Some PSU hockey thoughts...

[The Ancient Enemy]

Had 2 very lengthy discussions today with close friends who are big college hockey fans, and just wanted to post some opinions and see what you guys think.

I've been thinking a lot about this D1 hockey program coming to PSU, and I am extremely excited at this news. I've been hoping for a long time that we would get a D1 hockey program.

My friend today called and said that the latest he had heard (he is not a PSU or B10 guy) was that the Big Ten was already talking about a hockey super conference. He did not really know what "super" entailed, and I dont either. Regardless, it sparked a lot of discussion between us.

The B10 network has already started showing hockey games that involved Big Ten schools. As you know, there is no B10 in regards to hockey... yet. But many of the Big Ten schools have hockey programs. They are also very good. But being that some of the B10 member schools are involved in other hockey conferences, my fear is over what becomes of those conferences once you remove the B10 member schools from the conference ranks.

There are schools in the B10 vicinity that are strong programs, like North Dakota, Miami Ohio, Michigan Tech, St Cloud State, etc, etc. In my opinion, even if Michigan Tech is ranked 1st in the nation, and Michigan State is ranked 25th, it is still a huge win for a place like Michigan Tech, who's only real sports-credibility is hockey based. They NEED to play schools like Michigan and Ohio State, and even though they may have better teams than UM or OSU, the win still carries a lot of weight. I personally feel that these smaller schools need to have the conference rivalres with the much larger universities like Michigan, etc.

If you pull out the B10 schools to form the B10 hockey conference, what happens to Miami Ohio?

College hockey, right now, is having some issues where kids are choosing to forego college in order to be plugged into the NHL system. The reason is exposure. I personally feel that the Big Ten Network WILL show collegiate hockey a hell of a lot more than ESPN will, obviously. Basiclaly, if the BTN is serious about showcasing college hockey, an 18 yr old prospect, if he decides to go the college route, has this option: Do I want to go to the B10 and know I will be on TV relatively often, or do I want to go to Michigan Tech and pray we make the Frozen Four so I will get one or two games televised?

As much as I love the B10 and the idea of a B10 hockey conference, I like that in college hockey there are schools like North Dakota who can defeat these much more notable universities. Hockey is "the thing" on some of these campuses. It might not affect North Dakota or Vermont, but I think it will crush Cornell and Miami Ohio and the non-B10 Michigan schools.

Then there is title IX, 14 football universities out of 120 are the only ones operating in the green, and the initial "on the fence" opinions of some schools to start D1 hockey. What do you do if B10 members are not interested or cannot support D1 hockey? Do you add hockey-exclusive members to the B10, or is the B10 too "elitest" to consider such an endeavor?

Then, of course, what do you do with the hockey-exclusive members when the other B10 member schools decide to start playing D1 hockey? Kick them out?

There are so many good things that can come out of a B10 hockey conference, and I suppose at the end of the day all we should care about is the growth of the sport, but are we going to crush the little guys in the prcess?

[Crimson09Crazy]

Its an interesting topic, because Hockey even at the High School level, does its own thing. Hockey has been doing its own thing for a while, and that will be hard to change. I like the fact that Boston U, and North Dakota, and Miami of Ohio are the perennial powers of Hockey. I mean if the Big Ten were to go on to make a Hockey Superconference, It wouldn't be dumb. I mean money is obviously there, and having their own network they can play around with it however they want. I mean if a College Hockey game is on, or Big Ten's greatest games... Ohio State vs. Northwestern in 1989, people might be more inclined to watch the current game. SO I think it would attract some more fans. And I don't see ESPN going after College Hockey really at all, outside of what they will put on ESPNU. ESPN should be more interested in trying to get some sort of NHL deal done. But back to the point, Penn State would have a nice base to start a Big time Hockey program. 1. Hockey's popularity in Pennsylvania has grown in the past few years. The Penguins rebirth has a big thing to do with it. 2. Youth Hockey in Pennsylvania has also grown over the past decade or so, I mean there are Western PA kids in the NHL now days and Philly is a good hockey town itself. 3. Its not like people are dying to go to the Bryce Jordan to see Eddy D and the rest of the PSU bball boys, Hockey could be a real hit.

I don't see any real negatives with PSU starting up Hockey.


I've heard Pitt talk about it before, the likelihood of that happening isn't strong, but it would be a cool idea. I mean with the new Arena, it would be a nice home. And If Pitt were to join Major Hockey, they would take any of RMU's thunder. Robert Morris is the only College Hockey team in town. But Pitt would take the show, and with the way Hockey has really really taken off in the Burgh, it couldn't hurt anyone.
Pitt will never do it, Penn State I think they should do it.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Per a very respected board member...

"It appears Indiana will be going D1 along with us and NBC/Versus will be kicking in a ton of money to assist both PSU and Indiana in their move to D1 with the understanding that the Big Ten will form a hockey conference and NBC will get first choice of the weekend games to put on Versus. The BTN will then get the option for the rest of the games in a model that's similar to the deals with basketball (CBS/ESPN/BTN) and football (ABC/ESPN/BTN)."


It also appears that the CCHA is very interested in Penn State. Nebraska-Omaha has left the CCHA. Another idea being considered is that the B10 D1 hockey programs can schedule eachother out-of-conference and still have a "big ten champion" even though there's no official conference.

Very interesting.

[abpk2903]

There is a very strong hockey base here at Penn State. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, New Jersey, and New York City hold the majority of the student population here at Penn State and they all have strong NHL teams and really the only local NBA team to have recent success has been Cleveland (though not a strong student base here). I don't think hockey will be in the BJC for quite a while but some renovations may need to be done to the Penn State Ice Pavilion to get D1 hockey up and started. Penn State's club hockey team (The Icers) has generated some interest up here in the past few years with being ranked in the Top 10 most of the year last year. I know there attendance for club hockey wasn't all that bad either.

[The Ancient Enemy]

You didnt hear? They secured the funding to build the arena across from the BJC in the parking lot beside Beaver Stadium. They are def building a new arena.