JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
Hey, they got a lotta love for their jersey colors choice from the Barstool Boyz. So they've still got that going for them ... which is nice ...
NCAA Hockey Expansion Thread
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Never underestimate state funded institutions...some rumored number was the percentage of funds spent on academics versus athletics, guess who has some room to increase their numbers compared to their peers, as in multiple percentage points.
CrazyEddie20
Registered User
Source?
Getting praise from those assholes is a sure sign you might also, in fact, be an asshole.
mk80
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My comment is not meant to be an underestimation. Binghamton has some things in their favor. They are already a D1 athletic department, in a conference that has a lot of other D1 hockey schools to lean on for conversations, they don't have football so that doesn't eat up a large chunk of athletics budget, they just opened a $60M baseball facility so money for athletics is coming in from somewhere, and assuming they secure a lease with the Veterans Memorial Arena they solve one of the toughest hockey startup steps and save the cost of building an arena.
That said there are many boxes to check between now and icing a team. and of the schools that have publicly announced studies to add hockey (Oakland, Illinois, Simon Fraser, Lindenwood, and Tennessee State), only one has actually resulted in a team, while TSU is yet to be determined but it seems to be a PR based move by the Preds.
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mk80
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Expansion related here's the latest on St. Thomas' search to build a suitable arena. For those wanting to skip the reading, no groundbreaking news is in this article. St. Thomas hockey's search for a new rink site continues
Also Augustana has announced their first ever series: Viking Men’s Hockey to Face Notre Dame in 2023 - Augustana University Athletics The Vikings have also had some commitments come trickling in ahead of the junior hockey seasons starting up. So Coach Raboin has got off to a nice start before the recruiting trail really starts picking up in the fall.
Also Augustana has announced their first ever series: Viking Men’s Hockey to Face Notre Dame in 2023 - Augustana University Athletics The Vikings have also had some commitments come trickling in ahead of the junior hockey seasons starting up. So Coach Raboin has got off to a nice start before the recruiting trail really starts picking up in the fall.
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JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
Dang, that would've been an interesting pair to attend. Unfortunately the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off tourney in Milwaukee are the preceding days. Timing is everything. Kudos to the Notre Dame program for giving the Vikings some exposure.
Apparently my response didn't get past me clicking "post reply". The source you won't like Eddie...it's me, I was in the room.
mk80
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Only about a 4-5 hour drive between Fiserv Forum and Compton Family Ice Arena. Just channel your inner Nascar driver and put the pedal to the metal!Dang, that would've been an interesting pair to attend. Unfortunately the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off tourney in Milwaukee are the preceding days. Timing is everything. Kudos to the Notre Dame program for giving the Vikings some exposure.
JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
Serious consideration was already put to that. But my owner/crew chief insisted on a pit stop in suburban Chicago on the 30th, and she pays the bills.Only about a 4-5 hour drive between Fiserv Forum and Compton Family Ice Arena. Just channel your inner Nascar driver and put the pedal to the metal!
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AintLifeGrand
Burnin Jet-A
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
AintLifeGrand
Burnin Jet-A
why?
sec hockey conference would be lit and would take college football from a niche sport into the mainstream- but they cant do it without the SEC
Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
Don't add UGA to the list. The school has been clear in every single press release that the club team they have will stay club and they have no short, medium, or long term interest in adding NCAA hockey. An ECHL team will be playing out of that hockey specific arena.
And if you think there isn't precedence and it is all smoke and mirrors, Coralville/University of Iowa did the exact same thing a few years ago albeit while building a slightly smaller arena.
"It would be lit" isn't justification for what you're suggesting and I'm fairly certain you are adult enough to know better.
mk80
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As others have pointed out, the case in Georgia is one summed up as, just because a suitable arena exists doesn't mean a team is automatic. The ECHL is due to move in, and most notably the statements from the university have explicitly said UGA are not pursuing anything regarding NCAA hockey, and even if they were, a true SEC hockey conference would likely never happen, or on the smallest chance is decades away.
What arena like that does do for the university is number one provides their current non varsity team with a beautiful home. But on the chance a huge donor came through with a sizeable donation for hockey like what happened with ASU, Augustana, and Penn State, is that it saves UGA some startup costs and time with a ready made arena in the waiting. That hypothetical scenario also assumes that UGA would get a lease with the city of Athens and usurp the ECHL franchise.
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On a separate topic I remember a CHN article from this summer mentioning Utah Valley University looking at adding NCAA hockey. I have tried researching everything I can think of and the only thing I can find is the UVU Athletics Wikipedia page with the following
"The men's hockey program was renewed in 2016, originally starting as a business student’s capstone project. After the first two seasons of the revived program, major changes were made to help facilitate on campus growth and the success of the team. The team currently plays as an ACHA D2 member, with short term goals of advancing to ACHA D1. There is tremendous interest among the student body with the ACHA Hockey team bringing close to capacity crowds several times a season. All games and practices are held at Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, Utah. In addition to this ACHA program, the athletic department at UVU has been pursuing adding NCAA D1 Men’s and Women’s hockey to campus. A feasibility study was completed, the results of which showed tremendous potential for a successful program. Currently, the school is working on efforts to raise the funds necessary to start and sustain the program for five years. The school has plans to construct a 5,000-7,000 seat arena on the newly acquired Geneva Campus 10 minutes away from main campus UVU. The initial target was to have a team competing by the 2027 season start. However, due to COVID-19 and financial woes it has been pushed to 2030."
I'm not sure where the Wikipedia contributors sourced that info from but there we have it. And if we want to believe it, it looks like we won't be seeing UVU on the scene for a while.
AintLifeGrand
Burnin Jet-A
you do realize how monied the UGA alumni base is?
Me thinks y'all yankees and northerners are scared of UGA and hte rest of the SEC coming in and dominating college hockey just like what we do in every other sport
Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
My response to this is threefold:
1. It isn't all about how much money the alumni base has and I would hope you are smart enough to know better than that. Only two of the top ten richest alumni bases in the country have NCAA D1 hockey. UPenn doesn't have NCAA D1 hockey, and University of Northern Michigan does. If the "monied UGA alumni base" really wanted hockey, they would have added it by now. Or there would have been some sort of interest stirred up like we say in the months before Pegula stepped in at Penn State and Stanford stepped up at Augustana. Instead, oddly strange sounds of nothing and the school administration telling anyone asking about NCAA hockey to get lost and stop wasting their time.
2. I am not sure how Hal Steinbrenner would react to UGA's non-existent NCAA D1 hockey program. I imagine he would react the same to the SEC's non-existent hockey conference. Show me one serious article linking any SEC school to adding NCAA hockey. Because there aren't any. It is all your "it would be lit" stuff rather than, you know, actual support that it is grounded in reality. It isn't even a distant possibility....
3. *rink is built by UGA*
*UGA says rink is explicitly for the ECHL team and club team, in that order, and they have absolutely no interest in adding NCAA hockey*
@AintLifeGrand "UGA is adding hockey"
everyone: *tells him facts about how it isn't even a distint possibility*
@AintLifeGrand
mk80
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Let's break this post down. Starting with the first half, there is no doubt UGA has a large alumni and donor base. But even with a large wealthy group, it still takes a donor or multiple donors stepping up and saying we'd like to gift x amount to start a varsity hockey program there. The school has explicitly said they are not going to do it on their own, so someone has to pay for it. And so far someone hasn't stepped forward to pay for it. It takes one or multiple of UGA's donors to be like Don Mullet who gave ASU $32 million for hockey, or Terry Pegula who donated $88 million to Penn State., or Denny Sanford who gave $40 million for hockey at Augustana.
Like I said in my last post, the great thing about the arena in Athens is that it saves a significant portion of a hockey program startup cost which is building an arena, which all those program had to do or are doing now.
That's just the financial side of things, it doesn't take into account anything related to Title IX and how the Bulldogs numbers are regarding that. But if a donation came in for hockey, UGA could make the numbers work if they needed to, but that means you may have to be ok with one or multiple men's sports being cut to fit hockey in. That's hypothetical though without knowing what the numbers look like, but illustrates another area why hockey is tough for any school to add besides ice.
As for the second part of your post, there's nothing I like more than seeing hockey in general grow and that includes college hockey. So I would love to see UGA or any team in the southeast add it, and on that subject I still hope Alabama Huntsville's fans are one day to see their team back on the ice. But the fact is that NCAA DI hockey is the toughest , and most expensive sport for any athletic department to add, and maintain. And when looking at the SEC schools in particular for the purpose of this post.
Many SEC schools have ACHA or club programs. But none of the SEC schools or their athletic departments have made any statements regarding a desire to add NCAA hockey, and many don't provide funding at all or recognize their existing club teams, and Arkansas forced their team to drop from ACHA DI to ACHA D3. Outside of Athens, most of the SEC schools don't have a suitable arena for NCAA DI college either, here's a breakdown by SEC divisions:
SEC East
Gainesville FL- None
Athens GA- Yes
Lexington KY- Yes
Columbia MO- None
Columbia SC- None anymore the ECHL Columbia Inferno played at Carolina Coliseum which has been converted into practice basketball courts
Knoxville TN- Yes, the Civic Center home of the SPHL likely suffices for this post
Nashville TN- Yes, Here the Predators who you seem to be a fan of partnered with Tennessee State to study adding NCAA Hockey, so if Vanderbilt has a desire to add NCAA hockey one would think they would be working with the Preds.
SEC West
Tuscaloosa AL- None
Fayetteville AR- Rec Rink
Auburn AL- None
Baton Rouge LA- Yes, the Raising Cane's River Center Arena has hosted the ECHL before
Oxford MS- None
Starkville MS- None
College Station Tx- Rec Rink
To have an SEC hockey conference you're looking at a large portion of the member schools that would have to decide to add NCAA Hockey, or have donations come in, work out Title IX, and build arenas. Other than Georgia, LSU, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt none have arenas even in town. Again maybe some SEC schools add hockey over the years on their own, but as I said before, it is a long time coming before we see an entire SEC conference. The University of Alabama-Huntsville has had a program, and as part of the Alabama system hasn't made any effort to restore it, despite donors stepping up and meeting a fundraising goal to save it.
And if you look at the B1G Hockey conference for comparison it wasn't until Penn State got their donation from Pegula that triggered their conference bylaw that said the conference had to add it at six schools sponsoring a sport, and even then they've had to bring in Notre Dame to get up to 7 schools for an autobid. And other B1G schools like Illinois, Iowa, etc. have said they are no longer exploring or have no desire to add NCAA Hockey either.
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SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
I was born in Kentucky, lived most of my life in northern Florida, have also lived in Texas, and now Alabama. I am most definitely not a Yankee and I'm well aware of the craziness of Georgia and the rest of the SEC.
UGA has no intention of adding varsity hockey and, as you've already pointed out, if they did, it would likely require other Southern schools being established or making the jump at the same time.
Georgia definitely has the money to go the Arizona State route but they clearly lack the desire. There's a difference between having the money and wanting to spend the money for that purpose.
Having an arena being built by the city/county doesn't mean UGA is going to be getting varsity hockey. If UGA was building it? Sure, we'd have a very clear idea of their intention to add hockey but they're not.
Methinks you need to stop looking at something that might be "lit" and use a little rational thinking. Would I love to see college hockey expand in the south and grow the game? Of course, do I know that's highly unlikely? Yes, because I'm not under the delusion that a bunch of "yankess" are too "scared."
JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
You neglected to give BR recognition for the FPHL giving Raising Cane's Arena a 3-game sniff this season, with a presumed goal of The Fed expanding there in 2023.
Carry on.
mk80
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mk80
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In UNLV's exhibition game against Denver, the Skatin' Rebels lost 10-0 to the Pioneers. Shots were 52-18 in favor of the Pios as well. Recap Here
- UNLV has 3 more NCAA exhibition games remaining all against Alaska Anchorage (2 in Alaska, 1 in Vegas)
Edit: College Hockey News posted the latest on UNLV, the summary is the same as before, they need money, but compared to previous AD's at least the new one hasn't shut them down on their aspirations entirely. It does sound like they are in the earliest stages of trying to woo some donors. UNLV to D-I? The Blueprint is There
- UNLV has 3 more NCAA exhibition games remaining all against Alaska Anchorage (2 in Alaska, 1 in Vegas)
Edit: College Hockey News posted the latest on UNLV, the summary is the same as before, they need money, but compared to previous AD's at least the new one hasn't shut them down on their aspirations entirely. It does sound like they are in the earliest stages of trying to woo some donors. UNLV to D-I? The Blueprint is There
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mk80
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Nothing on an addition of NCAA hockey has come from Arizona ever, but since there was some previous discussion about their new rink, I felt this was the best spot to put this post. One thing is for sure, whether they stay ACHA or ever do add NCAA hockey the Wildcats hockey program is going to have a D1 quality facility when they open the new rink.
That's just as good and big as CC's new on-campus arena. If I remember correctly, the biggest problem in raising a team to DI isn't just a new arena, but all the sports scholarships that need to be implemented for a roster that requires 18 to 24 players. That's 24-ish new students who get free-of-charge education and cause the university to lose money. There's also the Title IX aspect as well and even though it's easy to make a woman's softball team keep the ratio of male/female sports, you're talking about another 20+ roster of free scholarships. I totally get why bringing in a sport is clearly hard for NCAA schools nowadays. With all that said, it seems to me that Arizona is taking all the steps to eventually go DI in the future. However long that might be, is an entirely different question.
Extremely soft reports about UCLA wanting to go D1 in the future with some alumni opening funding for the programme since they're joining Big 10. I think they have a better chance now than they did in PAC-12, but the article makes a good point that what sunk Illinois hockey desire is the same problems that UCLA face (aka building a brand new arena).
www.sbncollegehockey.com
UCLA and USC Join The Big Ten
There was a seismic shift in the world of major college athletics on Friday, as the Big Ten announced that the conference had voted unanimously to add UCLA and USC to the conference, bringing the...
www.sbncollegehockey.com
CrazyEddie20
Registered User
Merely adding a Division I women's softball team at the same time as a men's ice hockey team doesn't necessarily make the program Title IX compliant.
But at least you've finally started understand what I and others have been trying to tell you.
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