College hockey conference craziness

I look forward to the potential Fairbanks/Huntsville trips...

 

A prime program to help it fetch a better TV contract with NESN, given how its contract expired this past season? Rivalries between a Catholic school and Boston-based schools, including Boston College, which has always been a traditional rival?

On the surface, I would think a private, Catholic school like Notre Dame has far more in common with Hockey East schools than it does with its options out west.

 

Star...you must have missed the memo... six of those teams have a new conference for themselves (announcement upcoming in mere hours actually)...the "leftovers" right now are Western Mich, the Alaska schools, BG and Lake State. Many outlets reporting NMU a done deal to the WCHA...CCHA is going to be the scrap heap in need of 3 spare parts to make an auto-bid league (probably Niagara, Mercyhurst and Ala.-Hunts.). Only 2 if Western Mich. doesn't go to this new league (my guess is it will be called something like MidWest Hockey Association - the MWHA).

 

On that front, yes, a slam-dunk.

But the logistics, in a sport which loses money for all but a handful of schools, seem insurmountable.

 

Notre Dame is opening a new, beautiful hockey-only arena this all. They expect hockey to become a big time sport for them. They aren't going to fill that place trotting in the rejects from the WCHA/CCHA.

 

The program that Joe Juneau built or the Ratings Percentage Index?

 

Yes to A, yes to B, but only the part that it was Adam Oates.

 

Actually, I defer that credit to Mike Addesa ... until that whole Graeme Townshend incident.

But without the Ratings Pctg. Index, the Pairwise is rendered inefficient.

 

Just last season ...

--Boston College traveled to Denver and Notre Dame.
--Boston U. traveled to St. Louis.
--Maine traveled to Michigan State and Estero, Fla.
--Merrimack traveled to Alabama Huntsville.
--Northeastern traveled to Notre Dame, Michigan and the Twin Cities.
--Providence traveled to Minnesota Duluth, Alabama Huntsville and New Brunswick.
--UMass traveled to Minnesota and Wisconsin.
--UNH traveled to Miami.
--Vermont traveled to St. Lawrence.

So nine teams in the conference had at least one significant trip, and five of those had at least two. Only UMass-Lowell didn't stray too far -- Princeton was the furthest it went.

Even with a road trip to Notre Dame, I would think cash-strapped schools could plan for it. Stay close to home in years they visit South Bend and schedule one big trip during years the Irish come to your place. Besides, Hockey East is such a regional conference as it is, it can probably absorb an outlier like Notre Dame and still be OK with budgets.

And if Hockey East gets a much better TV deal from NESN in part because Notre Dame does join, that would only help those schools even more.

 

College hockey is not going to become a big-money TV sport.

On ventures like the Big Ten Network, it will be a wintertime schedule-filler around king basketball. It may be a break-even proposition in terms of revenue.

It will remain popular in limited geographic pockets. Only a dozen or so schools draw well enough at the gate to generate substantial ticket revenues.

The schools seeking to play D-I hockey need to form tightly-geographically-based leagues for simple conservation of travel costs.

(The Alaska schools throw this whole idea into a cocked hat, but their aspirations to D-I sports are not the problem of the other 58 (or so) schools in the nation. Whatever leagues they want to join, it should be on the unconditional basis that they assume every shiny dime of travel costs incurred by ANYBODY.)

Notre Dame may have delusions of greater grandeur than playing Western Michigan and Ferris State, but they can't play Michigan every night. Or, of course, they could always join the Big Ten.

I suspect, much to their own surprise, if ND hockey suddenly becomes a headline wintertime gate attraction, it will be largely at the expense of ND basketball.

 

National Collegiate Hockey Conference, The NCHC.

Just rolls off the tongue, eh? *slaps forehead*

 

The Big Ten should consider extending a hockey-only invite to Notre Dame (I know, never would happen), or at least work out an interlocking schedule. It'd benefit both parties.