U-M Hockey vs NoDak NCAAT in Maryland Hts Regional - Selection Show
March 25th, 2024 at 10:29 AM ^
Fuck You Sparty
2500 seating capacity for a NCAA Hockey Regional. SMH!
For those who might wish to compare, WMU plays in tiny Lawson Ice Arena... capacity 3667.
Michigan's home , of course, is the fabled Yost Ice Arena. Capacity 6600.
WTF NCAA???!!!
Exceptionally sad that they can’t have the imagination to figure out a way to draw more people to the college hockey playoffs than see any of the last couple of rounds of the Minny state HS tournament or many near-final games out east in prep school hockey. Ugh.
Hey now… that’s only about half the capacity of an actual honest to goodness NHL arena…
2500 is pretty small, even by college hockey home site standards. It's Lindenwood's home ice, apparently, and ranks 16 in smallest size among DI men's arenas, which is 15th percentile. Tech plays in a 4400-seat arena in a city of 7000 people. No idea what the NCAA is thinking. Maybe it's a trial run to see how a small rink would handle a regional in a future home sites scenario?
Anyone remember what happened a few months after we won our last football national championship in 1998?
Just sayin'
If i was trying to exaggerate how dumb the NCAA tournament is with a hypothetical bracket, I would struggle to make it more absurd than this years Springfield regional
- A 1 seed traveling about as far as really will ever happen
- to play at a 4 seed hosting
- and if they win that they get 2 more team that are both in easy driving distance (probably because this system always forces attendance issues the committee for some reason has to balance)
it would be hard to draw it up worse for a 1 seed
Then there's BU going to Sioux Falls.
Yep. At least theyre getting RIT first but then a theoretical 2nd round game is going to be a road game
Almost as if they were TRYING to f it up. If so, hat tip to you, gents.
As someone who lives in St Louis now and regularly travels to Ann Arbor I'm super pumped for having this at home. I know it doesn't benefit anybody else.
But having the regional finals on Easter Sunday is pretty lame.
Wait, so these games are being played in the Blues' practice rink? That's just gross.
The last time they hosted a regional in St Louis and had it at the Enterprise Center the lower bowl wasn't even close to being full. I was there. The Maryland Heights Centene Community Ice Center is only four and a half years old and is nicer. Smaller arena and closer to the ice for a more intimate feel. I'd rather have a small full arena than a large empty one. Home of the Lindenwood Lions.
What about a small empty one?
Looks like we got ESPNU. Can’t hate on the Friday night slot.
Now that I did mention in OP.
Fair enough. I missed it watching the show live and had just scrolled down the thread and found this link. Either way can’t hate on Friday night slot.
Bummed for selfish reasons they won’t be in one of the two east regionals but it does leave open the possibility for an epic regional final with MSU. Also quite happy they avoided BC/BU for now
Three Michigan teams can carpool to St. Louis.
This is about the dumbest thing I have heard. Three Michigan teams playing in St Louis at a practice rink that seats <4000 people. The NCAA has lost their minds
Host these at the #1 seeds rink. This is pretty obvious.
It's a really nice facility that's only 4 years old and it's where Lindenwood plays their three home games.
Edit: it was an exaggeration, but they did not have many home games. Also it's nicer than half the Big Ten's arenas.
https://lindenwoodlions.com/sports/mhockey-ncaa/schedule/2023-24
March 24th, 2024 at 10:49 PM ^
Waaay fewer than 4000.
How does 2500 sound to you?
March 24th, 2024 at 11:03 PM ^
Sounds like -37.5%.
March 24th, 2024 at 11:51 PM ^
Living in St Louis I was hoping for this outcome when I picked up tickets last week on the chance Michigan would end up here. I am surprised they choose such a small building for a regional, however it will be a sell out and beats having 2,500 people in a building with a 10,000 seat capacity which is what we see in a lot of regional games with zero atmosphere. Go Blue!
Can we take one moment to quit bitching and be thankful we got a bid that looked doubtful not long ago?
Why in the world didn't they just send us to Springfield and split the B1G into all four regions?
March 24th, 2024 at 11:31 PM ^
I assume FYS is F*** You Sparty. Correct?
March 24th, 2024 at 11:57 PM ^
Close. Fuck you State.
I know this isn’t an original observation, but the people at the NCAA who run hockey are fucking shit for brains morons.
Unoriginal and outstanding.
March 25th, 2024 at 10:35 AM ^
Here is what we COULD be doing instead:
Michigan at #6 North Dakota, 6:30 CT Friday
Massachusetts at #3 Denver, 8:00 MT Friday
RIT at #1 Boston College, 4:00 ET Saturday
Western Michigan at #4 Michigan State, 6:30 ET Saturday
Michigan Tech at #8 Wisconsin, 8:00 CT Saturday
Quinnipiac at #5 Maine, 3:00 ET Sunday
Omaha at #7 Minnesota, 4:30 CT Sunday
Cornell at #2 Boston University, 8:00 ET Sunday
And then the quarterfinals would be next weekend, with the Frozen Four as currently scheduled.
March 25th, 2024 at 10:43 AM ^
A host school automatically getting placed into that site --- it REALLY messed the bracket up this year.
If Massachusetts didn't have to go to Springfield, MA ... then it's the 2 Boston schools East, Denver in Sioux Falls, MSU in Saint Louis. A straight 1 v 16, 2 v 15, etc bracketing would work damn near perfect, you'd just have to flip Michigan/UNO to avoid a Michigan v Big Ten 1st round game:
- Springfield, MA: (1) BC vs (16) MTU, (8) Wisconsin vs (9) Quinnipiac
- Saint Louis, MO: (4) MSU vs (13) WMU, (5) Maine vs (12) Cornell
- Providence, RI: (2) BU vs (15) RIT, (7) Minnesota vs (11) UNO
- Sioux Falls, SD: (3) Denver vs (14) UMass, (6) UND vs (10) Michigan
Alas, not to be. If they're going to do neutral sites, fine, but one adjustment they should make: if you're a host school, you're only guaranteed into that site if you're top 8 (e.g., a #1 or #2 seed). They should need to earn that spot.
March 25th, 2024 at 11:09 AM ^
Yessssss!!!! Michigan hockey just 30 minutes from my house.
March 25th, 2024 at 11:51 AM ^
Group of death.
March 25th, 2024 at 11:54 AM ^
The unspoken part about these regional sites is that a lot of arenas no longer want to bid for them because you now are tying your arena up for an extra day because of the rest day between games and because they are money losers. If you went back to campus sites, it at least might make more sense for schools to host.
We could also consider a SuperRegional situation where one building hosts the six games over four days, but that probably would not fly either.
March 25th, 2024 at 12:10 PM ^
I wonder if they should just link the men's and women's tournaments and have them playing alternating days. Solves your dead ice day problem, though I'm sure it'd create about 100 more.
March 25th, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
Well right now the women's tournament actually does things the right way--all rounds prior to the women's frozen four are at home ice of the higher seed. I would hate to mess up the women's tournament for no reason at all.