Please note in my response that I said that hockey may be in a SMALL WAY approaching basketball only in the sense that a weaker conference is joining the D-1 ranks en masse. (Hockey has a long way to go before it begins to approach basketball in national popularity.) I see nothing wrong with that.  Certainly some of these teams may ultimately abandon D-1 hockey.  Clearly they won't be very competitive initially.  But ultimately some will be and some will upset more established teams, including in the NCAA's.  It certainly doesn't hurt hockey to have some schools attempting to raise the level of their programs. I only wish other schools would begin to establish varsity programs (e.g., Illinois, Penn State, Syracuse or some West Coast teams). But, I recognize that it is unlikely to happen.  On the other hand as womens hockey gains in popularity perhaps some schools will choose to establish mens and womens varsity teams.  I can always hope.
 
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