How to convice NCAA the Regionals are flawed?

[mikejm]

Watching the West and East Regionals on television yesterday makes me wonder what in the heck the NCAA is thinking. Can they really look at half-empty (perhaps that is being generous) arenas and be satisfied? I see attendance figures are now up for the games:

Colorado College (CC) vs Boston College (BC) Attendance: 5024

Air Force (AFA) vs Yale (YAL) Attendance: 7671

Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) vs Michigan (MIC) Attendance: 5024

Minnesota Duluth (MND) vs Union (UNI) Attendance: 7671

When was the last season Regionals were held on-campus? I know The Ralph sold over 11,000 seats both nights in '06.

IIRC the NCAA moved the games off-campus to create neutral sites, and to evangelize the sport to new audiences. I can't but help thinking anyone looking at these games

[yzerman19]

Watching the West and East Regionals on television yesterday makes me wonder what in the heck the NCAA is thinking. Can they really look at half-empty (perhaps that is being generous) arenas and be satisfied? I see attendance figures are now up for the games:

Colorado College (CC) vs Boston College (BC) Attendance: 5024

Air Force (AFA) vs Yale (YAL) Attendance: 7671

Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) vs Michigan (MIC) Attendance: 5024

Minnesota Duluth (MND) vs Union (UNI) Attendance: 7671

When was the last season Regionals were held on-campus? I know The Ralph sold over 11,000 seats both nights in '06.

IIRC the NCAA moved the games off-campus to create neutral sites, and to evangelize the sport to new audiences. I can't but help thinking anyone looking at these games — either in person or on tv and seeing more empty seats than people — will get the impression college hockey is an insignificant and dying sport.

How much longer will the NCAA delude itself? And how does the college hockey fanbase convince them to make changes to the format?

Seeing the duplicate numbers on attendance means that they counted total gate not game by game...so 12,695 people over two sites and 4 games... kinda sad.

Now, weekday afternoon games are tough to get a read on as many fans are at work.

You could have conference champions host their regionals...adds to the thrill of the conference tourney that way too. Rotate which 4 conferences host on a yearly basis.

I would like them to change the format to look more like the WJC, maybe make it best 2 outta 3 too.

Round Robin in pool play, then onto the real tournament. Those that DNQ for the tourney could be sent to an NIT tourney.

Shorter regular season, longer playoffs.

[NorthDakotaHockey]

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Last year's West Regional at The X was a joke, even with Wisconsin and Saint Clown in the mix.

The West is at The X again next year. If the Sioux are in the tournament next year, the NCAA will not

make that seeding mistake (sending North Dakota away from The X) again.

The games should be returned to on campus sites. Of course, The Ralph will never see one again unless

the NCAA puts dollars over principles.

[franchise]

I'd like to see actual attendence and not tickets sold.

[Ranger]

Watching the West and East Regionals on television yesterday makes me wonder what in the heck the NCAA is thinking. Can they really look at half-empty (perhaps that is being generous) arenas and be satisfied? I see attendance figures are now up for the games:

Colorado College (CC) vs Boston College (BC) Attendance: 5024

Air Force (AFA) vs Yale (YAL) Attendance: 7671

Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) vs Michigan (MIC) Attendance: 5024

Minnesota Duluth (MND) vs Union (UNI) Attendance: 7671

When was the last season Regionals were held on-campus? I know The Ralph sold over 11,000 seats both nights in '06.

IIRC the NCAA moved the games off-campus to create neutral sites, and to evangelize the sport to new audiences. I can't but help thinking anyone looking at these games

[mikejm]

Last year's West Regional at The X was a joke, even with Wisconsin and Saint Clown in the mix.

Interestingly, yesterday's games at Bridgeport outdrew last year's St. Cloud/Wisconsin regional final at the X: 7671 - 7182.

[soSIOUXme]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how returning the games to campus sites will improve attendance overall since most teams do not have large arenas. It would probably help fill the buildings but not increase the numbers.

[28noel60]

Interestingly, yesterday's games at Bridgeport outdrew last year's St. Cloud/Wisconsin regional final at the X: 7671 - 7182.

I think they need to quit moving teams out just because of inter conference matchup. Seems to me that is better for attendance and for example next year gophers make field as a 4 seed. If UND would earn 1 seed they get moved out. Profits for that region would double in one night you would sell out that building it is total nonsense. Heck if you used this years Krach ratings which many on this board favor you couldn't have gotten away from it. Don't get me wrong I know we are stuck with the pairwise because they want more teams to have a chance to make tourney instead of wcha teams and possibly hockey east and ccha. Have a rotating system for the four conferences so each team has opportunity to host it once in a while.

[nodakvindy]

The only way I'd really support campus sites is if the four #1 seeds would host the regionals. And I gotta admit I'm not really crazy about that. I think that virtually drastically reduces the likelihood of the 4 over 1 upsets that have been some of the best tourney moments in recent years.

Pre-selected campus sites I fear would be heavily skewed to the Big 10 schools and I'm in no way in favor of giving them any advantage. The eastern sites will remain neutral as attendance isn't the same problem their.

I'd actually like to see UND bid for a regional in Sioux Falls. Sioux fans would pack the pace and it would be a nice presence for us in that area. Just imagine, the other Dakota schools playing there for the Summit basketball tournament, then two weeks later the Sioux playing in a hockey regional with the likes of Michigan, Boston College or Notre Dame.

And at some point, you have to put some of it on the fan bases of the teams. Can't blame BC a ton for St. Louis, but Omaha and CC both need to show up in bigger numbers. The Mavs had a marquee opponent and a regional that is the closest to them as there has ever been.

Finally, I think that we look at this too much through green-colored glasses. UND fans will go to a game anywhere. Other schools just don't have that fervent of a fanbase. That said, I'll take the more levelled playing field of neutral sites for the NCAA tourney, even if it means the occasional attendance clunker.

[mikejm]

Pre-selected campus sites I fear would be heavily skewed to the Big 10 schools and I'm in no way in favor of giving them any advantage.

You say that like you think Big 10 schools (emphasis on the plural) will make the tournament.

[nodakvindy]

You say that like you think Big 10 schools (emphasis on the plural) will make the tournament.

Who said anything about making the tournament? Pre-selected means prior to the season. You do know that Mariucci and World Arena hosted games even though Minnesota and CC did not make the tourney in those seasons. The presumption that I'm some kind of Big 10 fan/backer is laughable.

[ozzie679]

First of all, I completely agree that the NCAA should stick to sites that will support NCAA hockey like the X and the Ralph. Regional attendance is an embarrassment to the sport of hockey. What's even more of an embarrassment is that SCSU and Wiscy punt under 8k in the X for the region final. I believe UMD and (?) had the same size crowd at Mariucci the year before.

That being said, UND fans are in a hockey bubble. You have arguably the best program and fan support in all of college hockey. Yet some of you constantly try to compare fan support and the quality of other programs to yourself. FYI, there is no comparison. Do other programs strive to have what UND has up in Grand Forks? Yes they do. But with less resources and less loyal fans. The "UND's" are few and far between. Please don't take offense, because I enjoy this message board and have allot of respect for UND hockey.

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[mikejm]

Who said anything about making the tournament? Pre-selected means prior to the season. You do know that Mariucci and World Arena hosted games even though Minnesota and CC did not make the tourney in those seasons. The presumption that I'm some kind of Big 10 fan/backer is laughable.

Your initial comment mentioned "giving them any advantage" as in a team makes the playoffs and gets home ice. That's what my post referred to.

[PhillySioux]

If the NCAA is comfortable with 5-7000 per regional, UND should bid using Scheels arena.

[Brucesky02]

How can we convice the NCAA of anything?

[coach daddy]

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Last year's West Regional at The X was a joke, even with Wisconsin and Saint Clown in the mix.

The West is at The X again next year. If the Sioux are in the tournament next year, the NCAA will not

make that seeding mistake (sending North Dakota away from The X) again.

The games should be returned to on campus sites. Of course, The Ralph will never see one again unless

the NCAA puts dollars over principles.

Thats how people want it, remember. The name is more important than where our athletes play. I've seen it posted alot in the last 2 weeks.

[siouxfan123]

I'd actually like to see UND bid for a regional in Sioux Falls. Sioux fans would pack the pace and it would be a nice presence for us in that area. Just imagine, the other Dakota schools playing there for the Summit basketball tournament, then two weeks later the Sioux playing in a hockey regional with the likes of Michigan, Boston College or Notre Dame.

Sioux Falls needs to get a new arena before I would even suggest them hosting a regional. The arena was built with basketball in mind and only added ice in the 90s I believe and has a very awkward configuration for hockey.

I am not sure how to add a picture, but here is a link to show what the hockey configuration looks like.

[nodakvindy]

Sioux Falls needs to get a new arena before I would even suggest them hosting a regional. The arena was built with basketball in mind and only added ice in the 90s I believe and has a very awkward configuration for hockey.

I am not sure how to add a picture, but here is a link to show what the hockey configuration looks like.

I'll admit I've never seen a game there, so don't know about the sightlines. However, the location is very good and that's what matters for a regional. Manchester and Worcester aren't the newest facilities, but they have hosted numerous regionals. Sioux City would be another option for a western regional. Both it and Sioux Falls would be very drivable locations for many WCHA schools.

[GeauxSioux]

Would the NCAA go for a regional in Winnipeg? The MTS Centre has great capacity , 16,000+. You'd get the Sioux fans and the hockey loving Canadians.