Woden with another article on his thoughts on the regional format. He also takes a shot at people who said he was disingenuous. Wonder who he meant ? @eric-vegoe
Just for the people who claim I'm being disingenous now when I say the Pairwise is fine for selection,
It's good to be remembered... although I think I'm being remembered for the wrong thing. The disingenious part is propping up arguments that help small teams out east and don't solve the what's good for the game issue. Egocentrism seems to dominate thinking in college hockey rules when we should instead be thinking from a categorical imperitive perspective.
How would using school arenas (referenced in the article scenarios) be neutral if the home team happened to make it? And can you imagine trying to get tickets to a regional in a 4000 seat arena if your team was sent there?
Wodon just gets upset by everyone saying he’s wrong in what will grow the game and then tries to play victim.
I think the grow the game stuff is legit when sending the Frozen Fours to different cities because the travelling party for the weekend can show a city how big college hockey can be at its best. The crowds for those games are always great with all the different jerseys usually in the venue and it's exciting hockey.
Having a bad regional crowd, which would be impacted if you don't allow a school with a No. 4 seed to play in their host venue and if a host loses their first round game, starts to make college hockey look small and practically shrinks the game.
Wodon just gets upset by everyone saying he’s wrong in what will grow the game and then tries to play victim.
I think the grow the game stuff is legit when sending the Frozen Fours to different cities because the travelling party for the weekend can show a city how big college hockey can be at its best. The crowds for those games are always great with all the different jerseys usually in the venue and it's exciting hockey.
Having a bad regional crowd, which would be impacted if you don't allow a school with a No. 4 seed to play in their host venue and if a host loses their first round game, starts to make college hockey look small and practically shrinks the game.
Yeah I really don't understand the not letting a regional host play in their host regional should they make the tournament idea. Let's take the 1 thing that will guarantee good attendance and atmosphere, and get rid of it!
I think home ice advantage isn't as big of an advantage that some are making it out to be. When you have your field of 16, nearly every team is a very good team who can win anywhere.
Wodon just gets upset by everyone saying he’s wrong in what will grow the game and then tries to play victim.
I think the grow the game stuff is legit when sending the Frozen Fours to different cities because the travelling party for the weekend can show a city how big college hockey can be at its best. The crowds for those games are always great with all the different jerseys usually in the venue and it's exciting hockey.
Having a bad regional crowd, which would be impacted if you don't allow a school with a No. 4 seed to play in their host venue and if a host loses their first round game, starts to make college hockey look small and practically shrinks the game.
The Frozen Four stuff is great yes. That will always be exceedingly well attended, especially if you're looking to grow the game in the south because it doubles as a vacation for so many (would envision the one in Vegas will be insane).
For the regional stuff, I think Wodon is just way off base. The whole not letting a 4 host while arguing out of the other side of his mouth that a difference in the PWR of 0.0002 is nothing. Well what if that team is a 4 seed by that margin? Now they can't host? Just get rid of the hosting and let the top seed hold it. Then you allocate out a percentage to the visiting fan bases. Yeah sometimes tickets are going to be really expensive if you end up at a small barn, but that arena is going to be raucous and fun. If UND hosts and they lose the first game, some portion of them will still show up to heckle whoever they lost to. Putting it at a neutral site isn't going to change that because 1, the "big teams" are always going to travel the best because they have the biggest fan bases and 2, the lower seeds are going to travel less because they expect to lose. that doesn't change if it's held in Grand Forks or Sioux Falls or Allentown PA.
His best idea is to allow more western venues to host if we're going to keep this concept in place. The problem will be is if you're going to allow hosting at a home institution, UND is going to bid basically every year and will outbid the small rinks at BSU, UMD, etc. so you can't really have that one work out as well as you would hope to when you look at it more pragmatically.
College hockey will always be small and niche. Hell the NHL comparatively is small and niche in this country. It's ok we accept that. Your best bet for growing the game is to keep the level of passion/excitement from the fans you have and throw blockbuster Frozen Fours that travel around the country because, as you say, that is a party that really stands out. Same as how now Vegas has become a destination city for hockey with a diehard fan base that lives there (we'll see if they stay diehard when that team eventually starts losing). The delving into new markets by college hockey for purposes of the FF is relatively new (Tampa has hosted now 3x since 2012 with none prior), particularly in the south. Seems like the lowest hanging fruit
His best idea is to allow more western venues to host if we're going to keep this concept in place. The problem will be is if you're going to allow hosting at a home institution, UND is going to bid basically every year and will outbid the small rinks at BSU, UMD, etc. so you can't really have that one work out as well as you would hope to when you look at it more pragmatically.
Usually the bid stuff is essentially just meeting the NCAA guarantee financially and promising to staff and market the regional sufficiently. Now UND and UMN have bigger venues that could financially be more attractive to the committee awarding bids, but I think the committee would also rotate the regional awards around based on how they've awarded bids in the past.
His best idea is to allow more western venues to host if we're going to keep this concept in place. The problem will be is if you're going to allow hosting at a home institution, UND is going to bid basically every year and will outbid the small rinks at BSU, UMD, etc. so you can't really have that one work out as well as you would hope to when you look at it more pragmatically.
Usually the bid stuff is essentially just meeting the NCAA guarantee financially and promising to staff and market the regional sufficiently. Now UND and UMN have bigger venues that could financially be more attractive to the committee awarding bids, but I think the committee would also rotate the regional awards around based on how they've awarded bids in the past.
I guess you hold out more hope than I do that the NCAA won't just take the higher paycheck cashed; I'd be a little worried about the committee thinking Bemidji or Mankato or St Cloud are good options (for capacity, housing, and travel concerns) comparatively when you get a guaranteed high capacity location sellout selecting UND each year (this would also apply to MN should the Gopher Admin feel they want to do this). Also a lot to ask of smaller athletic divisions to take on an extra 200-300k investment hoping people want to travel to these smaller towns to recoup it in a rink with lesser seating capacity. Maybe I'm too pessimistic.
St. Cloud out shoots Duluth 54-27 (41-15 over the last two periods, 19-4 in the 3rd period) but the Bulldogs out score them 4-2 over the last two periods to win. St. Cloud gets swept by a team who was winless in their last 8 games (7 losses and 1 tie). St. Cloud has now lost 4 straight games.
Omaha leading in the third period. They’re going to for a sweep of North Dakota, which would really help get them into the tournament. I want them to sneak into the tournament as a four seed because they host the Sioux Falls regional this year.
How can Western and CC both be over 70% to make it? They play each other in the first round of the NCHC playoffs😂. Is there any way CC (#11) and Western (#13) can lose that series and stay inside the bubble?
I believe St. Cloud won the #3 seed tiebreaker over Colorado College due to having more conference regulation wins (10 to 9).
USCHO shows the best of three match ups as
Western Michigan at St. Cloud
Omaha at Colorado College
The Probability Matrix on College Hockey News is currently not available so maybe something is getting updated and the numbers will change when it is available again.
”The highest-seeded team advancing from the quarterfinals will host the second-highest advancing team, while the lowest-seeded advancing team will play at Michigan State.”
we all thought we’d get the winner of the red game. 🤷♀️
They kept talking about that on the B1G+ broadcast, so I assume they were correct. I'd have guessed that was the case anyway, but, the way they brought it up about a dozen times during the game tonight, I'm going with them being correct.
Since Wisco hasn't been playing at its best recently and now has two weekends off before they play again, anyone want to take bets on whether the time off will do more to help or hurt them?
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I’d rather Nebraska get kicked from the conference as a whole, so we should find another school to get hockey going. 😊
Iowa. It makes so much sense. Built in rivalries with Minnesota and Wisconsin. Multiple in state junior teams and would be able to pull a lot of talent from the Chicago area. Imagine hearing “Who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa!” ring out through Mariucci.
It seems beyond its traditional markets the B1G is going after large population centers along the west coast and into the northeast. One glaring hole is Boston/New England. Imagine the backlash in hockey if BC jumps to the Big Ten?
I base this on nothing, it's just a random observation as BC appears like the most viable candidate in New England since they play football and are currently part of a major conference. Heck, I don't even know if they'd be a good fit.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
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I’d rather Nebraska get kicked from the conference as a whole, so we should find another school to get hockey going. 😊
Iowa. It makes so much sense. Built in rivalries with Minnesota and Wisconsin. Multiple in state junior teams and would be able to pull a lot of talent from the Chicago area. Imagine hearing “Who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa!” ring out through Mariucci.
Except that at least from the Iowans I've met, they know nothing about hockey, nor do they care to know about it. They may as well be from Louisiana.
