southpaw

Mainly because they haven't had much discussion with the NCHC. They need to get their act together if they really want to apply.

No doubt the league entrance fees will be more. Schlossman had mentioned he heard it may be near $500,000. I had heard a bit less but still a substantial commitment. Additionally, at this point the schools divide up the cost of paying for officials fees throughout the year. That will likely change in the coming years but it's an additional fee that I don't know if the WCHA has each year. Honestly, the travel in the NCHC would be very similar to travel in the current WCHA for Bowling Green. In the 2016-17 season they have 3 flights, 2 long bus rides that could be flights (over 6 hour drives) and two short bus rides (under 6 hours). Meanwhile, Miami has 5 flights and 1 short bus ride (Western Michigan). If BGSU joins the NCHC, they would have 2 really short bus rides and 4 flights. At most it's one extra flight, however if BG currently flies to Houghton and Marquette, then it's either break-even or actually one less flight in the NCHC. Miami was originally picked because of their recent success, their financial commitment to hockey and because they were originally going to join Notre Dame as the two eastern schools. After seeing they were going to be left out, Western made a big financial commitment to hockey to show the NCHC they were serious. They were later added so Miami wasn't on an island.

The UND contingent left town before this photo happened.

According to this list, which is used to determine the size of TV markets (i.e., the number of actual viewers), there are more viewers in the Bismarck area.

I think you'd want to have the angle the same as the weird thing on the top left of the N. That would bring the bottom right of the N to a point, instead of being so flat.

You realize that is a logo created by SME, yes?

Here you go... a thread devoted just to talking about the Penguins, how big of goons the Bruins are, and why Phil Kessel is three goals away from becoming the greatest Penguin to ever play the game.

I like it. The U definitely adds more to the logo, as does text below.

I set it when I was playing around with the different colors, hoping the bird was negative space. I think the current logo is fine but I wish they had implemented some of the changes we have seen here. I know they would never take message board examples to come up with something new but I wish they had made it a little more detailed off the bat. Who knows, if they update it in 3-5 years, they could do some of the adjustments we have seen here.

Duluth's metro market is smaller than Bismarck's. Initially, the NCHC was supposed to be 7 teams, CC, DU, UNO, UND, UMD, Miami and Notre Dame. When ND demanded too much TV independence among other things, the NCHC said no thanks. Both WMU and SCSU were added to make it 8. WMU and SCSU showed the NCHC they were serious about hockey by increasing funding for the sport. While Mankato has applied, it only became public due to Brad's request. The NCHC has contacted BGSU to guage interest. They haven't applied but if they do, the choice between Mankato and BG gets tough. The conference won't take BG and Mankato just to take them. ASU still needs to figure their arena situation out to get support from Presidents.

What final stages? The logo is done.

Then how did CC, Duluth, Omaha, SCSU, Miami and Western get in this TV-specific conference?

So you've got one Alaska team (assume they'll fold the other in the next couple years), Huntsville, Tech, LSSU, and Ferris State on an island. AHA would then be AFA, Army, AIC, Bentley, Canisius, Holy Cross, and Sacred Heart. 5 and 7 teams respectively. I know AHA teams already dislike their flights to Colorado Springs but I think they'll have to add someone. That might be Huntsville but they balked at it last time. I don't know the answer to that. We're seeing Mankato want to join the NCHC despite being pretty successful in the current WCHA. Would WMU and Miami leave the top college hockey conference to form a new one just to be with BG and some scrubs from AHA? Outside of Bowling Green, none of those teams bring more fans into Lawson or Goggin Arenas. It seems like a great idea to leave because you're allegedly upset that the conference is going more west, but it's another thing to actually leave for a conference that is significantly weaker and would be the 4th or 5th best conference in the country. This new conference won't have the strength of schedule to get multiple teams in the tournament on a regular basis.

Where does Huntsville go in this? If the AHA gets plucked by losing RIT, RMU, Niagara and Mercyhurst they'll have to do some adding of teams as well. I can't see Bemidji or Tech going to the NCHC. The conference was formed to get away from those two teams. If WMU and Miami do leave, the conference will sit at 10 until some quality schools come around.

As of right now. It goes up and down depending on how much money the NCHC spends in a year. It will be a bit lower for this coming year.

WMU and Miami are not leaving. This isn't a trade, it's adding two more teams to make the conference 10.

Yes, Mankato will be added but it's not a done deal. If it was, Brad would still see that info in the released documents he requested.

Honestly, who would people rather have in their conference... ASU, Western and Miami or Alaska, Tech and Bemidji?

Plan on scenario 1 happening but if WMU and Miami are going to leave... that would be the end of the WCHA unless they join that conference. They have to go with other teams, so it would be creating a new conference. By the time they leave (it's not happening soon) there will be other teams in the west that the NCHC can pick up to replace them. The NCHC won't add any of the other WCHA teams and Air Force won't leave AFA.

UNLV is not going D1 anytime soon. This "delay" in announcement is because the athletic directors don't get together until August and the presidents don't get together until early September. The NCHC, just like all of the other conferences can't unilaterally make decisions to add. The membership gets together and discusses those options. They talked about it in Florida but had made no decisions at the time.

Hockey Priority: UND, DU, CC, UNO, Duluth Cost Cutting: Anchorage, Bemidji, Mankato, Tech, SCSU (at the time) If the WCHA was going to add two more teams to replace Minnesota and Wisconsin, they both would have had to be hockey priority schools, or the best case scenario would have been a 6-6 split. That's why the NCHC was formed. They wanted a majority of schools that were making hockey a priority and they got that. Does it mean there won't be some teams that can't spend like the other schools? Absolutely and I think Western and SCSU were examples of that. But you don't want to start a new conference with 6 schools because if one leaves for greener pastures then you're left scrambing.

You literally know nothing about any NCHC conversations. You've thrown a lot of crap at the wall and none of it sticks. WMU was a late add after the NCHC said no to Notre Dame.

Wrong. Western was not an original team. They were added with SCSU.

Where do you get that BG was invited? I've never heard that.