On Schmaltzs podcast last week Schloss said he knows of a player this year who was paid directly by a school the equivalent of a year of ELC to stay another year. The minimum ELC is 775k. If that’s right, the whole “hockey nil will only be in the single/tens of thousands” idea that people seem to believe and which Schloss somehow continues to argue holds true, can’t be. In his podcast a couple weeks ago, Schloss couldn’t even remember the name of UNDs collective, and the school has already said they won’t pay players directly (albeit that decision will be addressed annually, apparently). Schloss then essentially posited that players are being misled by the supposed big money and that UNDs $5,980 Alston awards are essentially of equal value to a 100k nil offer because the players full ride is gone if they take the nil. This is without considering the advantageous position schools that are only D1 in hockey will start to have next year. All I’ve heard from the Bismarck diehards is that they haven’t heard of any big money donors and have no reason to believe UND players are receiving any nil at all. If any of this is true, can anyone explain how UND can possibly remain competitive regardless of the coach? We will never get a Jake Sanderson again even if they want to go to UND-saying no to 10k is one thing but when the offer is instead quickly approaching one million the decision makes itself. I’m on the fire berry wagon but looking forward I don’t think even Herb Brooks could fix it through recruiting and coaching alone. But I certainly could be wrong about any of this.
Last, Schloss bringing up the “last first round picks to win the title were from UND” thing is becoming more indefensible every time he says it. How many first round picks do the teams that make the frozen four every other year the last decade on average (BU, BC, Michigan, and MN) have Schloss? I don’t understand why the media wants us to compare ourselves to Mankato unless that’s where they think we’re headed.