bale31

So, this is just an observation and not necessarily directed at anyone specifically (Goon, your post just happened to be the one I quoted). There is a certain irony that this sentiment is posted on a thread that is dedicated to "College Hockey Expansion". I was just reading over on USCHO that one of the positives that people have liked to point out over the last 7ish years is that the breakup of the old WCHA and CCHA and formation of BTHC and NCHC created all sorts of supposed opportunity to spawn new programs. Fast forward 7 years and no one wants to allow anyone new into their conferences. Big Ten has a superiority complex. The NCHC has a fear of others bringing them down. The WCHA has real financial issues. So, what opportunity is really is there for expansion? To go independent? I guess this just leads me back to the point I tried to make in my original post.... college hockey lost it's innocence when all of these changes started. There is no "greater good of college hockey" any longer, if there ever was. Many of us idealized what college hockey was and it isn't that any more. It's all about how much money can go into each individual college's pockets. It's just unfortunate.

I'm not so sure it's as cut and dried as you think. ASU is liable to leave the conference hanging. Everything I heard after the last application was that the entire MSU administration and the coaches were SHOCKED that MSU wasn't admitted last time. From what I understand MSU was a shoe-in, but ASU didn't have their crap together and the league didn't want to have an odd number of teams.

F!!! I typed a freaking thesis for the last 30 minutes and then I had to sign in and lost it all. Cliff notes.... 1) I'm disappointed in the way it was announced, but I trust our administrators enough to give them the benefit of the doubt. 2) I'm not sure why this is a surprise to anyone as contraction was always more likely than expansion given the circumstances of the WCHA. Smallest schools, smallest budgets, largest geographical footprint...ergo, the most expenses. 3) Mankato is likely in the best financial position in the league, but that could all go away if we have a couple of bad seasons and people don't keep buying tickets to see teams they don't care about. 4) I would love to be in the NCHC as I think it would provide fans with another reason to buy tickets when we aren't the winning-est team in the country. I think we would compete well in the league, even if many people don't agree with me. 5) I lost all illusion of an idealistic world during the last re-alignment. The last re-alignment taught me and I'm sure a lot of other people and schools a very valuable lessen. There is no "for the good of college hockey" any longer, if there ever was. It is simply that each school needs to do what is best for them and not worry about anyone else. 6) I think there is a lot of backstory on this that we don't, and maybe never will, know. I think there are some clues in the Alaska schools are in a lot of financial problems and the proved it when they moved to arenas of roughly 800 capacity and 1500 capacity. It would not surprise me if the 7 schools decided they needed to act before the other three sunk all 10 of the programs. 7) I'm not sure why UAH has been left out as they seemed to be making some huge strides both on the ice and financially. I'm really confused about that one. 8) I got on rant and word vomited a lot of opinions out when people ask.....be careful what you ask for.

While true, both of them will be smaller than their current arenas. The universities are to the point where they are considering closing dorms. The schools and their budgets are shrinking, it's just a matter of how much.

It may not be as easy of a ticket as it used to be. Kato fans have started showing up quite a bit better than in previous years.

I'm with you on that. They have an advantage and they use it. I certainly believe it worked against my team this weekend (it still doesn't explain the implosion, but to act as though it had no effect is a bit of an insult to my intelligence). I don't like the system, but I don't see a way around it as long as the coaches and ADs insist upon having "neutral site" games. My bigger point is that, knowing those details, I'm not all that impressed with the attendance numbers. Could you imagine the numbers that UND would put up in that same scenario? I'm reasonably confident that half the student base would go to the games. Obviously, there is no way to prove that, but that's my suspicion.

In fairness, there was a post on Twitter that said the administration of Providence subsidized student tickets so that students at PC only had to pay $15 for the regional. Seems to me that the deck is stacked in favor of Providence (talking about the city) when considering that. I'm reasonably certain that any of the cities would have performed as well, and probably better, if the arena was 3 miles from campus and the administration gave that sort of a deal to their students. EDIT....here's the Twitter link. Sorry if this doesn't work, I suck at the interwebs sometimes.https://twitter.com/NUHockeyBlog/status/1110669739624411136

If I were a drinking man, I would be obliterated right now

@sioux rube Thought you might find this interesting. http://www.mankatofreepress.com/sports/msu_mens_hockey/mavericks-center-spooner-plays-with-determined-spirit/article_5f6a51f2-46c0-11e9-be44-ab6b809498f2.html

Agreed. I didn't even think there was intent. My thought is that it was a couple of guys skating hard for a puck and one guy got a little reckless, but that's what they're trying to take out of the game.

It was mostly made up of homers. Both Tech homers and MSU homers. It just seemed that the Tech homers were so vehemently opposed to it being called anything. I posted the same thing on GPL and it was 75/25 in favor of a CFB, but there were a decent amount saying it wasn't. I just wasn't sure if my homerism was coming through.

That's what has me questioning it. My gut reaction is that it's a major, but I'm just not sure if I"m missing something.

OK all.....here's a hit in the Kato-Tech game this weekend. What say you? CFB? Boarding? Major? Minor? I'm still not sure I know. Sorry, I'm not sure if there is a better way to post Twitter posts.

Ha! Again, I'm not saying that would be a guarantee or would be easy. It would be interesting to see what MSU in the NCHC would look like. Maybe we'd get our asses kicked on a weekly basis, I don't know.

I don't disagree, but it depends on what you consider "success". My spidey sense tells me that the majority of fans would be happy to take 20-22 wins a year in the NCHC rather than 26-28 wins in the WCHA. I know that's not a guarantee, but that would be the expectation from fans. It is what it is at this point. I'm content with whatever ends up happening. I hope, though, that if we end up staying in the WCHA that the rest of the league continues to improve. Right now there is such a small margin for error that we can't afford to not have 26+ wins and expect to make the tourney. Personally, it's fun to see MSU going up against UND, UMD, SCSU and MN. It's much more exciting to see those teams (regardless of how good they are at any given time) than it is seeing a steady stream of the Alaskas, Huntsville, or Michigan schools.

Yep, unfortunately, Mike wasn't hired until the season before the conferences actually split up. The decision had already been made and, I think, the administration saw that the lack of resources for years is what cause us to not be included. I believe they realized that a larger commitment was needed from the day that St. Cloud was chosen to join over MSU. The difference in Mankato now from where it was 5 years ago is, frankly, astonishing as I look back to where we were. Between the arena upgrades to the recruiting commitment to the locker room changes, it's like night and day to what it was when you all last saw us. In Hastings first season, he took a 12 win team to a 24 win team in the old WCHA. That's why there are a lot of MSU fans that want in to the NCHC and think we would be very competitive. In any case, that first year makes one wonder what might have been....

Yeah, but that's what MSU did and we have egg on our face and are not very well liked by the rest of the schools in the conference we play it. It's easy to say that's what they should do, but it's pretty difficult to actually do it and live with the consequences.

Again, I'm confused by that. I'm not doubting it necessarily, but someone doesn't know what they're talking about then. The scuttlebut when MSU was applying to the NCHC was that BG said no to applying. I know Schloss said there was no "official" on the record conversations, but there is more than a little bit of conflicting details on this stuff. Again, that's why I think there was some context missing or someone isn't or hasn't been getting the whole story all along. For what it's worth, the blogger that had the conversation with Bergeron had this to say over at USCHO:

I think that was kind of the plan a couple years ago, but BG said no. That's when ASU joining became the only way that Kato got in. I'll be honest. If this conversation happened as relayed and we aren't losing any context (which seems to be the most likely scenario), I'm confused as to why now. BG didn't want this 2 years ago, why would they be willing to explore it now? Something just doesn't add up.

It is a bit more than a message board rumor if the guy talked directly to the BG coach. I also said that something doesn't seem right about the whole thing since it flies in the face of what BG said just 2 years ago. As for coughing up $1.5-$2.0 million, no, I don't think that they would just cough it up. The reality, though, is everything is negotiable. That sort of arrangement, to me, is to prevent what happened to the WCHA/CCHA where a bunch of schools up and left without a contingency plan for the rest of the league. What I mean is, and this is purely hypothetical and not meant to start any arguments of the merits of doing this, say, for example, that WMU and Miami decide it's in their best interest to be in a regional league where they can comfortably bus to most of their games. They could negotiate with the NCHC to allow Mankato and Bemidji into the league and they would go to the WCHA. The remaining teams in the league COULD choose to waive that fee to leave since they aren't going to be left out to dry like what happened previously. Or there could be any number of arrangements with multiple other schools to accomplish this. It would, of course, require ALL the schools working together to accomplish it. And that is were I see the biggest hangup. So, in short, no, I don't think it's realistic for WMU and Miami to leave their conference. I also don't think it's realistic to think BG is going anywhere unless other schools from other conferences move as well (unless they would be willing to go to the NCHC with a companion school). That, however, would probably spell a very bad scenario for the WCHA.

What changed? Not even 2 years ago they declined to even CONSIDER leaving the WCHA with Kato (at least that's the line we've gotten since then). Now, they think they're going to lead 4-6 schools to do the same thing? ....Or maybe he spoke out of turn and has always wanted to leave, but the AD and Pres have said no. Something doesn't smell right about this.

Yeah, it's a return trip. I'm sure they shared some fine establishments with our players/fans last year and we can return the favor now. We need to thank them for alienating Connor LaCouvee last year and sending him our way. It worked out pretty well for us.

I would have expected nothing less than that sentiment.

It was confirmed today that Kato is going to be playing at UND this year on Oct 19-20 as the WCHA composite schedule was released. I think that was already pretty common knowledge, but dates are out there now. MSU has a hell of a non-conference schedule, by the way. BU at home, at UND, home-and-home with MN and the Desert Classic (I think first round vs UMD and second round is ASU/Clarkson). Non-conference will put us in top 7 nationally or bury us.

I will say, if UMD didn't go through Mankato, I probably would have been on the Bulldog bandwagon. I'm just bitter it's them and not us in that group. A freaking 2-0 lead 10 minutes in and we put it damn engine in neutral for the rest of the game. F!!!