ASU to NCHC

[brianvf]

The Herald article was updated with some more details:

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NCHC presidents and chancellors voted unanimously to accept the Sun Devils on Sunday night over a Zoom call after a presentation by Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson. Only six of the eight teams — a three-fourths majority — needed to vote 'yes' for expansion to happen.

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Arizona State will pay the league a $500,000 entrance fee over three years.

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Last season, Miami athletic director David Sayler told the View From The Glass Miami hockey blog that he was not interested in Arizona State coming to the league.

"I just have no interest in crossing another time zone to play sports," Sayler said in the Q&A. "So if the league is going to continue to push that direction, that is certainly something that would cause us to think differently about what’s going on."

But Miami did come around and vote to accept the Sun Devils.

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Weems said she spoke to Miami officials after the article came out "about hockey alignment longterm, but there's nothing to report at this point."

According to multiple sources, Miami did not make a push to leave the league at the annual meetings in Florida in April. The league's exit fee is one year of operating expenses, which usually is in excess of $1 million.

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[Sweethockey]

  On 7/5/2023 at 6:29 PM, Siouxperfan7 said:

Odd number not ideal. Does this mean there will be another school added or a school will be leaving?

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When St. Clown was added in 1990, there were 9 teams in the WCHA for 3 seasons. In 1997?, there were 2 seasons of 9 teams again (Alaska Anchorage was added and Northern Michigan left). I don't remember how the scheduling went, but there's 5 seasons that it had been done.

[Kevin G]

  On 7/6/2023 at 12:35 PM, Sweethockey said:

When St. Clown was added in 1990, there were 9 teams in the WCHA for 3 seasons. In 1997?, there were 2 seasons of 9 teams again (Alaska Anchorage was added and Northern Michigan left). I don't remember how the scheduling went, but there's 5 seasons that it had been done.

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Holy cow, good memory!

While an odd number isn't ideal, it isn't an insurmountable issue. It's a bigger headache for the regular season, as one team will always be without a conference opponent. There are pretty standard approaches for the postseason tournament, as has been mentioned in this thread. The best* option? Top eight teams qualify. Period. It's both simple and provides a natural reward for not finishing in last place (even though teams will have a slightly differing strength-of-schedule due to the "pod" approach of regular-season scheduling).

 

*Best means "that which is closest to my opinion."

[DenverDevil]

  On 7/5/2023 at 10:46 PM, gfhockey said:

They got any message boards where we can sign up and partake in convos

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ASU has 2 main active sites, both Rivals and Scout, but the Hockey information is limited but getting better.

[MoSiouxFan]

  On 7/5/2023 at 7:25 PM, The Sicatoka said:

I'd rather call it the Chinese restaurant ... dog is always on the menu. 

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Good one!

[nodak651]

  On 7/6/2023 at 2:58 PM, DenverDevil said:

ASU has 2 main active sites, both Rivals and Scout, but the Hockey information is limited but getting better.

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I will never understand why big fanbases like yours put up with those paid message boards that only have like one or two topics of discussion.

[nodakvindy]

  On 7/5/2023 at 7:19 PM, The Sicatoka said:

This is where the alleged "puppetmaster" ( (c) SIOUXFAN97 ) named Fenton is doing work if at all on topic. 

Locking "the unnamed, recent DI, purple-wearing, Catholic university in the Twin Cities" to the NCHC helps keep them in the Summit too, with UND, DU, and UNO. That would not be a bad thing. 

I'd say the path to the NCHC is: Be a desirable school, in a demographically good location, start hockey, prove you're serious with some wins, build a rink, and petition. 

 

The underlined does not favor Augustana. There's access to Sioux Falls already via SDSU and USD. And SF doesn't have potential students like MSP or AZ. 

 

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Don't sleep on Lindenwood.  They check a lot of boxes for both Summit and NCHC.

[DenverDevil]

  On 7/6/2023 at 5:02 PM, nodak651 said:

I will never understand why big fanbases like yours put up with those paid message boards that only have like one or two topics of discussion.

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The topics are endless but primarily focused on Football and then Men's basketball. After that it's baseball, but hockey is slowly starting to get more coverage. The great news is that our new arena has sold out its games, minus some of the premium seats in the "club" at center ice. The student body has also shown that they've bought into the program as that section is packed every game. Finally, ASU hockey is showing a $2.5M profit, making it the only sport after football and men's basketball to do so. Baseball is basically break even while everything else operates at a deficit as expected. 

[nodak651]

  On 7/6/2023 at 7:58 PM, DenverDevil said:

The topics are endless but primarily focused on Football and then Men's basketball. After that it's baseball, but hockey is slowly starting to get more coverage. The great news is that our new arena has sold out its games, minus some of the premium seats in the "club" at center ice. The student body has also shown that they've bought into the program as that section is packed every game. Finally, ASU hockey is showing a $2.5M profit, making it the only sport after football and men's basketball to do so. Baseball is basically break even while everything else operates at a deficit as expected. 

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I was referring to the different forums, like how at this website basketball, volleyball, fb, hockey, etc have their own categories, but I get what you're saying.  It's great to see ASU doing well - I think I heard someone within your AD say that you guys had 3 million in ticket sales.  You guys are showing that college hockey is viable in the South and it's great to see!

Arizona is building a pretty nice facility as well... as an ASU fan, do you think they potentially look at making a move after seeing ASU's success, and would you like to see them go D1?  Pretty cool their club team lined up a game against you guys to start off this upcoming season. 

 

[DenverDevil]

  On 7/6/2023 at 9:23 PM, nodak651 said:

I was referring to the different forums, like how at this website basketball, volleyball, fb, hockey, etc have their own categories, but I get what you're saying.  It's great to see ASU doing well - I think I heard someone within your AD say that you guys had 3 million in ticket sales.  You guys are showing that college hockey is viable in the South and it's great to see!

Arizona is building a pretty nice facility as well... as an ASU fan, do you think they potentially look at making a move after seeing ASU's success, and would you like to see them go D1?  Pretty cool their club team lined up a game against you guys to start off this upcoming season. 

 

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I feel there are 4 PAC schools right now who could make the jump to NCAA D1 if they wanted to. U4 (UofA), Colorado, Utah and Oregon. And I'd love to see all of them go D1.

UofA used to have a dominant ACHA program in the 1990's. It fell off around the time ASU's ACHA program started to elevate itself towards a National Championship under Greg Powers (who is still our coach). So there's a strong following down there. There's also a lot of roller hockey league's in Tucson as well.

All four of them have really nice off campus facilities that are way better than what ASU had at Oceanside Arena (a dump for sure). CU has their rink right on campus and it could easily be expanded. That takes away the #1 issue with trying to go D1. Now they just need to figure out how to finance the program and the women's sports which would need to be added for Title IX.

Phil Knight at Oregon could write a check today if they asked. The others could look at cutting some men's sports if they wanted to. I know a lot of schools are looking at that right now, but ASU showing that the program can be profitable is a major factor I think.

[BusinessSiouxt]

  On 7/6/2023 at 1:21 PM, Kevin G said:

Holy cow, good memory!

While an odd number isn't ideal, it isn't an insurmountable issue. It's a bigger headache for the regular season, as one team will always be without a conference opponent. There are pretty standard approaches for the postseason tournament, as has been mentioned in this thread. The best* option? Top eight teams qualify. Period. It's both simple and provides a natural reward for not finishing in last place (even though teams will have a slightly differing strength-of-schedule due to the "pod" approach of regular-season scheduling).

 

*Best means "that which is closest to my opinion."

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I like the top 4 to a semi-final (best of 3) and a championship series (best of 3). Forget the whole damn league in the playoffs…

[The Sicatoka]

  On 7/5/2023 at 6:10 PM, gfhockey said:

Just got off suspension since marxh

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Was this guy your roommate? 
https://www.am1100theflag.com/news/regional-news/66024-grand-forks-law-enforcement-searching-for-sex-offender-accused-of-cutting 

Both of you back after about 90 days away ... 

[gfhockey]

  On 7/7/2023 at 11:54 AM, The Sicatoka said:

Was this guy your roommate? 
https://www.am1100theflag.com/news/regional-news/66024-grand-forks-law-enforcement-searching-for-sex-offender-accused-of-cutting 

Both of you back after about 90 days away ... 

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nope 

[The Sicatoka]

  On 7/7/2023 at 12:27 PM, gfhockey said:

nope 

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That's good. He doesn't seem much the "good ol' boy" anyway. 

[Tbone]

If St. Thomas was to join in the future, that would be a great addition to the atmosphere at Xcel for the Frozen Faceoff. Could quickly and easily become the second most represented fan base there. 

[The Sicatoka]

Love it; hate it; the MSP market is college hockey game turnout, rivaled only by Boston. 

[FSSD]

  On 7/7/2023 at 1:42 PM, The Sicatoka said:

Love it; hate it; the MSP market is college hockey game turnout, rivaled only by Boston. 

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I would say Detroit also.

[The Sicatoka]

  On 7/7/2023 at 2:57 PM, FSSD said:

I would say Detroit also.

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I'd give it distant third at best. 

[Kevin G]

  On 7/7/2023 at 3:08 AM, BusinessSiouxt said:

I like the top 4 to a semi-final (best of 3) and a championship series (best of 3). Forget the whole damn league in the playoffs…

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I like it. 

[DenverDevil]

Thought you all would like reading this letter from our coach Greg Powers to ASU fans:

Men's Ice Hockey July 7, 2023 by Greg Powers, Sun Devil Hockey Head Coach

From One Sun Devil to Another

Sun Devil Nation: 
 
After seven full years of Division I play, we have finally found a home with the best conference in college hockey, the NCHC. It cannot be overstated how important this day is for Sun Devil Hockey.    
 
We owe everything we are to our incredible alumni that chose to help build an independent program out of Oceanside Ice Arena. There were more unknowns than anything. More road games than home games, an entire season on the road, etc...  but they chose to "Be The Tradition" and for that, we are forever grateful to every player that has worn our jersey these last seven years. Without our alumni's willingness to "Be The Tradition," our membership in the NCHC never happens. 
 
Being an independent program has shaped our identity and allowed us to build our program on our terms. We have had so many great moments during our independent tenure, including  being the only independent program to qualify for the NCAA tournament in the past 30 years. We would have made a second-straight tournament berth the following year, but the season was canceled due to COVID, which took away a ton of our momentum as a program.   
 
After one more year of independent play in 2023-24, we will embark on a new era of Sun Devil Hockey in the NCHC. The ability to play for a championship, earn an NCAA Tournament automatic bid and develop conference rivals with the most storied programs in college hockey now awaits.

Without the tremendous support of our fans, this day also never happens. As part of the Mullett Maniacs, you put on an incredible gameday experience at Mullett Arena, which makes us very attractive to any conference. THANK YOU, Sun Devil Nation, for your support in getting us here and your continued support as we launch into this new era of Sun Devil Hockey. 
 
Finally, the irony of having 26 home games to celebrate our final year as an independent is something we are very excited about. This year we play for our alumni and our fans, with a chip on our shoulder just as our former players did to put us in this position. This year we will "Be The Tradition", to celebrate our Tradition.   

Let's Rock The Mullett 26 more times as an independent and celebrate our program together, Sun Devil Nation... FORKS UP! 

Sincerely, 
Greg Powers
Head Coach, Sun Devil Hockey

[The Sicatoka]

@DenverDevil, Powers should also be grateful for ASU CFO and UND alumnus Morgan R. Olsen, PhD. He's a pretty good ally to ASU Hockey. 

[Kevin G]

To survive and even thrive as an independent is very impressive. ASU has  a lot to be proud of. 

[Esoteric]

  On 7/5/2023 at 4:51 PM, Dustin said:

I have no problem with this move.  Thoughts?

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Would have had U of Arizona join also.  

[Esoteric]

  On 7/5/2023 at 5:16 PM, Godsmack said:

I’d be interested to hear more from the conference as to why not attempt to go for an even number of teams (10) for the conference. I’m also curious how post season format will look like with 9 teams. 

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Lowest team sits

[petey23]

  On 7/8/2023 at 2:19 AM, Esoteric said:

Lowest team sits

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Disagree. I am a chip, a chair, and a chance guy. For teams outside the bubble, there NCAA tournament starts a week or two before everyone else.