At great risk of being burned at the stake ---
Hockey will not expand until it breaks the paradigm. To do that, The Powers
That Be must decide if they want to be a (primarily) Northern USA niche
sport or a national sport. If it is to be a National Sport, it has to get
more name recognition schools in the game and in the tournament. What
happened in last year's tournament was nice, but that needs to be a one-off
and get the name schools back in there.
It's real nice that UNO and BSU are now in the WCHA, but they're going to be
bottom dwellers for the foreseeable future, and unless they catch lightning
in a bottle come tournament time, they have no shot whatsoever of making the
NCAA tournament. Ditto for UAH assuming they get accepted into the CCHA.
And frankly, the ECAC is now like the Ivy League in basketball - primarily a
one and done league. So just like all the other college sports, there are
the perennial sharks and the perennial minnows and TV just wants to see the
sharks come the post season.
To that end I am being Curtis LeMay on this - blow it all up and start anew
with only D-1 schools qualifying for the D-1 tournament. D-I will be down
to 34 teams, which means the best we can hope for is 8 teams to make the
tournament - I doubt the NCAA will stretch the access ratios to get to 12 or
keep it at 16. They'll be 4 at large berths divided up between the HWA and
HEA. I can't see the ECAC or Ivy getting more than one bid. So, here we
are:
NCAA Division 1:
Hockey West (10 teams can grow 2 more) -- Denver*, North Dakota*,
Wisconsin*, Minnesota*, Michigan*, Michigan State*, Notre Dame*, Bowling
Green, Miami (OH)*, Ohio State
Hockey East (9 teams - can grow 3) -- Maine* BC*, BU*, Northeastern,
Providence, Massachusetts, Vermont*, New Hampshire*, Connecticut
ECAC League (9/3): Air Force, Army, Holy Cross, Sacred Heart, Colgate,
Quinnipiac, Niagara, Canisius, Robert Morris
Ivy League(6/2): Brown, Cornell*, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale
NCAA Division 2:
East: AIC, Bentley, Mercyhurst, Lowell, Merrimack, + 6 DII playing D3
West: Alaska, AK-Anchorage, Ferris State, Lake Superior, Nebraska - Omaha,
Western Michigan, Alabama - Huntsville, Bemidji*, Michigan Tech,
MSU-Mankato, UM-Duluth*, St. Cloud St., Colorado Coll* (they're going to
have to move up, sorry, but D-III doesn't exist out there, but they'll keep
the scholarships).
NCAA Division 3
Clarkson, St. Lawrence*, RPI, Union, RIT + 72 more
The * schools have made the Frozen Four since 2000
Having gotten rid of the no-names, there is a stronger possiblity of a
national TV contract (Yea, who am I kidding). Maybe E$PN, maybe the NHL
network, but they will have name recognition schools to work with. As much
as I love Clarkson, we are not a well known school outside of the hockey
world. Who would care if we were on National TV? Would the casual fan,
who has no knowledge of college hockey. tune into see Clarkson - SLU? But
put Michigan vs. BC on, and BOOM! instant name recognition and you may draw
the casual fan in. You could even do a Hockey East vs. Hockey West shootout
where we have schools travel across the country to take on their
counterparts on a weekend. Instant made for TV events!
You can talk all you want about traditions, but when the gold talks,
tradition has a way of being squeezed out. My only concern is that some
schools have arenas that were designed for D-I and now they will be in D-II
or D-III. They may have a lot of excess capacity on their hands. In fact,
CC probably has the most to lose in this scenario. Their natural rivals are
up in Division I and I do not think CC wants to go all the way up there.
The Denver and USAFA games were sell outs. Will UNO or the Alaskas tickle
the fancy of the folks around Colorado Springs?
What schools may jump in? One criteria is that you have to have your own
rink. Rent-a-rink teams must be the primary tenant with their own locker
room / shower facilities. So let's try Iowa State and Illinois to HW, Rhode
Island and/or Penn State to HEA, Navy to the ECAC, and Columbia and Penn to
the Ivy League.
I will now don my asbestos suit and be prepared for the flames.
Joe LaCour
CCT '77 & '78
PS, this really destroys D-I women's hockey.
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