Bemidji State in the WCHA?

[Goon]

There's (finally) some new updates to the BREC website including some new renditions of the inside. There's a "slight" error regarding the blue line and center colors . . . but it looks good none-the-less.

That is going to be a nice building.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

That is going to be a nice building.

That is what I was thinking. To bad Minot or Bismarck can't have something like that (D-1 hockey at Mary or Minot State).

[fightingsioux4life]

Is saving Bemidji's program worth more than a series with DU, MN or WI? Emotionally, yes; but this is not an emotional decision. It is a business decision. From a business perspective that answer is a resounding no. Too small facilities in Bemidji. I can't imagine the negative revenue stream in terms of opportunity cost with a MN road game to BSU vs a MN road game to the Ralph. It would be a staggering number when you factor in concessions and liquor and other...

And I suppose going back to a 12-team NCAA field is a smart "business decision" too, right? If we keep losing programs left and right, that is what's going to happen. We have to keep the number of D-I programs as close to 64 as possible or we'll be back to having two 6-team regionals again. Our esteemed commissioner is clearly against the Beavers joining the league, citing the need to focus on "good business sense" when voting on this issue. I guess he thinks losing a solid, healthy program at a traditional hockey school is better than dealing with some scheduling headaches. I think the next thing WCHA member schools should do after admitting Bemidji State is to get another commissioner.

And as far as Bemidji having "too small facilities", our facilities weren't all that great for most of our history as a program. The "Old Barn" was unheated, for goodness sakes! What Bemidji State is going to have is 10x better than the old UND Winter Sports Building.

Bottom line: If the WCHA votes to sentence Bemidji State's program to death, the league (and the rest of College Hockey) will regret it for a long, long time.

[Goon]

Bottom line: If the WCHA votes to sentence Bemidji State's program to death, the league (and the rest of College Hockey) will regret it for a long, long time.

The WCHA will look pretty petty too if they do this. I think there is probably something behind the scenes going on that isn't being talked about.

Call it postering, what ever.

[fightingsioux4life]

The WCHA will look pretty petty too if they do this. I think there is probably something behind the scenes going on that isn't being talked about.

Call it postering, what ever.

Agreed. There probably is some political BS going on behind the scenes. It takes 8 out of the 10 member schools to add a school to the league. I wonder if a certain Big Ten school in a state just to our east is lobbying McLeod and a couple of other schools in the league to prevent the Beavers from getting in? I certainly hope that isn't the case.

[Upper Deck]

Article from the Commissioner's visit here yesterday. No new news on that front . . .

If you go to the front page of the Pioneer website, there's articles about the BREC groundbreaking, Virg has a commentary and there's a bunch of photos.

[krangodance]

i know many people on this forum are against it, but i really think the wcha governing body should increase the intra-conference game schedule to 30 games per team. i don't know if it is a d1 hockey restriction or a wcha restriction that is keeping this from happening, but if whomever is responsible for that decision wants to see d1 college hockey flourish rather than diminish, this is an obvious change that could be made to further that agenda.

a conference anywhere from 11 to 15 members strong could then create balanced, workable schedules, which would eliminate all this ridiculousness over whether the wcha, or any conference for that matter, should expand or allow teams to die. i think all of us, the logical among us anyways, agree that reducing the number of d1 hockey programs is dangerous for the future of college hockey.

as professional sports leagues have expanded, so has the number of regular season games increased within the expanded league. this is not only crucial for scheduling, but it allows the league to take in more money, which allows for further expansion. perhaps we could someday see five conferences of 15 teams each in d1 college hockey. with 75 total teams, the sport might actually start attracting enough attention from participating schools to finally get the coverage we all would love to see.

[mikejm]

Based on McClown's comments, I'd say BSU's chances for WCHA membership are somewhere between slim and none.

[fightingsioux4life]

Based on McClown's comments, I'd say BSU's chances for WCHA membership are somewhere between slim and none.

If it were McLeod's decision, I would agree with you. But it's not his decision, it's the decision of each of the 10 member schools. McLeod works for them, not the other way around. I say in with Bemidji State and out with McLeod and Greg Sheppard.

[MrBurns]

I really don't think the scheduling would be that hard. Would it be that big of a deal to increase the WCHA schedule from 28 to 30 games? If you do that you get rid of the current rival school scheduling. Then you have a rotating schedule where one year you play 5 team 4 times each and the other 5 teams 2 times each. The next year play the opposite 5 teams 4 times and the others 2. The schedule would not be that different than it is now other then instead of playing St. Cloud 4 times every year it would rotate just like it currently does with the other teams. It doesn't seem too difficult unless adding 2 extra

WCHA games is that big of a deal.

[krangodance]

I really don't think the scheduling would be that hard. Would it be that big of a deal to increase the WCHA schedule from 28 to 30 games? If you do that you get rid of the current rival school scheduling. Then you have a rotating schedule where one year you play 5 team 4 times each and the other 5 teams 2 times each. The next year play the opposite 5 teams 4 times and the others 2. The schedule would not be that different than it is now other then instead of playing St. Cloud 4 times every year it would rotate just like it currently does with the other teams. It doesn't seem too difficult unless adding 2 extra

WCHA games is that big of a deal.

i came up with this same idea once, but somebody pointed out that you'd end up playing more home games than away games or vice-versa. however, this could be overcome by doing a home and away series against one team that you're only playing twice each year. simply rotate through all ten teams on a ten year rotation for the home and away series.

the only situation that kind of sucks is if you're paired with uaa for a home and away, but they could split that series the way denver and cc split their last series this year where they did two one-game weekends, one in denver, one at cc. this way you wouldn't have a situation where you'd have to fly to uaa and then back home the next day. plus, it's only once every ten years so it's not a big deal.

[krangodance]

an example ten season und schedule with 11 teams and 30 intra-conference games:

season 1:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, cc

two away - du, uaa

home-away - mtu

season 2:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - umn, msu

two away - scsu, bsu

home-away - umd

season 3:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - du, uaa

two away - cc, mtu

home-away - uw

season 4:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - scsu, bsu

two away - msu, umd

home-away - umn

season 5:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - cc, mtu

two away - uw, uaa

home-away - du

season 6:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - msu, umd

two away - umn, bsu

home-away - scsu

season 7:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, uaa

two away - du, mtu

home-away - cc

season 8:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - umn, bsu

two away - scsu, umd

home-away - msu

season 9:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - du, mtu

two away - uw, cc

home-away - uaa

season 10:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - scsu, umd

two away - umn, msu

home-away - bsu

[Goon]

an example ten season und schedule with 11 teams and 30 intra-conference games:

season 1:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, cc

two away - du, uaa

home-away - mtu

season 2:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - umn, msu

two away - scsu, bsu

home-away - umd

season 3:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - du, uaa

two away - cc, mtu

home-away - uw

season 4:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - scsu, bsu

two away - msu, umd

home-away - umn

season 5:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - cc, mtu

two away - uw, uaa

home-away - du

season 6:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - msu, umd

two away - umn, bsu

home-away - scsu

season 7:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, uaa

two away - du, mtu

home-away - cc

season 8:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - umn, bsu

two away - scsu, umd

home-away - msu

season 9:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - du, mtu

two away - uw, cc

home-away - uaa

season 10:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - scsu, umd

two away - umn, msu

home-away - bsu

Maybe you should send your proposal to Bruce McLoed because he seems to be having a bit of trouble right now.

It's almost like he is begging for help from the NCAA.

[siouxweet]

an example ten season und schedule with 11 teams and 30 intra-conference games:

season 1:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, cc

two away - du, uaa

home-away - mtu

season 2:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - umn, msu

two away - scsu, bsu

home-away - umd

season 3:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - du, uaa

two away - cc, mtu

home-away - uw

season 4:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - scsu, bsu

two away - msu, umd

home-away - umn

season 5:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - cc, mtu

two away - uw, uaa

home-away - du

season 6:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - msu, umd

two away - umn, bsu

home-away - scsu

season 7:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, uaa

two away - du, mtu

home-away - cc

season 8:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - umn, bsu

two away - scsu, umd

home-away - msu

season 9:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - du, mtu

two away - uw, cc

home-away - uaa

season 10:

four games - uw, cc, du, uaa, mtu

two home - scsu, umd

two away - umn, msu

home-away - bsu

what does the (home-away) mean?

[AZSIOUX]

what does the (home-away) mean?

ill guess and say it means 1 game in grand forks and 1 game in oppenets arena like gophs do with scsu and or we have done with bsu

[bigmrg74]

i know many people on this forum are against it, but i really think the wcha governing body should increase the intra-conference game schedule to 30 games per team. i don't know if it is a d1 hockey restriction or a wcha restriction that is keeping this from happening, but if whomever is responsible for that decision wants to see d1 college hockey flourish rather than diminish, this is an obvious change that could be made to further that agenda.

a conference anywhere from 11 to 15 members strong could then create balanced, workable schedules, which would eliminate all this ridiculousness over whether the wcha, or any conference for that matter, should expand or allow teams to die. i think all of us, the logical among us anyways, agree that reducing the number of d1 hockey programs is dangerous for the future of college hockey.

as professional sports leagues have expanded, so has the number of regular season games increased within the expanded league. this is not only crucial for scheduling, but it allows the league to take in more money, which allows for further expansion. perhaps we could someday see five conferences of 15 teams each in d1 college hockey. with 75 total teams, the sport might actually start attracting enough attention from participating schools to finally get the coverage we all would love to see.

Yeah, but you're only allowed 34 games per the NCAA, and 36 if you go up to Alaska. Minnesota and Wisconsin have the Big Ten Challenge with Michigan and Michigan State. along with tournements they have. Michigan Tech has the Great Lakes Invitational, a rivalry series with Northern, and the Superior Showdown with NMU, LSSU, and Duluth. Other teams in the WCHA probably have their usual non-conferce games locked in. And the worst of all of this, if the WCHA teams are only getting 4 or 6 games against non-conference opponents, they're going to have lousey SOS numbers and in turn pairwise numbers as well because throught a conference, your SOS numbers are always going to equal .500.

[Big A HG]

an example ten season und schedule with 11 teams and 30 intra-conference games:

season 1:

four games - umn, msu, scsu, bsu, umd

two home - uw, cc

two away - du, uaa

home-away - mtu

etc

etc

etc

That's a huge conference schedule with only a few non-conference games. That's the problem with this. You CAN make an 11 team conference work, but at the expense of non-conference games which are very important as well.

[redwing77]

ill guess and say it means 1 game in grand forks and 1 game in oppenets arena like gophs do with scsu and or we have done with bsu

If that's the case, then it would be RIDICULOUS to do that with MTU. It's simply too much trouble to get to Houghton unless we want to bother with chartering an airplane.

This system would work well for BSU, SCSU, and maybe UMD, MSUM, or UMN (though I DOUBT either UMN or UND would be too happy splitting the revenue over a weekend. Only Mankato seems to be happy with that).

There's only one team that a home-away as you describe is MORE difficult than MTU and that's UAA, which is pretty much impossible.

UAA -impossible

MTU - extremely difficult

UW - difficult but might be doable

That's my opinion anyways.

[SiouxMeNow]

gotta figure the "big boys" (UM and UW) don't want anypart of Bemidji taking away their opportunity to play each other AT LEAST 4x a season (for the home gate)...that's 2 votes that are the minimum to nix this whole deal. All they'd need is 1 more vote and the Beavers are history....the real question is where do DU and CC stand? they're the linchpin in this whole deal IMO...

[krangodance]

If that's the case, then it would be RIDICULOUS to do that with MTU. It's simply too much trouble to get to Houghton unless we want to bother with chartering an airplane.

This system would work well for BSU, SCSU, and maybe UMD, MSUM, or UMN (though I DOUBT either UMN or UND would be too happy splitting the revenue over a weekend. Only Mankato seems to be happy with that).

There's only one team that a home-away as you describe is MORE difficult than MTU and that's UAA, which is pretty much impossible.

UAA -impossible

MTU - extremely difficult

UW - difficult but might be doable

That's my opinion anyways.

that's why i suggested in a previous post that inconvenience home-away series be played on split weekends, just as cc and du did this year.

as for somebody saying there's a 36 game max if you go to alaska. didn't we play 38 games this year? maybe there's another rule that allows us to play more games.

[bigmrg74]

that's why i suggested in a previous post that inconvenience home-away series be played on split weekends, just as cc and du did this year.

as for somebody saying there's a 36 game max if you go to alaska. didn't we play 38 games this year? maybe there's another rule that allows us to play more games.

There's two games that would be just exhibition games. Manitoba and the USDT.

[Snake]

gotta figure the "big boys" (UM and UW) don't want anypart of Bemidji taking away their opportunity to play each other AT LEAST 4x a season (for the home gate)...that's 2 votes that are the minimum to nix this whole deal. All they'd need is 1 more vote and the Beavers are history....the real question is where do DU and CC stand? they're the linchpin in this whole deal IMO...

I thought CC and DU were the two that voted against expansion, but I'm not completely sure on that.

[krangodance]

There's two games that would be just exhibition games. Manitoba and the USDT.

i'm not counting those two. those would make it 40. we had 28 conference games and these ten non-conference games:

boston u

massachusettes

cornell (2)

harvard (2)

michigan state

michigan tech (this was a non-conference game at the gli)

bsu (2)

that's 38 games, none of which were exhibition.

[gopherz]

BSU means less non-conference games. I don't want that. Give me a good HE team, or the continuing Michigan/Michigan State games that the Gophers have over BSU. Sure, BSU has made a good run so far in the playoffs, but I don't think they're good for the league. Good for BSU? Sure. Good for the WCHA? Doubtful.

[AZSIOUX]

BSU means less non-conference games. I don't want that. Give me a good HE team, or the continuing Michigan/Michigan State games that the Gophers have over BSU. Sure, BSU has made a good run so far in the playoffs, but I don't think they're good for the league. Good for BSU? Sure. Good for the WCHA? Doubtful.

hell the gophers dont travel anywhere anyhow besides to mich for that tourney when they do so who cares on your end or do you mean make HE teams travel to mariucci as thats what would happen. BSU plays wcha teams every year and wins as well. they can easily hang in the wcha as of now. just let them in. i guess we will see