#MACtion

If you rewind 3 years ago WMU for the first time in their history were playing good hockey under Blashill. The NCHC always wanted more than the original 6 and the thought then was that Notre Dame and WMU would be 7 and 8 and them and Miami would make a good eastern wing. WMU was on the fence for getting an invite and was lobbying hard to get in. Im not sure if you remember or heard outside of the CCHA but the WMU athletic director had this huge "Why Western" campaign with videos and a website and the whole nine yards. They were making promises of a fancy new coach and a new $65 million hockey arena, etc. After Notre Dame bolted for Hockey East to have their own TV deal, the NCHC still wanted 8 and after already been talking with WMU for the months before went ahead and offered them and St. Cloud. Had ND accepted, St. Cloud would have been out. BG was playing terrible hockey at the time and wouldn't promise any upgrades and was passed on. Western made promises but hasn't followed through (at least yet).

“@LetsPlay_Hockey: Iowa State University is still pursuing a Division I men’s hockey varsity program. The logical league for them to join would be the WCHA.” http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?100654-Iowa-State-pursuing-D1-Hockey Miami "fans" would be happy with a ASU/BG set-up if it was determined to increase value to the conference. It all comes down to travel and travel costs for the Miami Admin. BG would help that out. There were also rumblings about Miami players having to adjust to much more time on the road compared to what they were used to. Many Miami fans really miss the "old" CCHA with Notre Dame, Michigan, Mich State, OSU but realize they left us and not the other way around and a "new" CCHA would be just awful. I just think Iowa State would be a much better add then Arizona State. In my opinion, this could end up being the best of both worlds for Miami. I think it was a great idea to tweak the Pairwise rules a while back to give more emphasis to quality ROAD wins. This prevents Michigan and Notre Dame refusing to play anybody on home and home set-ups and play only at their place like they routinely do in football and basketball. If they try that in hockey then they will suffer in Pairwise and lose NCAA tourney appearances. Best rule ever. Because of this rule, once U of M and Notre Dame come to their senses, then Miami can lock-in some long-term scheduling agreements with ND, UofM, MSU, Ohio State, and BG out of conference and then play in the much better NCHC in conference. So far only Ohio State and of course BG are playing us out of conference after Michigan and Notre Dame told our Athletic Director they only wanted to play us at their barns and then we said "yeah right". I think Michigan State is open to playing us but it just hasn't been worked out yet.

Getting Iowa State spooled up and on board would be much better than adding Arizona State in my opinion. Iowa State is located perfectly in the footprint, would add to the TV deal with their Cyclone TV and Big 12 connections, and would have much better fan support and would be a much better rival than sparky who would be looking to get out of the NCHC as soon as they lobbied enough PAC12 schools who want to fill the PAC12 Network with new content. The Big 12 isn't going to have their own network and there is little risk of Iowa State ever leaving. Iowa State needs to find the financial donor and the NCHC should be pushing hard to add them. Then add Colorado State or BG. There is not a better fit than Iowa State in my opinion. Adding BG would then make it a tight 10.

Nice hard fought game by both teams. Love this outcome for Miami because everybody expected a split so the pressure is off for us. See ya tomorrow.

Lol. Good catch.

I love watching Hakstol give interviews. He's a trip. Stairs intensely into the camera.

LETS DO THIS !

Miami's Gamenotes: http://www.muredhawks.com/pdf9/2968211.pdf

Glad UND, the Alabama of hockey (eyes rolling), yawns at Miami. Complacent is fine.

I'm a football fan first, then hockey, and as bad as Miami Football is right now, they'd still demolish UND so I would't consider Miami a lesser program with nearly 700 wins and good for Top 25 wins in all of FBS.

Oh BTW, the NCHC's #1, #3, #4, and #5 Top Goal Scorers all hail from Miami. http://www.nchchockey.com/page/show/1219043-nchc?subseason=161626 Miami has the NCHC's Top Point Leader, Top Scorer, Top Assist Leader, and Top Goalie Winner. The NCHC stats page is lit up red....

Why does everybody keep saying Miami has good forwards but no goalie? Miami's Jay Williams just got NCHC Goalie of the week. Leads the NCHC in wins (7-1) Is second in the NCHC in GAA (1.64) and has a save % of .921 http://www.nchchockey.com/page/show/1219043-nchc?subseason=161626 Those stats looks good too me. I hope UND is overlooking our defense because of the injuries Miami had last year. We also have some D transfers.

So is one of these games this weekend on FCS?

Miami still puts Tomahawks on the wall in the football locker room after big wins. Too bad this is hockey or Miami would have two more Tomahawks going up on Monday.

"So: if you just signed up for an account and want to post, PLEASE send an e-mail to chuck@miamihawktalk.com, and I will try to get you activated ASAP. If you don't send an e-mail to me, understand that we may miss you, and -- if you're a visiting fan -- you may not be able to post before the game you're here to post about. So send those e-mails! EDIT: You can also e-mail devilgrad@miamihawktalk.com, and he'll get back to you in a day or two. Same for mattsledge@gmail.com." http://www.miamihawktalk.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=54382 Email those three above, be persistent but courteous.

I don't know how this turns out but if Miami gets swept there will be some moaning, wheeping, and knashing of teeth in Oxford.

Can anybody point me toward other NCHC hockey message boards like Denver, UMD, UNO, etc.?? I know where the WMU folks hangout buy lookinh for the siouxsports equivalent of the others. Thanks.

I disagree.

Nope, not gonna happen.

5 UND games on FCS and 4 Miami games on FCS plus the 9 already known broadcasts of St. Cloud and Duluth = 18 FCS games nationally. I wouldn't be surprised if that UND news release on the 5 UND FCS games may have been held up for Miami to announce theirs so they could time it up and release it at the NCHC level?? Maybe Western Michigan has something coming together as well and the conference wanted one big release?

Miami showing home games on Fox College Sports now including one with North Dakota: Fri, Dec 05 Nebraska Omaha * - - Oxford, Ohio 7:35 p.m. Fox College Sports/Time Warner Sat, Jan 24 Denver * - - Oxford, Ohio 7:05 p.m. Fox College Sports/Time Warner Sat, Feb 07 Western Michigan * - - Chicago, Ill. (Soldier Field) 4:00 p.m. Fox Sports Net/Comcast Chicago Sat, Feb 21 Minnesota Duluth (Skate with the Hawks) * - - Oxford, Ohio 7:05 p.m. Fox College Sports/Time Warner Sat, Mar 07 North Dakota * - - Oxford, Ohio 7:05 p.m. Fox College Sports/Time Warner http://www.muredhawks.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=26100&SPID=87599&SPSID=617652&DB_OEM_ID=26100 Miami has 5 remaining home games that will be carried by Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and 4 will be simulcast on Fox College Sports. The UND series in Oxford has the Friday game on CBSSN and the Saturday game on FCS so both Sioux games at Miami will be on National TV now.

This works like a Roku, but also has XBMC, Google Apps, and a web-browser that will also run videos. I used it to watch NCHC.tv games. Works good, I've watched North Dakota (MidCo) and Miami (TWCSC) games. Set it up once and not have to worry about plugging in a laptop and will free up using another device like a phone or tablet (chromecast). It's basically what should be imbedded in every SmartTV. http://matricom.net/products/g-box-midnight-mx2/

Bad night for NCHC. Everybody losing. Not good.

I viewed Miami's road games last year as well and I agree that St. Cloud has a top-notch production on par with UND's. Picture clarity seemed better than UND's (at least over the internet) but UND had perhaps better replay and analysis by the announcers. My ranking: 1 -St. Cloud / UND 3 - Denver 4 - UNO 5 - Miami / UMD / CC 8 - WMU Like I've been saying, the new ESPN requirments will boost Miami and WMU toward the top but it will be a year or so. In the mean time, many Miami home games will be produced by Time Warner Sports Channel and broadcast over NCHC.tv and their productions are better than our in-house productions. Not sure if WMU has a TV partner like TWCSC.