[NORTH DAKOTA @ UNO]

15 hours ago, Sodbuster said:

So, are we better off using this free site, or going the nchc.tv route? Anyone know?

The NET stream is always high quality. No need to waste money on nchc.tv (unless you are already signed up of course). The NET color and play by play guys probably won't be up to your standards, but it's a solid production overall.

19 hours ago, runaroundsioux said:

Yes,yes they do.

We are proud of our one and only Frozen Four appearance. Our program is barely of drinking age. I guess there's nothing in North Dakota except hockey and oil, so you need to talk trash about something. Talk to me in 80 years and we will see where our two programs stand.

[NORTH DAKOTA @ UNO]

18 hours ago, cberkas said:

Midco maybe otherwise NCHC.tv

Friday's game will be televised on NET (Nebraska's public TV channel). You can stream it for free at http://netnebraska.org/

For the folks staying in the Aksarben area hotels, catch a meal at Jimi D's. I live nearby and always go there before Mav games. It's right next to the arena. Reasonably priced Italian/bar food.

There's also a new cajun/creole themed cocktail bar called Herbe Sainte (pretty much right across from the hotels). If you want a great steak check out The Drover which is also nearby.

Hope you enjoy your time in my hood before your tear-filled seven hour drive back to no where!

[UND @ UNO]

13 hours ago, Sodbuster said:

Yep...I was wondering the same thing. Brash statements can come back to bite big time.

Dude was annoying and not representative of the fan base at large. Lurkers created accounts just to post one time and point that out. 

He always overcompensated for being pretty much the only UNO poster on there.

[If Big Ten Offers UND Should They Join?]

10 hours ago, GFG said:

Butts in seat I'll bet my life savings that Minnesota would still be 2nd in attendance in the NCHC this year. UMD is more empty than Mariucci every week with a smaller arena (even the UND series had tons of open seats), CC and Denver only have a couple hundred fans each. Omaha has the novelty of a brand new arena, but it'll die down. St Cloud is rarely over half full, with UND and Minnesota games being the only exceptions. And a lot of those fans arent cheering for St Cloud. I can't speak for Western Michigan and Miami because I haven't seen much games out there. 

Regarding Wisconsin ...can you blame them? Their team is beyond bad and have an extremely boring style of play. Why WOULD anyone want to go to games? Outside of Minnesota games the old Ralph was pretty damn empty when UND was struggling too. 

You can't group UND in the group spending much less money than B1G teams because und spends just as much, and actually probably more, than they do on hockey. It's the other NCHC schools that are nowhere near UND's or  the B1G teams budgets. 

Clarifying for a UNO perspective (not many boards out there to read up on college hockey)....

The novelty of a brand new arena was a selling point for the opening series, nothing more. If you look at UNO's attendance numbers ever since the program started, it has been steady in the 4-6 range. Support for the team is higher than ever. Season tickets sold out and more students are attending now that the arena is on campus (and serves beer). Still room to grow, though. There is a very solid core of dedicated fans down here. Even when Husker football and Creighton basketball were playing at the same time (very popular local events) UNO still got a great turn out for the Minnesota-Duluth series.

Here are the current attendance numbers (first is the attendance, second is the size of the arena, the third represents the percentage of the arena that is filled each game):

1) North Dakota 11,738,-11,634, (100.9)

2) Minnesota 9,680-10,000 (96.8)

3) Wisconsin 8,690-15,325 (56.7)

4) Nebraska-Omaha 6,698-7,898 (84.8)

5) Minnesota-Duluth 6,387-6,600 (96.8)

6) Penn State 6,091-5,782 (105.3)

7) Colorado College 6,020-7,343 (82.0)

8) Massachusetts-Lowell 5,455-6,003(90.9)

9) Michigan 5,351-5,800 (92.3)

10) Boston College 5,307-7,884(67.3)

11) Denver 5,200-6,026(86.3)

12) Ohio State 5,004-17,500(28.6)

13) Connecticut 4,982-9,000(55.4)

14) Michigan State 4,903-6,470(75.8)

15) New Hampshire 4,871-6,110(79.7)

 

18) St. Cloud State 4,293-5,159(83.2)

31) Western Michigan 2,875-3,667(78.4)

38) Miami 2,435-3,200 (76.1)

 

All Big 10 teams are in the top 15, but I would say the NCHC is still represented pretty well. Not much of an argument to make against the NCHC as far as attendance goes.

[2015-2016 College Hockey (non UND Hockey)]

Unfortunately they are kind of caught in a catch 22 right now. With Wisconsin and Michigan State at low points in their programs and Ohio State never really being 100% committed to winning, and Michigan a little down when the Big 10 conference began playing hockey that left Penn State who is doing things right and building excitement around their program....but they are a new program with some growing pains and Minnesota who was and is one of the premier programs in college hockey to carry the flag. The first season was mediocre as a conference and last season was a complete disaster so now they are at the point where these kids that are being recruited and worried about their development and listening to their "family advisors" are thinking twice about the Big 10 as they won't be facing top competition as often  as they would in Hockey East and the NCHC.

With the conference on a definite down cycle right now the best thing that could happen would be for a few additional schools to add hockey to build some excitement.

Every other school in the conference has at least 1 if not 2 club hockey teams currently.

Iowa has quite a few USHL teams and Lincoln draws extremely well so Iowa and Nebraska would be naturals as would Illinois and Indiana.

 

It's very unlikely that Nebraska gets a hockey team any time in the near future. UNO cut football to ensure that hockey could be their cash cow going forward. Both schools are the the same university system. Lincoln wouldn't be stealing fans from UNO by any means, but it is a lot of money to spend that could just go towards football instead. It's kind of a "you guys get football, we get hockey" type of situation. Who knows though. It could happen, but not until there is a generational shift in both Lincoln's administration and the U of Nebraska board of regents. 

I think Rutgers and Illinois are the two Big 10 schools that are most likely to get hockey. They would be wise to extend an invitation to Arizona State as a hockey-only member as well IMO.