UConn to apply to Hockey East

[Matt75]

No mater what anyone says or thinks.
Uconn is going to play Hockey East games in Hartford.
They are never going to build a new 6,000 seat arena for hockey on campus.
They need the New Haven and Fairfield county hockey people to make this work. These people will never go to Strorrs for college hockey.

[redhead18]

For a middling team in AHA I think their first few years will be real rough in HE. Beyond that, I don't want to see AHA lose any teams. Would be nice if we could adopt UAH..

For what its worth, the Naval Academy has had a standing offer to join Atlantic Hockey since as far back as October and maybe longer. The conference has been full at 12 teams but with a potential spot opening up with UConn moving to Hockey East, it could be what Navy was waiting for before making the jump to the varsity level.

[schiegs]

For what its worth, the Naval Academy has had a standing offer to join Atlantic Hockey since as far back as October and maybe longer. The conference has been full at 12 teams but with a potential spot opening up with UConn moving to Hockey East, it could be what Navy was waiting for before making the jump to the varsity level.

This would be fantastic. Maybe then we could expel the academic bottom feeders out west.

[css228]

Rochester is an obvious tournament site for the ECAC? I should think Syracuse would be more obvious (and Albany even moreso). Weren't people just complaining about how far west Rochester was?


Powers &8^]

Better arena (no one particularly likes the War Memorial), and quite frankly only the New York schools are relevant when it comes to crowds at the tournament. It doesn't matter if Yale, Brown, Harvard etc. wouldn't travel out that way because they won't travel anywhere. All that really matters is will Cornell, Clarkson, and RPI (if they stay) travel there. Plus RIT would pretty much be the secons biggest fan base in the league, so if they made it you know the place would be full. Alabny is definitely good, but if you could hold it in a league town, why wouldn't you. We not longer have Boston, I'll take Rochester over Cuse.

[joecct]

Fixing the glass and scoreboard so they don't keep breaking wouldn't hurt, either.

I thought that was Plattsburgh?

[Humanoid]

This would be fantastic. Maybe then we could expel the academic bottom feeders out west.

I heard rumors that Navy would elevate within 5 years. Nearly confirmed by press sources who I've spoken to. I've emailed with the editor over at Excalibur a bunch of times and while he doesn't have many details, he's fairly close to the Bentley program and the Navy name has come up more than a few times in conversations between people in the AHA know. It's not from the coaching staff, since they clearly don't know, but it's from people within the league.

[LtPowers]

You can't really do that anymore. Your athletic program can move to D-II but you can't playup at D-I. As a D-II school you may play in the D-I championship. But your scholly limit is 15.

D-II teams can't play in the D-I championship. (In men's hockey, at least; in women's hockey they're combined.) You have to have a D-I team. Bentley, UAH, AIC, etc. do not have D-II hockey teams; they're D-II schools with D-I hockey programs playing up.

Fortunately, while playups are no longer allowed as a general rule, the lack of D-II men's hockey means that the NCAA is likely to make an exception for hockey teams wishing to play up.


Powers &8^]

[Humanoid]

D-II teams can't play in the D-I championship. (In men's hockey, at least; in women's hockey they're combined.) You have to have a D-I team. Bentley, UAH, AIC, etc. do not have D-II hockey teams; they're D-II schools with D-I hockey programs playing up.

Fortunately, while playups are no longer allowed as a general rule, the lack of D-II men's hockey means that the NCAA is likely to make an exception for hockey teams wishing to play up.


Powers &8^]

This is what we call hitting the nail directly on the head. Well said!

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

The problem with the new WCHA is that there is no school like Cornell (mostly on a size and interest perspective). It has a lot of Clarkson's and RPI's, but the few big schools it has just aren't very interested in hockey, (maybe Ferris qualifies along those lines, but Ferris is always going to have a harder time getting high profile games than Cornell). With the lack of name recognition that that league is going to suffer, don't be surprised if they have a hard time scheduling quality opposition out of conference. They're going to have a hard time finding a tournament site (which I think the ECAC will eventually solve by gaining what I see as another large, hockey crazy school which has the potential to grow on the national stage in RIT). I hope I'm wrong, since being from a conference of little guys, I love to see the little guys thrive. I just don't see a long term path for success for the New WCHA.

I can only speak for my own school, but I know that the effort to secure OOC games against bigger programs after 2013 has been well underway for months now. I'm not ultra-concerned about scheduling.

It is true that the conference tourney still has to be sorted out.

[scoreboard]

I can only speak for my own school, but I know that the effort to secure OOC games against bigger programs after 2013 has been well underway for months now. I'm not ultra-concerned about scheduling.

It is true that the conference tourney still has to be sorted out.

I read the most recent posts and went back to the thread title to to make sure I was reading about UConn joining Hockey East. I confirmed I'm in the right thread. Not sure where the off topic posts came from.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

I read the most recent posts and went back to the thread title to to make sure I was reading about UConn joining Hockey East. I confirmed I'm in the right thread. Not sure where the off topic posts came from.

You are clearly not familiar with the tendency of threads on these boards to veer off course.

Someone postulated that the new WCHA would be worse than the ECAC, and I decided to respond. *shrug*

[scoreboard]

You are clearly not familiar with the tendency of threads on these boards to veer off course.

Someone postulated that the new WCHA would be worse than the ECAC, and I decided to respond. *shrug*

I didn't mean to respond to your post in particular . It was the simplest way to do so from my phone. I may not comment often but I have been on this site for years. Cheers

[Fishman'81]

Just my opinion, but I have a feeling we're getting closer and closer to seeing a split within ECAC. I cant imagine the Ivy schools are that satisfied being associated with a hockey league as poorly run as the ECAC is, especially of late. Not to mention the Ivy League did just hire a marketing agency for the first time in conference history to promote Ivy athletics and to help produce sponsorship opportunities as well as provide other marketing functions, including social media, public relations and licensing. Also who knows, perhaps a seperate Ivy hockey conference would help encourage Penn to get their program going again and help grow the sport. I guess it all comes down to what the Ivy presidents feel is best for them, whether its staying put in the ECAC or going off on their own.

If this happens, I hope the NCAA finds some way to avoid awarding the Ivies an AQ.

Not saying that those teams as a group are necessarily inferior, it's just that I hate AQs, and see no reason for allowing them to trump the PW. We certainly don't need another one dangling out there to further muddy the water.

[blazer777]

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/new...ockey_east.php

reported on CHN.

This should help get it back on track

[kingdobbs]

So the Hartford Courant requested and received the consulting report UConn received about the upgrade. Some details I was able to glean:

1) The consultants estimated an upgrade to 3500 was feasible on the current site (assuming no major changes or new land acquisitions), to a cost of $10.8 million. As I suspected, the best way to expand would be to build up the roof space a la Matthews. An encouraging number if accurate, but it doesn't fit with the HEA desire for at least a 4000 seat arena (the number is cited as a minimum, but it's also stated as not a deal breaker, simply requiring extra approval from the commissioner and/or the conference membership; if HEA is as interested in UConn as it seems, that could be a formality, but that remains to be seen). 3500 is not so far off from 4000, however.

2) Based on this, the XL Center seems to be very in-play as a partial home for the team in the long-term. AEG, the rink owner/operators, seem to be very interested in having the hockey team aboard, including offering dedicated space in the arena for UConn hockey (their own locker rooms and equipment room, and a dedicated lounge area). Stafford is projecting 11 home games would be at the XL Center (meaning 6-7 would be at Frietas).

3) The plan developed by Stafford to address scholarship equivalencies would be not to add any new sports, but instead add 4.6 to women's tennis to bring them up to the NCAA limit of 8, and 10.1 to women's rowing to bring them up to 18, 2 shy. It's unclear where the other 3.3 would be derived, but it's possible UConn is already that many spots overbalanced towards women's athletics in the first place. Men's hockey would be given full scholarships by 2014-15, phasing in six per year starting with next season.

4) The study notes at least two Hockey East schools declined to participate in the survey, so the figures derived were 'more modest'. It's pretty useless to speculate on who and why, but I have to imagine one of them is Boston College.

5) The overall anticipated budget would be expected to increase to just over $3 million, including the cost of 18 scholarships, renting dates at the XL Center, additional support staff and 'equity expenses' given to women's ice hockey and the other scholarship increases. They do expect a large increase in ticket revenue into the range of the 'modest expectations' from the HEA schools surveyed (2500 average attendance plus $12.50 anticipated ticket prices), but an additional 2.3 million or so would be needed to cover expenses. Of note: UConn's fundraising is equal to the HEA average, and facility revenue (which currently goes directly to the AD rather than the program specifically) is not far behind.

[RSTuthill]

So the Hartford Courant requested and received the consulting report UConn received about the upgrade.

Well, that is indeed why you are the KING!! Nice job!!

Is it on the Courant web site? Assume it will be in the Sunday paper. Wow, two HE schools declined to participate. Wonder why?

[RSTuthill]

Here it is:

http://www.courant.com/media/acrobat...7-31130345.pdf

[AMC]

Wow, two HE schools declined to participate. Wonder why?

It would have to be private schools, I would assume BU and BC.

[RSTuthill]

The value proposition is to go from half a million in the red per year to $2.3 million in the red per year without counting the women's rides in the equation or the Freitas upgrades needed even it they do not play there.

I am guessing this does not fly even though there have been some very declarative statements about going forward and applying to HE.

[joecct]

The value proposition is to go from half a million in the red per year to $2.3 million in the red per year without counting the women's rides in the equation or the Freitas upgrades needed even it they do not play there.

I am guessing this does not fly even though there have been some very declarative statements about going forward and applying to HE.

It works for the Congre$$. You gotta spend money to make money, right?