Army and LIU will have a date this weekend even). Some of the teams may have NC dates open, I haven’t scoured their sked to see what’s what, but a full overhaul to “add” these teams isn’t likely at all.

Secondly, the “Empire Six” portion of the ECAC is much closer as a whole to the athletic philosophy of the Ivies. The chance some or all follow the Ivy lead is pretty good, although so is the chance they cancel the ECAC season but allow the teams to schedule independently if they want to continue a season. I put the odds pretty high Quinnipiac does this, and the odds decently high that the NY teams go as a bloc.
 
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