I have to profess a little bewilderment at this entire thread.  First, OUR game?
I always thought of myself as a fan of a great sport who was fortunate enough
to make contact with others who are more involved in college hockey than I.
Somehow I don't see Hockey-l taking out ownership of college hockey, now or in
the future.  Maybe we could buy out the Illinois-Chicago franchise though. :-)
 
The point of my response is that all this talk about a super conference for
college hockey seems ridiculous.  How many big schools are there?  I count six
(Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Boston College,
UMass--OK I'm not a math major.)  That leaves how many schools--20, 25 small
schools?  And these small schools will then support this super conference of the
TV elite?  And the big schools will provide all the fans to fill the stands
for the phinal phour (tell that to Maine, Vermont, RPI, adn the rest who have
strong fan contingents).
 
At these big schools hockey isn't even the major spectator port, with the
exception of Minnesota.  Even hockey mad Wisconsin was more excited about its
recent success at basketball, and of course football.  I can't imagine these
seven schools providing a base from which college hockey would grow.  I don't
even think they would want to.
 
You can look at the success that certain small schools hav with their programs
the Maines, the LSSU's, to see that big isn't necessarily best in college
hockey.  And the opportunity to perform on national TV certainly isn't a major
reason why a recruit would elect to attend a Big School.  One can consider all
the basics in running a good program, coaching, tradition, (gasp!) educational
opportunities, as strong drawing points for the potential recruit.  In fact
playing on national TV would seem to have negligable appeal-who would actually
be watching other than your family, friends and Hockey-l?
 
I'm a big proponent of growing college hockey, at least to the point where it
registers on the ESPN Richter (Mike, Barry) Scale.
 
But re-painting the sport to showcase the Big Seven--clearly a non-starter.
********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                         RPI Engineers--Who Knows About Next Year
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