GLI moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan out
This has been rumored for a while now and it will open up two non-conference games.
Michigan Tech is hosting the 57th ššæš²š®š šš®šøš²š šš»šš¶šš®šš¶š¼š»š®š¹ in Grand Rapids on Dec. 27-28. #mtuhky #FollowTheHuskies
ā Michigan Tech Hockey (@mtuhky) June 8, 2022
Semifinal Matchups:@mtuhky vs. @WMUHockey @MSU_Hockey vs. @FerrisHockey
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Sorry to see Mich dropped from this. Can we assume it was the school's decision?
Yes. Michigan is a co-host of the tournament, meaning they would either have to remove themselves or the other teams would have to break away and form a new tournament, likely under a new name. Michigan canāt be ākicked outā
Help me out here. We are a co-host of a tournament that we don't play in.
How's this work with the money? Do we sink any money into it? Do we get any money out of it?
Let's make our own tournament and bring in a top East team, a top West team and another midwest team. Make it the same dates as the GLI and screw them.
Yeah! With blackjack and hookers!
Absolutely not. The whole point of not participating (which is almost certainly at least in part Michiganās decision) is to avoid playing tough, high-leverage games when our roster is missing significant numbers of its best players.
And we donāt have room for indignation in any event after the WMU situation last season. Other people over-reacted, but it wasnāt a good look and we canāt claim any kind of moral superiority.
What was the WMU situation?
We pulled out of a game against WMU because we were missing something like 2/3 of the roster from Covid and development teams (or something like that). WMU had a really good team and really wanted the game to improve their RPI and tournament standing. They were quite sore with us, and credibly accused Michigan of using Covid to avoid playing a good team.
Wasnāt CoVid at all. A couple injuries and players at the World Junior Tournament left Michigan without a full roster.
I heard it was snowy and players had the flu...
We might have been outshot 42-27...
We played Western earlier in the year and split with them, so WE PLAYED THEM! Thatās the part of the narrative everyone leaves out.
From Western's perspective, if we play them in the GLI and Western beats us, they win the head to head comparison for Pairwise. Just sayin'.
BT C
F$ck State, but I was at a GLI game 25 years ago when Ron Mason plucked a couple of defensemen from the MSU club team because he had players in the junior tournament.
The other way to look at this is that WMU was looking forward to taking advantage of a depleted Michigan roster to get themselves an easy win.
That, to me, isn't really the best look either. Fuck them.
We cancelled our GLI game against them but played the one against Tech. Citing player health and safety concerns. Michigan couldnāt field a full roster and didnāt want to play games on back to back days.
But has anything really changed in the last couple years? Hasn't (1) Michigan always had a roster with players likely to play in the WJCs, (2) the GLI always overlapped with the WJCs, (3) and the NCAA always used Pairwise strictly (outside of the 2020 COVID year) to set tournament seeding?
I don't know. The GLI was a fun event for decades despite the above dynamic existing. Now U-M may not play tough, high-leverage games during the holiday season ever again?
I get the logic. But it does seem like a case of only viewing this from an analytics and logic POV, and not weighing at all that college sports is also supposed to be, well, FUN too.
Michigan definitely has more players going to the WJC than theyāve had in previous years.
You've seen Michigan football's non-conference schedule right? The AD clearly does not care about fun games.
I am still incredulous that Michigan cancelled a 2022-2023 series with UCLA. Fun opponent, amazingly respected institution, low risk of losing and a game at the Rose Bowl. Pretty much the perfect non-conference opponent.
It's not terrible - I am jealous of U-M's upcoming series with Texas & Oklahoma.
The UCLA cancellation - I agree. It's a perfect series for Michigan (and UCLA for that matter).
On a tangent --- UCLA's OOC schedule the next 2 years is truly absurd. A road game against Brady Hoke, which is fine. But then home games against Bowling Green, Alabama State, South Alabama, NC Central and Coastal Carolina. How the heck is any of that going to sell in sunny Los Angeles?
UCLA set a modern day attendance-low in their 2021 opener with Hawaii (only 32.9K fans). It's very possible that none of those 5 games above reach that number!
UCLA football is slowly dying it seems, and there's no way that should be the case.
They're going to cancel the OU series, in all likelihood. They're supposed to play in Norman in 2025 but they're on schedule to only have 4 conference home games that year so they'll cancel it to make sure they get 7 homes games.
I see you edited to add your tangent. I live in LA and did my masters at UCLA so they're my very distant #2 team. It really is sad.
It's two things (mostly):
1. The Rose Bowl is about an hour from campus, more in gameday traffic. It is a brutally long day to tailgate for just a couple hours and then attend a game from almost anywhere in LA. And transportation is an issue. Students pretty much have to take a bus which means they have to be on time for both legs (or the bus gets held up to wait for people which makes the day even longer).
2. Los Angeles in general is rapidly becoming a "sportsball" city even faster than the rest of the country, ie interest in sports is rapidly declining. This is happening everywhere but faster in LA because of the cultural makeup of the city.
All that said, they had Michigan sheduled and Michigan screwed them over on their non-conference schedule. They hosted LSU last year.
In 2019, their non-conference schedule was Cincinnati, SDSU and Oklahoma!! Absolutely brutal!!
But yeah, pathetic schedules the next two years for both UCLA and Michigan. If only they could have played each other...wait...
False, it is fun as hell for me to watch Michigan curb stomp teams. I'd be happy watching them play California State Fresno Beautician Community College for the Blind
well, michigan football is like sex, it's all fun but some is much more fun than others. why not maximize the fun?
Guess it depends if maximizing the fun comes with significantly increased risk of, say, an STD or unwanted pregnancy? Or perhaps trying wacky new positions that risk physical injury, thus eliminating the ability to have fun for a while? Or do you just stick with the safe but still extremely enjoyable option?
Just order up the hookers and blow and have a really good time!
Hookers are very, VERY risky. Think about where they've been.
If the expectation for M football was solely B1G titles and the base didn't care about the playoffs, the AD would probably schedule more interesting noncons.
this has nothing to do with it. it's purely a money grab by an institution that takes fan loyalty for granted. it was 100 percent a short term financial decision, nothing to do with the CFP.
they know (for now) fans will come out and support the team in numbers of 100k+ for boring games against Hawaii but it's leading to a dwindling of the wait list and increasingly empty sections and will eventually start costing them when enough people say, hey, what is going on here?
Do you remember the mid-September 2000 game in the Rose Bowl when it was about 106 degree fahrenheit on the field? We were winning that game, until our defense wilted in the heat?
Yeah, I was there. Medics hauling elderly fans out of the stands on stretchers, vendors running out of ice in the second quarter, and PAC-12 officiating stinking out the joint.
I was there also. It was so hot, you could not have your bare skin touch the plastic seat without incredible pain. Luckily I was sitting on the UCLA side and had some shade in the second half. Dang Navarre threw that interception to seal the loss. Still, it was a fun vacation. š
I was there and it was miserable. People were passing out all over the place, and having to walk through those packed tunnels in the heat was an awful experience.
I was watching the game from Markley Hall as a student and don't recall that being part of the story, but I have lived in Los Angeles for the past 15 years, did my masters at UCLA and have been to many September games at the Rose Bowl and can tell you (not that it's hard to look up - I didn't need to go to these games to know) that would have been a total fluke.
UCLA plays games all the time in September with no problem. The Dodgers play in Chavez Ravine all summer long. It's not usually that hot there, especially since the games now would be more likely be be primetime (I assume that was a mid-day game?)
Beg to differ.
NOTHING has or ever will stop the Michigan fan base from the claim of moral superiority.
ever
Can't wait to see the Ferris State goalie put another one into his own net.
When I saw "GLI", I thought it was another GhostofJermain post.
Then I realized the title would just be "GLI to GR per MTU TWT"
I'll go and enjoy it, this switch to GR makes it a much shorter drive for me than for any other college hockey game.
I'm hoping that Michigan will at least occasionally be included in the GLI in future years if it ends up staying in GR.
Funny, though, that this season they'll be making it a 2-team tournament (WMU and MTU).
Bummer, would have liked to see Michigan in my back yard
they just were.... you could have told JH where the coffee was, but no....you slept in that day and weren't hanging out in a hotel lobby.
you snooze, you lose!
Honestly good! We always have our best players out for that tournament.
Place will be empty. Last couple of years at the Joe, Michiganās fans bought the most tickets. MSU barely has a program.
Probably will be sparse but GR isnt a bad spot for it. Pretty much central to Ferris Western and Staee
They'll get a decent number of fans for the Broncos, there's a lot of WMU grads in the greater GR area and K-Zoo is less than an hour drive away.
But both Ferris and staee have been turrible programs over the last few years and will practically have to give their tickets away to draw anyone. And while MTU has a loyal fan base, I wouldn't expect too many Yoopers making that long trip from the western UP.
I would imagine that since Ferris draws a lot of their student body from the west side of the state (anecdotally), over xmas break you'll get a decent number of students and alums that'll take this as their chance to go to GR for a night to drink and watch hockey. Since Van Andel is only a 10k seat arena, you get 2k WMU fans, 2k MSU fans and then 1-2k Ferris + Mich Tech fans you'll have an arena that'll sound loud enough and be a fun venue. One nice thing about this is that you won't have to impress TV as much.. I'm sure Bally's sports will snipe a feed from NCHC TV or a WMU webcam and you'll see the front rows of the rink filled in enough.
First time since 1973 we weren't invited to play, and only the 6th time total.
Hardly a surprise though, last year against WMU pissed a lot of people off, and Tech is definitely no fan of ours after Mel left
We were co-hosts. We donāt get āinvitedā to play. This is 100% Michigan backing out.
Warde puts the maize in maize and blue!
Sad to see it end but I think it was the right choice for us. Tech Western and FYS fans can commiserate and be salty together without us
So this is really U-M conceding that it's not in their continued best interests to play in the GLI after 50 years of memorable participation, and not example #163 of Warde getting his lunch eaten by people who make decisions?
Michigan was a co-host so we definitely backed out. At worst this was a mutual parting of ways. I suspect Western and Tech know it's bad for the GLI that we're leaving it, but neither school is a fan of ours at the moment. One for a good reason and another because they're forever salty Mel left.
I think it's generally the right choice. The GLI is a great tradition but I see no point in letting a good team like Western thunk us while we're missing most of our best players in a game that actually has serious NCAA tournament implications. Just try to take your two GLI games and replace those with a non-con series vs an old Michigan / CCHA school in the fall. I wouldn't be mad about a series with Miami, BGSU, Northern, etc. every fall