Re: Who will be the NC$$ Champ?
Were you part of intramural hockey at Clarkson? Is intramural hockey a big deal there? Perhaps surprisingly, it is at Ohio State.
Granted OSU has a huge community of students & staff to draw from. But when I arrived I was pleasantly surprised that there were 4 levels of play, A through D. (D was the beginner league.) Also 2 separate seasons, Winter Quarter & Spring Quarter. I honestly don't know if OSU has maintained that. The two seasons are probably gone as OSU is now on Semesters. But given our geographic location and relatively mild winters, I thought the program was outstanding.
OK, we still need to hear this story. If it's fit for a public forum, that is.
I also have a D-3 school on my resume, and I certainly know what you mean. At the same time, you'd be surprised how a huge university can be collection of small, closer knit groups. That's certainly true at the graduate level. And a specific sport or other activity can generate the same thing.
Thanks for joining the conversation, and telling the story of the Bell. Congratulations on your National Title, of course.
The "same classes" thing is probably what most divides the large school school experience from the small school experience. Most likely OSU students won't have athletes in their classes. And even if they do, the athletes might go unrecognized. With the obvious exception of the Football players...
I remember the 1981 season well, and was actually in Duluth for the 1981 "Hockey Final Four." (The term Frozen Four didn't come along until much later.) Very interesting to hear the Clarkson perspective on this.
From a Western point of view, that was the famous "Backdoor Badgers" team. UW was excellent all year, but shockingly lost in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs to Colorado College. All through the 1970's (and I believe earlier) if you lost in your league playoffs, you were done for the year. The WCHA & ECAC each produced two playoff champs, and those four teams went to the Final Four. The NCAA Playoff was expanded to 5 in 1979 to accommodate the CCHA. Then in 1981, the field grew to 8, and the at-large bid was born.
There were no Pairwise calculations back in the day. It was not a given that a team's full body of work would be taken into account in at-large selections. There was a fair amount of sentiment in the West that by losing in the first round, UW had lost its chance to go to the national tournament that year. At the same time, there was also a fairly broad consensus that UW was one of the top two teams in the West, based on talent & regular season performance. I doubt that the exact rationale for the Badgers' seeding was ever publicly announced. But I've always believed it was a compromise between the two opposing viewpoints I've described.
Anyhow, you can make the case that the 1981 Badgers were the first at-large team in NCAA Hockey History. That it produced a classic UW/Clarkson series is certainly fitting.
Originally posted by vicb
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Granted OSU has a huge community of students & staff to draw from. But when I arrived I was pleasantly surprised that there were 4 levels of play, A through D. (D was the beginner league.) Also 2 separate seasons, Winter Quarter & Spring Quarter. I honestly don't know if OSU has maintained that. The two seasons are probably gone as OSU is now on Semesters. But given our geographic location and relatively mild winters, I thought the program was outstanding.
Originally posted by miker
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Originally posted by FireKnight
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Originally posted by MAHOCKEY FAN
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The "same classes" thing is probably what most divides the large school school experience from the small school experience. Most likely OSU students won't have athletes in their classes. And even if they do, the athletes might go unrecognized. With the obvious exception of the Football players...
Originally posted by rochnycsc
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Originally posted by vicb
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From a Western point of view, that was the famous "Backdoor Badgers" team. UW was excellent all year, but shockingly lost in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs to Colorado College. All through the 1970's (and I believe earlier) if you lost in your league playoffs, you were done for the year. The WCHA & ECAC each produced two playoff champs, and those four teams went to the Final Four. The NCAA Playoff was expanded to 5 in 1979 to accommodate the CCHA. Then in 1981, the field grew to 8, and the at-large bid was born.
There were no Pairwise calculations back in the day. It was not a given that a team's full body of work would be taken into account in at-large selections. There was a fair amount of sentiment in the West that by losing in the first round, UW had lost its chance to go to the national tournament that year. At the same time, there was also a fairly broad consensus that UW was one of the top two teams in the West, based on talent & regular season performance. I doubt that the exact rationale for the Badgers' seeding was ever publicly announced. But I've always believed it was a compromise between the two opposing viewpoints I've described.
Anyhow, you can make the case that the 1981 Badgers were the first at-large team in NCAA Hockey History. That it produced a classic UW/Clarkson series is certainly fitting.
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