GFG

UND won't have to worry about that. With Ralph's donation of the arena, the top of the line amenities and facilities and their commitment to hockey there's absolutely no way that UND will ever "get left behind" or be forced to recruit other players. UND, Minnesota, BC, BU etc are the Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon etc of college football. They're the blue bloods and will almost surely be around the top forever with some of the inevitable down years tossed in. Correct. Sunday games or whatever are extremely rare. Almost every single one of them was because of the school having a home football game that weekend (which has been going on for years even at Minnesota), but it's non-conference play during that time. UND could continue operations as is. They may have the very occasional Thursday game, but it's extremely rare. Minnesota had one this year and I'm pretty sure it's only because it allowed BTN to have both end of season MN-MI games televised that week. I can deal with one per year.

Supposedly Iowa is seriously looking at hockey and building an on campus arena. Some guy on Reddit has been saying it over and over for a few weeks and a Notre Dame fan said there were a few people from Iowa's athletic department visiting Notre Dame earlier this year to check out their arena. I'm still skeptical about it. I've heard from a lot of Iowa people that it will almost surely never happen without a donor like Pegula. Edit: And that insider is the coach of their club hockey team. He's been very outgoing and public about trying to make Rutgers DI and he's probably a good source. If he says there are other schools looking at the idea he's probably not wrong.

UM

Sounds like Brodzinski is signing

Actually I believe you're correct...they lost AAU status because the med school was located in Omaha...

Does it matter if they say they're part of the the University of Nebraska system? That's all they have to play it off. Like I said, though, I still think it's going to be ASU. If it's not ASU then I'm going with UNO and ASU replaces them in the NCHC.

UND would be great for them hockey-wise. I just don't think they'll do it, as much as I want them to.

Not that much. Like I said, UNO dropped football to be the 'hockey' school in the Nebraska system and let Lincoln keep all the hold on the football side of things. Not at all out of the question that Nebraska just says screw it and says to let Omaha be in their place. The B1G can just say it's because they're part of the University of Nebraska system.

UNO does nothing for me, personally. Never even cared for them when we were in the same conference for a couple of years. I liked the idea of making the east teams happy with Notre Dame and Minnesota-Wisconsin happy with North Dakota. I miss you a$$holes.

I guess Connelly (who broke the Notre Dame news) said on the USCHO podcast that he heard rumblings of UNO being the 8th team

By top 3 I should basically say they should be even with HE and the NCHC

I wouldn't exactly say that...all of the Minnesota boosters, including Lou Nanne, have been pressing the B1G to add UND for a couple of years now. The B1G isn't stupid. Minnesota is their biggest fan base for hockey and they know it. Minnesota's fan base absolutely despises EVERYTHING about the B1G for forcing them to leave the teams they liked to play against in hockey. How do you make up for it and get them to change their feelings towards you? Add UND to please their fans and strengthen your conference with a school that's shown extreme commitment to the sport of college hockey. Allow UND some sort of research opportunities with the B1G schools and UND literally doesn't have any option other than yes at that point. I don't think it will happen, but it certainly makes a lot of sense. I'm still thinking ASU.

One thing to consider about the NCHC not losing someone is Omaha...it's not out of the realm of possibility that the B1G takes them and sends ASU to the NCHC for the time being, until more western teams add. There were rumors floated awhile back the Lincoln wouldn't add hockey because Omaha dropped football and focused on hockey. So each school gets its own thing. The B1G might not want to take a chance on a new program that won't be around for long, so they could bring in Omaha, with their brand new arena, and brand it as part of the University of Nebraska system and basically consider them the University of Nebraska for B1G hockey. I agree. The B1G will be fine with more teams. With 6 teams it was going to be nothing but pure disaster, but in a decade or so (maybe less) they should consistently be a top 3 conference.

You're probably not wrong, but let's not use logic

Much like you see with Penn State, ASU will be much better off playing the B1G schools their students and alumni are more familiar with name-wise. 5 of the current B1G fan bases are miserable with the new conference, but Penn State is thriving because they weren't used to anything before. The B1G hockey games are the hardest to get tickets of any sport on the PSU campus. The big schools are a huge draw to their fans where college hockey never really existed and it's the schools they're used to competing against in other sports. When it comes to these big schools that have no history with college hockey they're better off with similar minded schools their fans can better associate with. It may not make the most sense to the college hockey fans that have been around forever, but a lot of stuff the B1G will continue to do won't because it's going to be run like a P5 conference and not a college hockey conference. There's nothing we can do now but accept it, because they're not going to change. The one positive I see with this is all of these big schools coming together could really help tip some other large schools to add college hockey. There are some hot rumors about UCLA and possibly USC moving back up to DI right now. They need some things to come together, but if they can come together they'll probably be the next western teams to add the sport.

Supposedly Notre Dame can keep their TV contract. So there will be a lot of B1G hockey on TV starting in 2 years... They had to announce before April 1st or their buyout of HE increased from $250k to $350k. I would be shocked if it's Miami. ASU is a MUCH bigger, well known school with better academics than Miami. I've thought ASU was going B1G for a long time and I'd be shocked if it changes now. I'm ecstatic the B1G got Notre Dame because UCONN would've pissed off a lot of people.

Still suffering the effects of those cyanide cupcakes, eh?

I bet Michigan thought they should've won the B1G this year, too

Minnesota has 2 seniors and neither of them see any ice time. One is the third string goalie who was brought in as more of a practice goalie and never had a chance at being a legitimate starter and the other one just doesn't play. UND's seniors are arguably some of their most important players, and yes that is a problem with Minnesota. UND is lead by their older players and Boeser, who appears to have a Hobey in his future at this rate. Say what you want, but he's a massive difference maker for UND as a freshman and it's been a huge boost to them. Minnesota, obviously, doesn't have freshman anywhere near that caliber. They might have a player like that in Casey Mittelstadt in a couple years and Scott Reedy is looking decent as well that year, but to have a guy like Boeser isn't normal. It's starting to look like, at least right now, that he may have been a steal for the Canucks at 23rd in the draft.

It won't Minnesota fans are obviously pissed and want more natural powers, but I don't think the B1G will do it. They're going to stick with 'big name' schools and just keep pissing off the actual college hockey fans. All of the Michigan and MSU fans on Reddit say the same thing. As college hockey fans nobody likes the B1G (except for PSU), but it just doesn't matter. Just gotta live with it.

I don't disagree, but don't forget the NCHC was very close to only having one team in the NCAA tournament 2 years ago (B1G very close to 3) and only ended up getting 3 in because Wisconsin won the B1G championship game and allowed UND to back-door in. The B1G will probably never get 6 teams in but it's not at all out of the question that they could consistently have 3-4 in once some of the programs recover a bit (Fire Eaves and Anastos).

My thought too...they don't like it there and would be a great fit for B1G hockey, but Notre Dame and the B1G have a pretty hostile relationship with each other. The B1G has also told them multiple times that they wouldn't allow Notre Dame in for any sports without them bringing football as well. Add that in with their NBC contract and I'd say it would be tough to pull off. I suppose it could happen, I just find it a lot less likely than a school like UCONN.

NOT YET I'll let you know when you can announce that I'm ready to announce my announcement

That's what the NCHC has with Western Michigan and CC this year. They're basically guarantee games. The B1G can't keep it the same because there's almost no way they could make a 28 game conference schedule work, which is what would happen if they added 2 teams and kept everybody playing each other 4 games per year. Doesn't leave enough for non-conference. They'd likely make it like the NCHC schedule, where you have 24 conference games and have 2 teams you only see once per year. So it would take away 4 nonconference games

Can't be perfect when I'm trying to pack to move in 3 days