NCAA Hockey Expansion Thread

[CrazyEddie20]

I feel sorry for the kids that Rubber Stamp Ricky convinced they'd be playing real college hockey in the fall of '22.

I bet the school won't have raised the money next year either and the can gets kicked further down the road.

Even the St. Charles Chill and their shill Randall Ritchey were more believable than Zombo and Company.

 

[JMCx4]

I feel sorry for the kids that Rubber Stamp Ricky convinced they'd be playing real college hockey in the fall of '22. ...

Life lessons have value, too. Like: "Never trust a 58 year-old with a bad salt 'n' pepper hairdo."

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Life lessons have value, too. Like: "Never trust a 58 year-old with a bad salt 'n' pepper hairdo."

Nothing that requires millions of dollars is ever just a rubber stamp away.

 

[JMCx4]

Nothing that requires millions of dollars is ever just a rubber stamp away.

That's why some of us sit in the stands, others of us stand behind the bench, and still others keep the ink pad fresh.

 

[Ridge1982]

Are the two of you done now ?

 

[JMCx4]

Depends. Great product.

 

[Ridge1982]

Something might be included about hockey in the overall announcement, although I would expect it to be a separate announcement when it would happen. The hockey timeline has been set back, about a year. So that would be a timeline of 23-24 for full NCAA play rather than next season as originally intended.

Is it true that the men's hockey program funding was pulled ?

 

[mk80]

Is it true that the men's hockey program funding was pulled ?

Edit: I’ve seen and heard some confusion about what the status of hockey is and some complaining it wasn’t mentioned in the OVC announcement, though to be fair I didn’t expect it in the OVC announcement.

I haven’t heard anything official, but there might be something to it.

 

[Ridge1982]

Ugh, if true then that’s embarrassing for LU.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Ugh, if true then that’s embarrassing for LU.

If true, sure it's embarrassing, but in the end, Lindenwood did it to itself. They pumped up how they were going to have Division I hockey. They recruited players on the promise of real Division I college hockey in the 2022-23 season. Zombo went to the media and pushed a narrative that the athletic administration was on board and that "all they needed was a rubber stamp."

Is it that big of a PR crisis for the school and its athletics department? Outside of the couple hundred people who care enough about college hockey to want to see meaningful and successful growth of the Division I college game, those who have kids playing at LU who thought they were going get to play real college hockey or were being recruited there, and Zombo's reputation among the coaches of teams he was recruiting from, probably not. They're going to get a bigger PR bounce out of being the sole Division I (ok, Division I FCS) football program in Metro St. Louis than the hit they'll take from this potential fiasco.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

I'd be interested to know if the donations made to Lindenwood for hockey had an agreement that if they decided not to start a real college hockey program, they could be used for any purpose the athletic department saw fit.

That the school, the boosties, and Zombo have been radio silent isn't surprising. Apparently, the school won't return journalists' inquiries regarding a move to NCAA Division I hockey.

And people outside the program are catching on:



That's the sister of Caige Sterzer, who 11 months ago was being trumpeted as a big Division I recruit for Lindenwood.

Lone Star forward Sterzer makes NCAA DI commitment

 

[CrazyEddie20]

If you skip ahead to roughly the 30-minute mark of this guy's podcast (available on apple podcasts without a paywall), Wachler discusses the possible addition of a real college hockey program.

Surprise, surprise: They don't have the money, and Wachler says as much. The interest in moving forward is there, but the money isn't. "Hockey is very expensive sport, and it's a sport that requires us to generate some fundraising dollars to be able to support that moving forward... yes, it is still our intention to move forward, but the timeline is undetermined."

I'm sure those recruits who relied on Rubber Stamp Ricky's word that they'd be playing NCAA Division I hockey in the Fall of '22 are really happy to hear that.

 

[JMCx4]

... I'm sure those recruits who relied on Rubber Stamp Ricky's word that they'd be playing NCAA Division I hockey in the Fall of '22 are really happy to hear that.

They can't afford to climb the paywall to hear it.

 

[mk80]

Essentially Brad's answer says what has always been the case regarding the LU hockey effort: Pending the completion of the fundraising the university will add the the team to the NCAA side of the athletic department. The bolded part of that is the part that has always been important. Good to hear him say it's still a work in progress, and he does make the point of saying the overall D1 move and the hockey move are separate from one another which I suspected anyway. But overall they didn't hit the original 22-23 goal for the first full season of play as some of the expected donors had tightened up the wallets as they were/are in their pandemic recovery.

I'm not sure specifically how much they have in donations for it, but I know they are not at 0 either.

It's still a matter of when not if for LU is the takeaway that can be had from Wachler's interview. But they made the mistake of going for a 21-22 timeline without everything in place for it.

 

[SemireliableSource]

They can't afford to climb the paywall to hear it.

No paywall for the podcast. You can find it pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts and don't need to subscribe to Extra Points.

 

[mk80]

They can't afford to climb the paywall to hear it.

See if this link for the episode on apple podcasts works, it should get you around the paywall
‎Going for Two: Moving up to D1 with Lindenwood AD Brad Wachler on Apple Podcasts

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Essentially Brad's answer says what has always been the case regarding the LU hockey effort: Pending the completion of the fundraising the university will add the the team to the NCAA side of the athletic department. The bolded part of that is the part that has always been important. Good to hear him say it's still a work in progress, and he does make the point of saying the overall D1 move and the hockey move are separate from one another which I suspected anyway. But overall they didn't hit the original 22-23 goal for the first full season of play as some of the expected donors had tightened up the wallets as they were/are in their pandemic recovery.

For example a certain adult beverage company decided not commit to donating $10 million over the next 4 years as a result of the cuts they made from the pandemic, and said to ask again later. Had they got that donation alone that would have been double the total goal for the fundraising effort.

I'm not sure specifically how much they have in donations for it, but I know they are not at 0 either.

It's still a matter of when not if for LU is the takeaway that can be had from Wachler's interview. But they made the mistake of going for a 21-22 timeline without everything in place for it.

It's a matter of 'if' until the money is in Lindenwood's bank accounts - then it becomes a matter of 'when.' Not before.

Either way, they're a long way away, and it sure sounds like Rubber Stamp Rick defrauded some recruits.

 

[SemireliableSource]

Yeah, finally got a chance to listen to that episode of the podcast and it sounds like Zombo needs to get to schmoozing some big money donors or get better at separating them from their money. Wachler made it sound like they either have a road map to get the funds or the additional money needed is already lined up for the D1 jump but that wasn't the case for the men's hockey program.

 

[Ridge1982]

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

We have already seen this kind of tweet in the past, I believe it was Strickland himself who said it.

We have also seen it from reputable sources like Buccigross with Illinois.

I'll believe it when I see the official announcement and not a second before

 

[sbkbghockey]

Apparently Stickland referenced the unexpected (Suspicious) AD change that happened on Friday. It does seem like we suspected that the old AD wasn't going to roadblock hockey but also wasn't going to go out and get it. Through LU's growth form the 1990s to now, and unlike many universities, LU doesn't fund projects with debt and/or tap univ endowment, they fund projects first. Sticklands tweets go deeper, it sounds like, after the AD change, the LU Pres stepped in and secured all or most of the needed fundraising:

 

[Ridge1982]

Satisfied ?

 

[CrazyEddie20]

That's great if it's true - Strickland doesn't have the best record when it comes to this.

I do wonder, however, if they're just going ahead with it without the a lot of the funding in place. It's going to be far more expensive for Lindenwood to add Division I hockey than say, LIU, which can do almost all of its travel within the Northeast by bus. Lindenwood won't have that financial luxury - those 8-10 hour bus rides add up over the course of a season.

I suspect Wachler was slow-rolling hockey for financial reasons. Athletic departments generally run at break-even or a loss, and often, the role of an AD is to raise enough funds for athletics to break even. No AD is going to add a money-loser to the budget when they already lose money. Considering that they started a women's hockey program and have done absolutely nothing to ensure that it's competitive, I hope that adding Division I men's hockey is done the right way - meaning that they fully fund 18 scholarships and build a winning program, rather than make a PR move that winds up being a financial liability. I'm not holding my breath.

Secondly, the school undoubtedly knows the count when it comes to Title IX. Lindenwood is fantastically disproportionate (as are most schools) when it comes to male vs. female athletic opportunities. As I explained earlier in this thread, adding another male sport (or cutting a female sport) when you have a disproportion of opportunity invites a lawsuit, and so they'd better have their ducks in a row when it comes to proving that they can pass the three-point test.

 

[S E P H]

Strickland is bad, he keeps issuing all these NHL trade rumours concerning other teams that are not named the Blues and have been entirely wrong on 95% of them. He might be a reliable source when it comes to Missouri-based stuff, but there are reasons why he hasn't been trusted.

 

[SemireliableSource]

He may be wrong but a place like CHN putting something out (even if they are citing solely Strickland's reporting) a full day after his tweets leads me to believe they have at least somewhat confirmed this.