NCAA stuff

Minnesota State-Mankato undrafted FA Casey Nelson, RHD, signed a contract with the Sabres and will forego his Sr. year.
Hockey's Future had pretty glowing things to say, "one of the hottest commodities on the college FA market this season".
It's nice to see the team add to their stable of D-prospects. I haven't looked at the org.-limit on no. of contracts, but after the AHL trade at the deadline I'm reasonably confident they're in manageable shape there.

 

Quinnipiac
Lowell
Lowell advances to Frozen Four

Providence
BC
BC advances

Northeastern
Michigan
NU advances

St Cloud
Denver
St. Cloud advances


BC over Lowell
NU over St. Cloud
BC over NU

 

If they're a student and meet criteria to be an amateur (or whatever bullshit criteria the NCAA uses), I'm not a fan of any restriction.

"student athletes"...it's not about winning or money right?

Too many players lose time to injuries from their teenage years on up anyway. Why even risk creating a scenario where a kid/young adult loses a year or more because of some in-fighting among programs in a conference?

 

ND is switching from HE to the Big Ten.

Big Ten network gets a win, guessing ND gets a piece of that too.

It's a shame conferences have been blown up and rebuilt. Ruining rivalries before the interest in most NCAA sports wanes considerably imo. Cable bubble just didn't pop fast enough.

 

pretty fair to say that the NCAA is one of the dirtiest organizations that still pretends that it's clean. I heard Sepp Blatter is in line to be the next NCAA [del]CEO[/del] president.

I think Lucia's quote is spot on though. if you routinely have 25/26 year old hockey players they really don't have real peers in the school.

 

it makes sense for ND. don't like losing a strong team from the conference but its understandable.

ya its been a blender lately. hopefully what they have going now stays and can take new schools in seamlessly.

 

Notre Dame is reportedly jumping from HE to the Big 10. Until recently the Big 10 would only have teams that participated in other sports, but Johns Hopkins joining Big 10 lax that's changed. ND would bring them to 7 for hockey. It's possible that Arizona State would eventually make it 8.
I understand that Indiana and Purdue do not have D1 hockey, (Indiana sucks). But, can anyone explain why Illinois and/or Northwestern don't?

 

Oh, Bob already reported the ND news. Oh well.

 

Quinnipiac
Lowell
Lowell advances

Providence
Boston College
Providence advances

North Dakota
Michigan
North Dakota advances

St. Cloud St.
Denver
St Cloud St. advances

Lowell over Providence

North Dakota over St. Cloud St.

North Dakota over Lowell

 

Quinnipiac vs. RIT - Quin.
Yale vs. Mass-Lowell - Lowell
Providence vs. MN-Duluth - Prov.
Hahvahd vs. Boston College - BC

North Dakota vs. Northeastern - N. Dakota
Notre Dame vs. Michigan - Notre Dame
St. Cloud St. vs. Ferris St. - St. Cloud
Boston Univ. vs. Denver - Denver

Quin. vs. Lowell - Quin.
Prov. vs BC - BC

No. Dak. vs Notre Dame - ND, err No. Dakota
St. Cloud vs. Denver - St. Cloud

Quin. vs BC - BC
No. Dakota vs. St. Cloud - St. Cloud

NC:
BC vs. St. Cloud - St. Cloud State University

Notes:
- Took RIT last year to advance past first round - good pick. Won't be lured this year.
- And, who really gives a fuck when it's not Cornell?!
- Matty is right about the brutality of the North Dakota vs. Northeastern game; that may be the most interesting match of all.

 

Boston University has so far gotten 3 thumbs down, matty goes *YAHOO*

 

i would have taken scsu, but I've been following brock boeser's freshman year with north dakota and the nucks haven't traded him away yet. i like this one and out tourney.

 

its really the biggest screw job in recent memory. so North Dakota loses a conference semi final game and then they have to play in a conference 3rd place game? why the hell do they have a conference 3rd place game?
N. Dakota winds up tying that [del]bronze[/del] tinfoil medal game, I wonder if that tie is what ultimately put them 3rd overall. I follow HockeyEast very closely and I think NU is the best team right now going in. Lowell and PC rolling too. Im not sold on BC but they're always capable of taking it. They also just played their worst game of the season their last time out.
the fact that 2 of the 5 best teams (NDak/NU) are playing each other in the 1st round is great for everyone else.

? North Dakota vs. Northeastern, 2 p.m. EDT Friday, ESPNU
? Michigan vs. Notre Dame, 5:30 p.m. EDT Friday, ESPNU
? Regional championship game: 6 p.m. EDT Saturday, ESPN2

you got that right. i think they're lambs being lead to slaughter, they just aint got it this year. Hoping Dan's hometown Pioneers show no mercy.

 

looking forward to seeing Boeser also. the Michigan kids too. lots of really good young players out west right now.

 

You know the Big Ten is going to try to snag a few more schools from other conferences now. I don't think ND really belonged in HE. Then again, it's tough to say where any team belongs.

 

Most of the big schools, especially public ones, have a large student population in their mid to late 20s. I am very ignorant of the student populations at most of the smaller private schools.

When it comes to players for schools, I don't think there should be age bias. That's a tough one for NCAA to get around if they're saying the students are first on anything.

They do it in other sports, like this guy:

 

Illinois has really no appetite for hockey.

They're having a tough enough time doing anything well sports related. They know somebody will go to jail after all the contracts to build the program are passed out and paid for so they're just protecting themselves.

Northwestern, unlike Harvard, ND, etc. doesn't drop the acedemic bar for admissions based on sports. They'll never compete with recruiting from the bigger and better programs and they'll be hard pressed to hire a coach that could really do much.

Title IX (which I'm a full supporter of) may be a tipping point when it comes to creating D I programs at many of these schools. I'm sure they could drum up enough to cover costs for a men's team with the right ego's and fundraisers in charge.
I doubt either school wants to buy the rink either.

If the Big Ten can recruit a few more schools, Illinois or Indiana may see interest in a hockey team as they'll want a piece of the big ten money. Schools like Wisconsin, Min, Mich, etc. have to start getting their attendance back up though.

 

For any of these new programs, it's really tough to cover costs. They'll have to set up extra games against BU, UND, etc. just to cover costs like so many basketball programs do.

Just imagine going 0-6 on the schedule before the first puck is dropped because of costs.

How many quality coaches, that can actually recruit bluechip players, are going to take that job seriously?

 

DU Pioneers. I have had the chance to see three of this year's tourney teams. DU vs. Nebraska-Omaha. I checked the bucket list with the Beanpot Final, BC vs. BU.

Of the three, DU impressed me the most. And, Matty's boy, Heinnen (sp?) is going to be one of the most impressive players on the ice.

St. Cloud State has a real special team. I think they're poised to open some eyes to that.