Yote 53

I agree, but UST has received the message they are not wanted. Who wants to be in a relationship where they are not wanted? No matter the vote I expect UST will do an evaluation of their athletics program and will seek greener pastures whether that be another D3 conference or a move up to D2 or possibly even D1.

The best option for the Summit is to look west for members or to form some sort of new conference (yes, the Montana strategy, the Great North Conference). The reason is that once you get out west the mentality about travel changes, we're used to driving long distances. Pretty much everybody on this board knows somebody or personally has to drive multiple hours round trip just to make a trip to the grocery store, or Home Depot, Menards, even Walmart, we're used to living in this spread out country west of the Mississippi. Schools in the east, there are so many of them and the travel is so condensed, they won't stay in a western based conference if they have a choice.

I drove to Detroit recently, 12 hours from Vermillion, SD to Detroit. While there it dawned on me that Pittsburgh was only a little more than 4 hours away, and New York City was only a little over 9 hours away. Point is, I always thought of Penn State as being out of the Big Ten footprint. The reality is that Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers are closer to the eastern Big Ten schools (OSU, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State) than the Big Ten East schools are to the Big Ten West schools like Iowa, Minnesota, and obviously Nebraska, yet we think of those schools as "Midwestern" Big Ten type schools. I mean, it's only a 12 hour drive from Chicago to New York City. It also crystalized in my mind why schools like Fort Wayne, Indiana State, and Youngstown don't really want to have anything to do with the Dakota schools. Once you get west of the Mississippi River the country starts to get really, really big. Bottom line is that Rutgers and Maryland really aren't out of the Big Ten footprint and are easily accessible by the Big Ten East schools, even if we think it's crazy it really isn't.

Yet people think Augustana to the Summit is a sure thing, or even a good thing. The same arguments against these schools can be used against Augustana.

Tournament is not legit. No Carey's in Vermillion. I think the USD Barstool account is pro Char-Bar (Charcoal Lounge) though. Either way, it's tough to beat the lineup of Carey's, Char-Bar, Leo's, OLC (Old Lumber Company), The Pub (Main Street Pub), and The Varsity that make downtown Vermillion the prime place to get blackout drunk. That's without heading out to the far end of Main Street for a few Bombers at Bunyan's. When you guys start the MVFC schedule you'll have to come down to Verm every other year.

Somebody needs to approach St. Thomas about moving up and joining the Summit. The WCHA would be all over their hockey program too. This school has the cash to make it happen if they wanted to.

Problem with the PAC 12 schools is that they are falling far behind the other P5 conferences in funding. If not for geographical isolationism the conference would have been picked apart by now. The PAC 12 Network has been a failure so far and they have now resorted to selling off part of the network for immediate funding in a bid to keep up with other conferences. None of this hints of any sort of extra cash lying around to start hockey programs. Of course, the PAC 12 has always treated its non-revenue and Olympic sports much differently than, say, the SEC schools who offer minimal sports offerings and pump all their money into football. The PAC 12 would be a conference more open to another sport offering, given their history in supporting the Olympic sports. Hockey could be revenue neutral to revenue positive for them as well, along with providing more content for programming. The Big Ten is the obvious candidate for a conference to add programs. The BTHC needs more programs, BTN needs content, the conference is swimming in money, the conference is located in hockey friendly states in the Midwest and Northeast. It's almost morally wrong that every school in the conference doesn't have a program.

I came here specifically to quote this. It's just proof that there is tremendous depth in the player pool and D1 college hockey needs expansion badly. There needs to be more programs.

Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines is another option that is available right now. Ice is in all winter for the Iowa Wild.

I don't think so, not if the franchise is serious about being successful and wants to last long term. Sure, there would be some GF players on the team, but the best players in GF are better than MJ material , they are USHL and NAHL material. If the franchise wants to survive long term they would take the best players they could recruit from their recruiting area of ND, SD, MN, etc.

Ahh, gotcha.

Confused because your location says Twin Cities. You must be referencing players leaving HS early for Juniors, or a program like Gentry. Players don't normally transfer into Edina to play, those teams are homegrown (except for their goalie this year who played for Nashville Jr Preds U15 AAA team, no idea how he got to Edina). Edina is a youth program that not only produces players for Edina's HS roster but also schools like Benilde St. Margaret's and other private school programs. What is Moorhead's perspective on scheduling ND schools? If the openings where there would they do it? Or would it effect their SOS playing out of state teams (would the state of MN "Count" the games)? Scheduling is a two way street. ETA: See somebody beat me to the Edina comment. That youth program provides players for a lot of schools.

I wasn't even talking about ND High School hockey. Reread and you notice I left you guys out of that. I said SD, IA, NE, and even WI. First sentence of the third paragraph.

You guys already have a Tier 1 before and after team with Team North Dakota. You could make a serious case for a full season Tier 1 program in Fargo/Grand Forks. The question that can't be answered is how many players may have been able to move on to juniors or college if they were in a full season Tier 1 program to develop them. Talent doesn't just happened, it needs to be developed. This weekend Team North Dakota plays Sioux Falls Power for a trip to nationals. Team ND doesn't even field a U18 team (what's up with that?) and the Power are favorites at the 16, 15, and 14 levels. So maybe that is a litmus test to see if B&A is working for ND. Before and after teams work, Team Wisconsin is one of the top programs in the country. It works over there, but there are also more hockey players to pull from. With that statement you just described hockey in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and even Wisconsin. These youth teams compete in and against MN programs from Squirt to Bantam and then at High School the programs drop off the map. The development, literally, slows to a crawl because they become insulated leagues and don't compete against the better MN programs. Also, many of the better players leave for Tier 1 because these HS leagues are no pathway to a higher level of hockey. Though North Dakota HS hockey might be in better shape, at least one or two of the programs I am really torn on High School hockey because I really love the idea of it. It obviously works for Minnesota and, maybe, Michigan, though they have like 8 Tier 1 programs there too.. I question whether HS (in other states) aids in player development, or if players just stagnate and backslide. For full disclosure, we have struggled with this personally as my oldest left HS hockey in Iowa and moved away to play Tier 1. I know the expense and sacrifice more than anybody. I also know he would be nowhere close to being the player he is today if he had stayed in the HS program, not even close.

Are there any updates on that potential MJHL team in Grand Forks? Interested to see if that develops.

Is that sarcasm? I can't tell because there actually has been some good things that have come out of it. Class A hockey is getting better and better. There has been great growth in interest and quality of play in the small school outstate areas because they actually have something they can compete for. The Class A tournament the last few years has been very compelling. I realize the nostalgia for the single class event, but I think it would be detrimental to small school hockey. Yes, the feel good story of a Warroad or Greenway making a run and winning the entire thing sounds great, the reality is that would be the rarest of things in the current environment.

I remember that. I think it was just a couple of years ago as they have only recently started televising the event on Midco.

Haven't checked in here since Thursday, was on the road for a tournament in Wisco. Loved that Prep45 provided a free stream of the tournament this year so I was able to catch the entire thing, even while in travel status. Some excellent games, was hoping for something other than an Edina v EP final (was going for Moorhead & Blaine in AA and Greenway & EGF in A) but at least it was a good game that went to OT. So the Edina boys and Edina girls swept state titles this year. That entire program from youth to high school is just a machine. This time of year always sucks. The tournament is over, my oldest boy's season ended yesterday, another hockey season in the books, now we head into spring tryouts season. Ugh, just sucks. The South Dakota state tournament will be on Midco this weekend. I'll probably tune in.

OT

Yeah, I didn't doubt Eden Prairie's qualifications for being seeded because they do play a pretty tough schedule. But here we are, start of 3rd period and it's a 2-1 game with South. I'm putting the Eagles on upset alert! If they seeded 1-8, I would bet 9/10 years 3A and 1AA would get 8 seeds.

To WBL's defense, Blaine was the #2 seed and a dang tough draw, WBL played pretty well today. I watched the section final between WBL and Hill-Murray last week. WBL won, but I didn't think it was pretty at all and actually thought Hill-Murray was the better team for very big stretches of that game. I didn't expect WBL to do much in this tournament. My big question regarding seeding for this tournament, how the heck does Moorhead draw Edina in the QF? Moorhead is better and has a better resume than both WBL and Lakeville South. I understand only the first 5 are seeded, are the next 3 just random draw? If so that stinks for Moorhead and, actually, stinks for Edina because they got a tougher draw in round 1.

Pfft. The check the Big Ten cuts Illinois is for the same amount as the one they cut Penn State. The media rights check from the conference office is over $50 million per Big Ten team now. There isn't a single BIG athletic program who can use the "we can't afford it" excuse when it comes to hockey. They can ALL afford it, it's whether they want to do it or not. Somebody get all over Iowa's butt next. There is a brand new 7,000 seat ice arena going up in Coralville/IC. No excuse for Iowa to not have a program too. Nebraska as well. Pinnacle Bank Arena is ice ready.

Firestick -> Silk or Firefox Browser App -> www.prep45.com -> use the remote as your pointer and click to stream I'm sure this is on Midco somewhere as well. The Girls Tournament was on two weeks ago.

It's usually on two channels, one on the HD section of the lineup and on the SD section, though they are both SD. Look over by the ME TV stations. You can also stream the tournament online at Prep45 dot com.

Reading that article, is that the announcement that Augie is going D1? I ask because I guess I must have missed the announcement where they officially announced their transition to Division 1. I know that they have talked about it, studied it, etc., but did not know they announced it. So has it just been assumed and therefore it is?