UA-59049186-1 What's Going On Misses The CCHA - Good if it Goes

What’s Going On Misses The CCHA

Notre Dame is going to be leaving Hockey East and joining the Big Ten in hockey for the 2017-18 season. Yes, it would be better if Notre Dame was joining the conference for all sports, including football. (Especially if this was paired with kicking Rutgers out of the conference.) HOWEVA, let’s take what we can get here. Right now, the Big Ten is a six-team hockey conference where half the teams should be firing their coaches this off-season. (Wisconsin already has, Michigan State and Ohio State should follow suit.)

When the Big Ten first announced their decision to compete in hockey, I thought it was great. The idea of having four traditional powers (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan State) in the same conference was exciting. Penn State has built a nice program. And Ohio State, well, they try. Sort of. But at this point, it’s hard to not miss the CCHA.

As far as further expansion goes, here are a few teams that I’ve either seen mentioned or I think would make sense:

UConn

I’m not a fan of the idea of bringing them in, unless it’s a trade for Rutgers. UConn would bring something to the conference in basketball and at least wouldn’t be any worse in football. As far as hockey goes, well, they were 44th in the Pairwise this year, which was better than Michigan State and only slightly worse than Wisconsin *shakes fist at MSU and Wisconsin*. They’re at least preferable to…

Arizona State

I know they need a conference, but no. Just…no. Let them be someone’s else’s problem. I don’t care how badly the Big Ten needs teams this would be a horrible idea. Like Penn State, they’re a young program. Unlike Penn State, who’s located in an area where people are interested in hockey, they’re located in the desert, where the Coyotes are 29th in the NHL in attendance. Jason Rubinstein thinks ASU’s going to end up in the Big Ten. Brian Cook is against it. My guess would be that they’re both right – ASU ends up in the conference, but absolutely shouldn’t. Yes, scheduling with a seven-team conference can get a little tricky, but scheduling difficulties are greatly preferable to bringing in ASU to be hockey Rutgers. Like, the only nice thing about Rutgers is that they don’t have a hockey team and aren’t dragging the rest of the conference down in that sport, too. Anyway, next year will be ASU’s first playing a fully NCAA schedule. I have a hard time imagining it going well.

Ferris State, Miami, Bowling Green, Western Michigan

Former CCHA members. Would prefer Ferris State slightly to the other three.

North Dakota

This is probably not going to happen, but it should. a) It would be a lot of fun. b) It would be more exposure for North Dakota. From Brian’s blog:

Despite being perennially one of college hockey’s best teams, just four North Dakota games were on national TV this year.

That should be the pitch here: “We have a network.” That network needs to work on airing more games, though. There’s the main network, an alternate channel, and BTN2Go online. I have a hard time believing they couldn’t make more games available for free.

As far as one of the other full members of the conference starting a program goes, none of them seem particularly likely. Brian Cook looked at this a while back; he’s already said some of what I’m going to say. Anyway, here’s my ranking, from most likely to least likely.

  1. Iowa. Coralville, Iowa is looking into building an arena large enough to accommodate a college hockey team. The arena would be just two miles from Iowa’s campus and Iowa can afford to start a program. It seems pretty likely to me that they could get fans to show up.
  2. Northwestern. Chicago’s become great hockey city, thanks in part (a pretty sizable part) to the Blackhawks’ current run. Northwestern doesn’t currently have a building that could accommodate a team and would need someone to pony up a lot of money to build one, though if they really wanted to start a program, they could play at either the Allstate Arena or the United Center, both about a half-hour, give or take, from the Northwestern campus. Is college hockey in buildings like that ideal? Nope. Far from it, actually.
  3. Nebraska. There’s already an arena in Lincoln and their basketball facility could accommodate one as well. The Ice Box, with a capacity of a little over 4,000, would probably be just fine, though, and Nebraska probably couldn’t fill their basketball arena for hockey games anyway. Seems like a great fit, right? Well, their AD has said he doesn’t plan on adding hockey. *shakes fist at Nebraska’s AD*
  4. Indiana. They already have a decently popular ACHA team and if they really wanted to add a program, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that Mark Cuban could be their Terry Pegula. Back to the popularity thing, though. It’s one thing to be a somewhat popular club team. It’s another to be drawing multiple thousands for an NCAA D-I game. Can they do it in such a basketball-crazed city? Dunno.
  5. Illinois. Replace “Mark Cuban” with “Shad Khan” and you’re pretty close. I’m not sure what kind of crowds their club team draws, though their arena seats about 2,000. However, the ice sheet is 197’x115’. I have no idea why. If they did try to play in that building (probably a bit small), they would have to re-work it for a 200’ rink. As far as the width goes, that’s their call, but the max is 100’.
  6. Purdue. They’re too cheap to fix their football program, they’re not going to start a hockey program. Even if they did, they’d do it halfway, like they do everything else.
  7. Maryland. Was broke before joining the conference.
  8. Rutgers. Is Rutgers. *shakes fist at Jim Delany*

Looking at the list, Iowa is a “maybe”, everyone else is just varying degrees of “probably not gonna happen.” Please get someone who’s actually a hockey guy to run this conference.

And kick Rutgers out.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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