Jump to content
SiouxSports.com Forum

College Hockey Expansion


cberkas

Recommended Posts

9 hours ago, cberkas said:

I've noticed the new head coach for Alabama's club team, John Bierchen, has been tweeting hockey areas. He has tweeted pictures of the Ralph and Little Ralph, and the new Jamestown arena. He has also gone back and forth with JLG Architects.

 

From previous comments from Alabama admin more than a year ago, the Tide seem serious about hockey.  Since Saban became football coach, Bama enrollment has seriously grown, especially from Northern states.  Hockey would only further the appeal to students from the north.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like there is a serious movement in Alaska to unify the three U ALASKA campuses under one accreditation and administration.  That could lead to the death of UAF or UAA hockey.  Right now, looks like UAA would retain most of the team sports except hockey, which UAF would retain plus individual sports like skiing, rifle.

If this happens, the WCHA schools can't batch about having to travel twice to Alaska.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So Jamestown just applied the the Great Plains Athletic Conference, another NAIA conference mainly in Nebraska and Iowa.  Think this is about hockey, as the NAIA will sponsor hockey again by 2017-18.  Schools in the GPAC that sponsor hockey are Midland NE and Dordt IA.  A number of other NAIA schools in Indiona and Michigan are set to sponsor hockey.  NAIA allows athletic scholarships, but in lesser %'s than DII.  Jamestown needs relatively wealthy parents to afford tuition, so this might give Jamestown more in roads to suburban MSP.

A pretty big move by Jamestown, as it is effectively severing it's relationship with the North Star conference, and Valley City St, Mayville St, and Dickinson St.  A big blow to those institutions.  Minot St maybe should have stayed an NAIA school, as it would probably dominate hockey there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I'm sure someone on here knows the answer. Someone on USCHO Fan Forum said the Engelstad's have donated $114,000 to the UNLV club hockey team. 

On The Banks did a story on B1G facilities arms race. It doesn't look like anyone is looking to add hockey.

Maryland's Cole Field House, which could have been renovated to a hockey arena, is being renovated into an indoor practice facility for football thanks to the Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On ‎5‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 2:05 AM, cberkas said:

I've noticed the new head coach for Alabama's club team, John Bierchen, has been tweeting hockey areas. He has tweeted pictures of the Ralph and Little Ralph, and the new Jamestown arena. He has also gone back and forth with JLG Architects.

 

I went to John Bierchen's twitter this morning and saw this....

Quote

 

Kevin Hagan@LexKyTide Jul 8

@garyharris_wvua @JohnBierchen I dream of the day Alabama hockey plays UND at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks and wins!

 

I don't know about the winning part, but it would be cool to see Alabama come to The Ralph.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, MissSioux85 said:

Not that my vote counts for anything, but mark me down as a solid "No."  NCHC is doing fine right now, no sense in adding a mediocre regional DII school just for the heck of it.

  • Upvote 4
  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, UNDBIZ said:

Not that my vote counts for anything, but mark me down as a solid "No."  NCHC is doing fine right now, no sense in adding a mediocre regional DII school just for the heck of it.

I wonder if they have info of another school that is wanting to join the NCHC (ASU) so that it evens out the membership. Or perhaps BGSU is considering applying.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, UNDBIZ said:

Not that my vote counts for anything, but mark me down as a solid "No."  NCHC is doing fine right now, no sense in adding a mediocre regional DII school just for the heck of it.

In Mankato's defense, they do have the benefit of being a bus drive from four current schools.  

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Not that my vote counts for anything, but mark me down as a solid "No."  NCHC is doing fine right now, no sense in adding a mediocre regional DII school just for the heck of it.

Who cares if they are DII in other sports? This is about hockey. Especially when one could say UND is a mediocre FCS school....

I've already shared my thoughts in the thread about ASU but I'm all for Mankato joining the NCHC. Would love another easy weekend road trip plus Mankato has been fielding a competitive hockey team since Hastings became head coach of the program. The NCHC threw away their principles when they admitted St. Cloud.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Really? They've probably been the 2nd best team in the conference since it started. Why don't they belong? 

I'll preface this by saying I'm fine with St. Cloud in the NCHC. They have been flourishing so far. However, their admission to the NCHC in my opinion made a mockery of the reasons/justifications of why the NCHC formed in the first place. They were the sloppy seconds that the NCHC admitted since the hot girl(Notre Dame) didn't join for even numbers purposes.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...