JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
Worse yet, they'd defy any attempt to supplement them for semi-comfort using my padded stadium seat that I lug into other crappy arenas fitted with backless benches for seating.
NCAA Hockey Expansion Thread
- Thread starter S E P H
- Start date
North Carolina story with their lead booster. Good article.
chapelboro.com
UNC Club Ice Hockey Shares Early Designs, Vision for $20 Million Arena Project in Chapel Hill - Chapelboro.com
The UNC club hockey team’s booster club recently purchased land in Chapel Hill, where it plans to build a $20 million, 2,000-seat home arena.
chapelboro.com
2000 seems small for a potential future DI team though.North Carolina story with their lead booster. Good article.
UNC Club Ice Hockey Shares Early Designs, Vision for $20 Million Arena Project in Chapel Hill - Chapelboro.com
The UNC club hockey team’s booster club recently purchased land in Chapel Hill, where it plans to build a $20 million, 2,000-seat home arena.
I would agree - it's momentum though, which is always good. Hopefully news of this project spurs interest from the school or other potential donors (one can hope). Most likely, this will just serve to grow the game a the grass roots level, which is never bad. The booster said himself that D1 hockey is unlikely in the short/medium term. On the bright side, it would serve as a great transitional home if they were to ever move D1 in 10 or so years. Could be a better version of an oceanside arena, for example. However, U-Conn's rink isn't really much larger either, and some games could potentially be played at the Canes arena, similar to how U-Conn still plays some games in Hartford. Perhaps it could be built with the possibility of expansion in mind - design seems kinda odd with a lot of wasted space on each end. 20 million also seems low, but I'm no expert.
JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
mk80
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Since there is not an official required seating capacity for the NCAA (some conferences do set a minimum I think). But it's better to be able to fill a place game in and game out, rather than playing a palace you'll have a hard time filling.
Bonk
Registered User
I love catching up on this thread every month or two for the entertainment value, lol.
Travel seems like a big hurdle for a UNC program as well. Over seven hours to the nearest D-1 opponent...I think (Ohio State?).
Like all NCAA expansion scenarios, I hope it works but I'm skeptical.
Travel seems like a big hurdle for a UNC program as well. Over seven hours to the nearest D-1 opponent...I think (Ohio State?).
Like all NCAA expansion scenarios, I hope it works but I'm skeptical.
JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
Expansion adjacent ... College Hockey Insider (aka, Mike McMahon) with early speculation of Ivy League DI hockey realignment ...
www.collegehockeyinsider.com
(#362) Did we just get a glimpse of potential realignment?
In today's issue, we take a look at a developing story in college wrestling.
www.collegehockeyinsider.com
Interesting read, thanks for sharing! If Ivy League ever started their own conference, I wonder if that would cause a lot of the DII teams that want to go DI would make them go DI and take the Ivy schools spots in ECAC?Expansion adjacent ... College Hockey Insider (aka, Mike McMahon) with early speculation of Ivy League DI hockey realignment ...(#362) Did we just get a glimpse of potential realignment?
In today's issue, we take a look at a developing story in college wrestling.
I would think if teams ever started DI programmes in the South, it would be like 3-4 all agreeing to come up at the same time. I am thinking UNC, High Point (if they actually back up their talk), the recreation of Alabama-Huntsville, and maybe one of the wealthy schools from Florida. Then that would be at least 30 to 40% of their schedule against teams that are near each other.
If we're throwing names out there of long shot programs in the south, I'd add Austin Peay, Tenn State, Liberty, and Georgia to that list. Lindenwood could play in that hypothetical conference as well if they were conference less.
If the Ivy thing happens, ya gotta think RIT is moving to the ECAC.
Maybe Sacred Heart as well, but I'm not sure how good their academics are.
What are the rumours with them? I haven't really read anything at all? E: Read that they just announced a club hockey team this year, I think they are way far off from ever going DI. I think Liberty has a better chance, but @CrazyEddie20 mentioned that there was something weird about their programme in the past. Like they're already successful and making money off of being a club team, so why would they ever want to go DI and become one of the bottom-third programmes.
If ECAC lost all the Ivy League schools, would they even want to be an academic-focused conference anymore?
Austin Peay announces new club hockey team to play at Clarksville’s Ford Ice Center
Austin Peay State University (APSU) announced the formation of its first ice hockey team today, with plans to compete in the College Hockey South association and using the newly opened Ford Ice Center in the F&M Bank arena in Clarksville.
www.apsu.edu
That said, they have two important ingredients in 1) a viable arena, and 2) support from the president. Area is also near Nashville, a regional hotbed.
That's enough for me to classify them as a longshot for a hypothetical conference with hypothetical d1 schools. Wasn't ranking or comparing the likelyhood of them moving D1 vs Liberty or anyone else. Likelyhood of all those schools moving up is close enough to zero that it's pointless to rank them.
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JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
They would still be comprised of remarkably strong academic schools. But I suppose that focus could change if money was involved.
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
After the Big Ten formed a hockey conference, and the NCAC was formed in reaction to it, I was honestly surprised that we didn’t see two more fractures take place to form smaller, six team conferences out east as well. Ivy League being one of them, but a New England public school conference, too.
Ivy League
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
New England
UConn
Maine
UMass
UMass Lowell
New Hampshire
Vermont
Bingo bongo, each conference gets a guaranteed tournament spot, strengthens already established rivalries, and cuts down travel and red tape costs. Seemed like the direction that NCAA hockey was going, but never seemed like either gained traction.
Ivy League
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
New England
UConn
Maine
UMass
UMass Lowell
New Hampshire
Vermont
Bingo bongo, each conference gets a guaranteed tournament spot, strengthens already established rivalries, and cuts down travel and red tape costs. Seemed like the direction that NCAA hockey was going, but never seemed like either gained traction.
I wonder if it gets to this stage, we see a play-in/wildcard for teams ranked 13th to 18th or so to get the remaining open spot if the NCAA doesn't want to expand the national tournament from 16 teams.
You would have 8 guaranteed spots based on the creation of those two conferences.
Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
It would take a lot to break up Hockey East. Those ties are well-established in New England. Administration wise, they have always had a strong commissioner and ADs which might not necessarily always get along but at least work together.
In addition, cutting out BC, BU, Northeastern, and Providence flat out was going to happen. Even without taking into account Merrimack.
mk80
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I'd be surprised if additional realignment in college hockey doesn't happen, beyond just slotting existing independents into conferences. As schools across the country look at cutting costs amid a nationwide enrollment drop, athletics budgets I'm sure will continually be evaluated, and cutting travel, conference membership fees, etc. will come into play.
In the case of Ivy League Wrestling, those institutions have now cut their associate membership fees for their wrestling conferences.
In the case of Ivy League Wrestling, those institutions have now cut their associate membership fees for their wrestling conferences.
Ivy League is all over the place, from Philly to upper-state New York to New Hampshire to Rhode Islande. If they're trying to cut travel costs, I am not sure the point of going only to Ivy League will do? I think it impacts the schedule more so than anything else since, at least in hockey, these schools are not allowed to play until 3-4 weeks after the season starts. Not sure if it is the same with other sports.
CrazyEddie20
Registered User
No school in the Ivy League is more than a six-hour bus ride from any other. It's not really that spread out.
If the Ivies split off from the ECAC, you'd likely see a New York-focused conference start with the non-Ivy ECAC schools, plus possibly Canisius, Niagara, and RIT.
Quinnipiac would probably try and go to Hockey East, which would be a far better fit given their, uh, lesser academics.
Apparently the Ivies are considering a split off and will attempt to get Columbia University to revive its program that's been dormant since the late 30s to go along side Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, and Princeton. The notable absent team being Yale. Whether Yale stays in the ECAC or joins the other Ivies is tbd in all of this. I can't imagine they would stay in the ECAC if the Ivy League form their own hockey conference and get Columbia to revive their hockey program so they can get automatic bids.
I can see the ECAC attempting to pull in new schools into it. One school I wonder if they would try to pull into their stable would be Syracuse. They are already in the CHA with their women's team. There's also LIU that's already available.
I'm surprised Quinnipiac hasn't already split if I'm gonna be honest.
mk80
Registered User
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Travel among the Ivy schools isn't really an issue, even if they were in their own conference. Though the only specific to Ivy League athletics in my comment was the sentence about wrestling where those schools that sponsor it have eliminated associate membership fees for that sport to other conferences.
Is there a source on the first bolded section of your comment?
As for Quinnipiac I think there was a time where they wouldn't have hesitated to move to Hockey East if offered the chance. But now, I'm not sure they would, they are better off in their current situation of being a perennial tournament team by winning ECAC.
This is the source alleging the Ivies are planning to bolt from the ECAC because of the Ivies realigning their collegiate wrestling programs to the Ivy League.
CrazyEddie20
Registered User
Yale isn't included because they do not have a varsity wrestling program.
As the Ivies go, so goes Yale, and vice versa. There's zero chance that Yale would play any sport outside of the Ivy League if the IL offered an autobid.
Quinnipiac wins because their admissions standards are so far below the rest of the league. They can get elite recruits with three-digit SAT scores into school, which almost no other ECAC school can - maybe Clarkson.
CrazyEddie20
Registered User
Regarding the Ivy League, Penn has an on-campus rink. It needs some work, but Penn is probably closer to having a real college than 99% of schools mentioned by fart sniffing pie-in-the-sky fanboi expansionists.
Columbia is a different story. They could probably practice at Chelsea Piers, but there's not really a good option for them when it comes to playing home games. Their club clowns play somewhere in New Jersey, and MSG is totally out of the question because of cost and availability. It's 40 minutes, minimum, to UBS Arena or anywhere that could realistically host home games for Columbia. Real estate is scarce in Manhattan, especially on the Upper West Side and in Manhattanville and West Harlem. Real estate acquisitional alone could probably add $25 million to the cost of building a suitable rink. As a graduate school alum of Columbia, I'd love to see them add hockey, but it isn't happening without a viable venue for home games.
Columbia is a different story. They could probably practice at Chelsea Piers, but there's not really a good option for them when it comes to playing home games. Their club clowns play somewhere in New Jersey, and MSG is totally out of the question because of cost and availability. It's 40 minutes, minimum, to UBS Arena or anywhere that could realistically host home games for Columbia. Real estate is scarce in Manhattan, especially on the Upper West Side and in Manhattanville and West Harlem. Real estate acquisitional alone could probably add $25 million to the cost of building a suitable rink. As a graduate school alum of Columbia, I'd love to see them add hockey, but it isn't happening without a viable venue for home games.
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