Hard to say that they are alone in that position, particularly if one includes the D1 sport they’re playing up in. Minnesota State and UMD both have hockey programs that shade Ferris, particularly in the last decade, with nationally competitive football and basketball teams as well. If we’re talking d2 only, Northwest Missouri State is a monster and has been for decades.
But as a UMD non-hockey fan I’d definitely take Ferris’ non-hockey results in the last decade and it’s not really close. But UMD fans who cheer for the hockey team? No way.
Weighting D1 sports for D2 schools is just tricky business. But Ferris is definitely one of a small handful of premiere schools in D-2 athletics no matter how small you want that category to be.
I have no argument that they made bad choices. That’s part of the point; there have been multiple owners and multiple failures, and the one common theme has been the NHL doggedly determined that the NHL will work there without considering that it might not. And, if necessary, mitigating the challenges.
The move of the Coyotes to Arizona is almost 30 years old and never been anything but a colossal failure.
I've read this article detailing the meltdown of their relationship with Whatever-it's-now-called Arena in Glendale and it still makes no sense. The arena would still be the ninth newest arena in the NHL if they were still playing there, and they couldn't even make that work. They tried everything. They sank and lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The NHL did not work in Arizona.
It is in its essense a tribute to massive hubris, and another black mark on the ink-stained ledger of the mad fool Gary Bettman.
I feel about how I thought I would feel: sad that it's over. Happy that it happened.
It really looked like this team was going to crash out without a tourney bid not that long ago. But then they put some things together, went on another good B1G title run, and performed brilliantly in a stacked (but not elite elite) regional. Beating our arch-rival to go to the FF? Always wonderful.
And the hope is that, after many years where the flukes went against us, maybe it's our turn?
Nope, still not. And there were some bad breaks in there; the ice around the blue lines appeared to be terrible, directly affecting Michigan's gameplan of getting long-ish pucks in on goal looking for bounces and deflections. Had to be 10+ whiffs and blown tires out there, and one of them led directly to the third BC goal.
That was also on that unjust 4-on-4 after they called the phantom penalty on Duke, taking away a PP. A 1-0 tight game turned into a 3-0 shellacking. I don't like that, and I'm annoyed at whiffing issues...
But you can't complain that the breaks and a bad call cost you a game where you scored 0 goals. The better team won. As David says, sometimes it's good for the sport when the better team wins. Like in football this year.
Is it a cope to keep going back to the football team and remembering that?
No. It's real, and it's spectacular. Michigan hockey is, once again, Sisyphus watching the rock roll back down the hill. This time, though, we're looking at the other hill, the bigger and harder one, and there's a massive boulder anchored on top, carrying an inscription that says "15-0."
No matter. I got to go, take my daughter. Her second time ever hearing a Michigan band in person; they gave her a picture, too. Saw a few mgobloggers, including (for the first time) Craig and David. My gratitude to those who made this possible is significant.
For the “put pucks on net” crowd: it was clear that this was a big part of Michigan’s gameplan from the beginning. Lots of shots from the blue line and high slot, into traffic, looking for deflections and bounces.
They’ve lost at least a half-dozen of these shots to whiffs and wipeouts. No idea if it’s the ice or just bad luck. But now they’re working lower and BC is clogging the house.
I'll be there. I'm quite tall and I'll be wearing a dazzle maize Tim Cook jersey from 2004. Section 211 nominally, might be around a bit as I already have a couple people to say "hi" to. More are always welcome.
One area of significance is that NIL totally flips the already-changing field with Major Junior. Leaving aside that powers-that-be are thinking of making Major Junior players eligible for college, it used to be that the cash packages favored Major Junior, since they didn't have the sort of boundaries that NCAA teams did. Now, though, you have some significant programs and fanbases able to throw around real cash in a way that that the CHL just can't. Major Junior teams just don't have the sort of substance that a major college athletic program has, especially now with network revenue.
Add in that big-time college programs increasingly look like legitimate places to develop for future NHL talent and you have a situation where the personnel dynamic in college hockey is changing rapidly. An NHL team can stash a player in college for extra years, count on him to get developed, and he can actually make reasonable money (so, not impatient) while doing so.
Frankly, I think this is *already* a big factor. The big change coming is how it affects recruiting and transfers.
And in that realm it feels like Minnesota and North Dakota are poised to dominate the hockey world. Michigan (and Michigan State and the Boston schools; a program like Maine can also benefit significantly) can be competitive too, but this is one area where having a really good program in another sport drawing NIL money can be a bit of a detriment. NoDak is a premiere sports program in its state; Minnesota is a big deal statewide in a way unlike any other college hockey program, as well.
How imbalanced kind of depends on how some smaller programs that potentially serve as the one major program of a smallish market make the transition. I'm in Duluth, and NIL could potentially be a game-changer here, or it could be a nothingburger. Marquette has that potential for NMU, too. Small tv markets with no other major-level sport--fertile ground for some interesting dynamics.
Not nothing. I absolutely do not want to fall behind Denver, and I loathe the other two schools. So one of the other teams winning will be a bitter pill to swallow (BU the least of these).
But... this is an underdog rebuild sort of year, albeit with some excellent players. It's not a generational talent collection or a generational player like the last two.
And:
If you had asked me to choose between a hockey title (or a good basketball season or a basketball title or, well, literally name any other feat in sports that I could care about) and a football title, well...
Let's just say I've gotten choice #1 already. Everything else is gravy.
*I will disclaim both knowledge of and agreement with this post if Michigan loses 3-2 in overtime this weekend.
No argument with the premise, but going to gently disagree with the category of a couple of the teams. I don't think one can really call a #1 seed a team that has "no chance," even if both OSU and Purdue had the bad luck to face dominant repeat champions; that OSU team was 30-3, and this Purdue team was an underdog but hardly a walkover.
They're not at all in the same category as the Indiana team that had no business making the final (against, uh, Maryland) or that MSU team that everyone knew would get steamrolled in Detroit.
It's pretty remarkable how many different B1G teams have gone to the finals and lost. For that reason alone I figured Purdue's demise was inevitable.
A fitting end to this era of the B1G in basketball.
Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan (twice), Wisconsin, and Purdue all on the wrong side of one shining moment. Every three years a new Big Ten team gets put to the sword.
Probably? Sure. But Howard was also conscious of recruiting and momentum.
Let's face it, people were cranky before he made the Sweet Sixteen in 22. After last year most people didn't want him gone, but a few made noise like they did, and when the blowup with Sanderson happened (which, it must be said, happened before it became clear that the season was a disaster; probably contributed to the collapse, honestly) a lot of people were ready to axe him in no small part because they were frustrated with the win-loss record as much as the contested behavior issues.
We can say, in retrospect, that if he had sat the whole season or most of it, he'd still have the job. But for how long? The team might not have had such a collapse this year, but it probably misses the tournament. That's two in a row. And he still isn't getting great guys into the program. So... where would he be next year? How many recruits and transfers can he get, and can he forge into a team, that are ready to sign up for a coach that would unquestionably be in a win-or-die season that's really more of the same?
Now, maybe he could do something with that. But it's important to understand that his desperation to return is not unfounded. If I were in his position I would feel like I had to coach for my job, and it would be really hard for me to just lay low as the team, inevitably, struggled at times.
He was caught in a bad place. Hindsight may seem like it's 20-20, but sometimes it's 50-50.
Sort of, sort of not. The NCAA has made a mess of things, and that directly contributes to sustained bad regionals.
I’ve been banging the drum on this long enough: years ago, before the B1G formed for hockey, the WCHA sold out the X for the Final Five regularly. One year they had a regional at the X the week after. Minnesota and North Dakota, the two biggest WCHA draws, both played in the regional.
And the arena was only half full for the regional, despite the games being substantially more important. Because the NCAA has trained its fans that regionals aren’t worthwhile.
Big brotherish, honestly. It’s punching down; OSU isn’t totally irrelevant in hockey, but Michigan is one of the top two programs in college hockey history and OSU just fields an ok program that occasionally has good seasons. Michigan coaches had *better* make more Frozen Fours than their program.
This would be like OSU taunting Bowling Green’s football program. Of course they’re better.
...That was coming off of a disappointing FF loss when a lot of people thought they should have won, and lost the reigning Hobey Baker winner, and really scuffled through much of the regular season...
Two third period explosions in a row after so many implosions. Who would have thought?
I mean, Michigan had a history of catching fire late, but this has been really improbable. They were on the wrong side of the bubble a few weeks ago.
And now look at us. In St. Paul at the X, just like every other FF at the X. And this year there’s really nothing to lose. No all-time draft class, no Hobey, no expectations, and a fanbase still basking in the ultimate triumph.
It’s plinko. They might even win!
And running MSU off the ice to get there is the fourth-best regional final win ever without question.
Yeah. I was really hard on Stroud after the 2022 game. But in retrospect a big factor in his frustrations was that he was playing an elite defense with a game-changing scheme and underrated elite players. It was easy to pick on Stroud, and fun in rivalry terms, but then he went and played really well against Georgia and lit up the NFL, and that same defense devoured literally everybody the next season.
I have no problem recognizing that the problem wasn’t Stroud. The problem was playing against Michigan.
You think this is crazy, find the "College Hockey Championship Belt" thread(s) on the same site. Ralph Baer finally retired from the task after something like two decades of it. A remarkable rabbit hole.
Perhaps unsurprisingly there's a guy on USCHO who has done some exhaustive work on the topic. I have (at times publicly) disagreed with a few of his metrics but you can't argue with the work or most of what he's using. He exhaustively ranks each program from an all-time perspective.
Before last year's postseason North Dakota was narrowly #1 over #2 Michigan, but he stated in the thread that he expected Michigan to jump NoDak after last year's postseason. He has not since crunched the numbers, but this is a hobby sort of thing. You can find the thread here. It is, uh, six years long, the link should take you to his most recent comprehensive ranking. Which is:
North Dakota didn't get started as early as Michigan, but they've been a power for many decades. Beating them this year is a big deal; they were a top four team for a big part of the year until they got ambushed by Omaha in the NCHC playoffs.
I guess how one views a blue-blood can vary. But I would consider MSU and UMD to be on that list; multiple decades of elite hockey, multiple titles, Hobey winners. MSU and Maine both having renaissance seasons this year helps both in this area; contrast with LSSU, which was elite for almost 20 years but hasn't been relevant since Jeff Jackson left.
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Hard to say that they are alone in that position, particularly if one includes the D1 sport they’re playing up in. Minnesota State and UMD both have hockey programs that shade Ferris, particularly in the last decade, with nationally competitive football and basketball teams as well. If we’re talking d2 only, Northwest Missouri State is a monster and has been for decades.
But as a UMD non-hockey fan I’d definitely take Ferris’ non-hockey results in the last decade and it’s not really close. But UMD fans who cheer for the hockey team? No way.
Weighting D1 sports for D2 schools is just tricky business. But Ferris is definitely one of a small handful of premiere schools in D-2 athletics no matter how small you want that category to be.
I have no argument that they made bad choices. That’s part of the point; there have been multiple owners and multiple failures, and the one common theme has been the NHL doggedly determined that the NHL will work there without considering that it might not. And, if necessary, mitigating the challenges.
Instead, hubris.
The move of the Coyotes to Arizona is almost 30 years old and never been anything but a colossal failure.
I've read this article detailing the meltdown of their relationship with Whatever-it's-now-called Arena in Glendale and it still makes no sense. The arena would still be the ninth newest arena in the NHL if they were still playing there, and they couldn't even make that work. They tried everything. They sank and lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The NHL did not work in Arizona.
It is in its essense a tribute to massive hubris, and another black mark on the ink-stained ledger of the mad fool Gary Bettman.
I feel about how I thought I would feel: sad that it's over. Happy that it happened.
It really looked like this team was going to crash out without a tourney bid not that long ago. But then they put some things together, went on another good B1G title run, and performed brilliantly in a stacked (but not elite elite) regional. Beating our arch-rival to go to the FF? Always wonderful.
And the hope is that, after many years where the flukes went against us, maybe it's our turn?
Nope, still not. And there were some bad breaks in there; the ice around the blue lines appeared to be terrible, directly affecting Michigan's gameplan of getting long-ish pucks in on goal looking for bounces and deflections. Had to be 10+ whiffs and blown tires out there, and one of them led directly to the third BC goal.
That was also on that unjust 4-on-4 after they called the phantom penalty on Duke, taking away a PP. A 1-0 tight game turned into a 3-0 shellacking. I don't like that, and I'm annoyed at whiffing issues...
But you can't complain that the breaks and a bad call cost you a game where you scored 0 goals. The better team won. As David says, sometimes it's good for the sport when the better team wins. Like in football this year.
Is it a cope to keep going back to the football team and remembering that?
No. It's real, and it's spectacular. Michigan hockey is, once again, Sisyphus watching the rock roll back down the hill. This time, though, we're looking at the other hill, the bigger and harder one, and there's a massive boulder anchored on top, carrying an inscription that says "15-0."
No matter. I got to go, take my daughter. Her second time ever hearing a Michigan band in person; they gave her a picture, too. Saw a few mgobloggers, including (for the first time) Craig and David. My gratitude to those who made this possible is significant.
Memories forever. Michigan forever. Go Blue.
Thought about you today, Ckersh, and the old Yost Crew. Saw a couple tonight.
Welp.
For the “put pucks on net” crowd: it was clear that this was a big part of Michigan’s gameplan from the beginning. Lots of shots from the blue line and high slot, into traffic, looking for deflections and bounces.
They’ve lost at least a half-dozen of these shots to whiffs and wipeouts. No idea if it’s the ice or just bad luck. But now they’re working lower and BC is clogging the house.
And it’s a part of the ice BC isn’t using a lot.
And that whiff, something like the 10th, gives up a goal.
Ugh.
Happened a lot in the first, too. Starting to be really noticeable.
Mobile linking to Twitter isn’t as easy as it used to be. But you can see my view if you want.
My daughter’s second ever time hearing a Michigan band in person; they enthusiastically gave her a pic.
Here. Got to see several mgofolks in person.
It’s all gravy now. Go Blue.
I haven't been to the science museum in 22 years.
Almost exactly. I went there on the day off at the 2002 FF.
I'll be there. I'm quite tall and I'll be wearing a dazzle maize Tim Cook jersey from 2004. Section 211 nominally, might be around a bit as I already have a couple people to say "hi" to. More are always welcome.
Thankful I get to go. God is good. Go Blue.
The last time I was this terrified reading an Alex Drain scouting report on an opposing offense was November 2021. Future pros, all of them.
I get to go. Excited and thankful.
I hope we win.
Go Blue.
I loved how Red pulled that line back out after the North Dakota game in 2011.
Could happen again.
One area of significance is that NIL totally flips the already-changing field with Major Junior. Leaving aside that powers-that-be are thinking of making Major Junior players eligible for college, it used to be that the cash packages favored Major Junior, since they didn't have the sort of boundaries that NCAA teams did. Now, though, you have some significant programs and fanbases able to throw around real cash in a way that that the CHL just can't. Major Junior teams just don't have the sort of substance that a major college athletic program has, especially now with network revenue.
Add in that big-time college programs increasingly look like legitimate places to develop for future NHL talent and you have a situation where the personnel dynamic in college hockey is changing rapidly. An NHL team can stash a player in college for extra years, count on him to get developed, and he can actually make reasonable money (so, not impatient) while doing so.
Frankly, I think this is *already* a big factor. The big change coming is how it affects recruiting and transfers.
And in that realm it feels like Minnesota and North Dakota are poised to dominate the hockey world. Michigan (and Michigan State and the Boston schools; a program like Maine can also benefit significantly) can be competitive too, but this is one area where having a really good program in another sport drawing NIL money can be a bit of a detriment. NoDak is a premiere sports program in its state; Minnesota is a big deal statewide in a way unlike any other college hockey program, as well.
How imbalanced kind of depends on how some smaller programs that potentially serve as the one major program of a smallish market make the transition. I'm in Duluth, and NIL could potentially be a game-changer here, or it could be a nothingburger. Marquette has that potential for NMU, too. Small tv markets with no other major-level sport--fertile ground for some interesting dynamics.
Are you press level tomorrow?
100% agree.
This is way different than the last two years.
Not nothing. I absolutely do not want to fall behind Denver, and I loathe the other two schools. So one of the other teams winning will be a bitter pill to swallow (BU the least of these).
But... this is an underdog rebuild sort of year, albeit with some excellent players. It's not a generational talent collection or a generational player like the last two.
And:
If you had asked me to choose between a hockey title (or a good basketball season or a basketball title or, well, literally name any other feat in sports that I could care about) and a football title, well...
Let's just say I've gotten choice #1 already. Everything else is gravy.
*I will disclaim both knowledge of and agreement with this post if Michigan loses 3-2 in overtime this weekend.
Mike Sainristil made the key closing argument, didn’t he.
No argument with the premise, but going to gently disagree with the category of a couple of the teams. I don't think one can really call a #1 seed a team that has "no chance," even if both OSU and Purdue had the bad luck to face dominant repeat champions; that OSU team was 30-3, and this Purdue team was an underdog but hardly a walkover.
They're not at all in the same category as the Indiana team that had no business making the final (against, uh, Maryland) or that MSU team that everyone knew would get steamrolled in Detroit.
It's pretty remarkable how many different B1G teams have gone to the finals and lost. For that reason alone I figured Purdue's demise was inevitable.
A fitting end to this era of the B1G in basketball.
Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan (twice), Wisconsin, and Purdue all on the wrong side of one shining moment. Every three years a new Big Ten team gets put to the sword.
I don't understand why everything was focused on an eclipse in Ohio. Ohio has been eclipsed by Michigan since 2021.
Probably? Sure. But Howard was also conscious of recruiting and momentum.
Let's face it, people were cranky before he made the Sweet Sixteen in 22. After last year most people didn't want him gone, but a few made noise like they did, and when the blowup with Sanderson happened (which, it must be said, happened before it became clear that the season was a disaster; probably contributed to the collapse, honestly) a lot of people were ready to axe him in no small part because they were frustrated with the win-loss record as much as the contested behavior issues.
We can say, in retrospect, that if he had sat the whole season or most of it, he'd still have the job. But for how long? The team might not have had such a collapse this year, but it probably misses the tournament. That's two in a row. And he still isn't getting great guys into the program. So... where would he be next year? How many recruits and transfers can he get, and can he forge into a team, that are ready to sign up for a coach that would unquestionably be in a win-or-die season that's really more of the same?
Now, maybe he could do something with that. But it's important to understand that his desperation to return is not unfounded. If I were in his position I would feel like I had to coach for my job, and it would be really hard for me to just lay low as the team, inevitably, struggled at times.
He was caught in a bad place. Hindsight may seem like it's 20-20, but sometimes it's 50-50.
It does, in fact, appear to be true. God is good.
Probably in a Tim Cook jersey from 2004; only one from that year that I could find that would fit.
Sort of, sort of not. The NCAA has made a mess of things, and that directly contributes to sustained bad regionals.
I’ve been banging the drum on this long enough: years ago, before the B1G formed for hockey, the WCHA sold out the X for the Final Five regularly. One year they had a regional at the X the week after. Minnesota and North Dakota, the two biggest WCHA draws, both played in the regional.
And the arena was only half full for the regional, despite the games being substantially more important. Because the NCAA has trained its fans that regionals aren’t worthwhile.
In the famous 1998 regional the Yost crowd was heavy for OSU against top seeded Michigan State.
Big brotherish, honestly. It’s punching down; OSU isn’t totally irrelevant in hockey, but Michigan is one of the top two programs in college hockey history and OSU just fields an ok program that occasionally has good seasons. Michigan coaches had *better* make more Frozen Fours than their program.
This would be like OSU taunting Bowling Green’s football program. Of course they’re better.
As good as you can imagine. Regional final games are usually most memorable when it’s a Yost madhouse, but to end MSU’s season? Delightful.
What a third period.
Third periods…
Magnificent.
Third periods have been poison... until this weekend. Now Michigan is the team laying the smackdown.
It's Easter, there's 18 inches of snow on the ground, and it is an absolutely beautiful day.
Won the region of death that year, too. Then faced the #1 team in the semifinal in St. Paul.
I mean mostly but Dylan Duke looked a lot more than just gritty on the game-winner...
...That was coming off of a disappointing FF loss when a lot of people thought they should have won, and lost the reigning Hobey Baker winner, and really scuffled through much of the regular season...
Want to, really badly. Can I afford to do it, is the question. Added an item to the prayer list tonight.
Two third period explosions in a row after so many implosions. Who would have thought?
I mean, Michigan had a history of catching fire late, but this has been really improbable. They were on the wrong side of the bubble a few weeks ago.
And now look at us. In St. Paul at the X, just like every other FF at the X. And this year there’s really nothing to lose. No all-time draft class, no Hobey, no expectations, and a fanbase still basking in the ultimate triumph.
It’s plinko. They might even win!
And running MSU off the ice to get there is the fourth-best regional final win ever without question.
What an incredible turnaround this has been.
Congratulations on your B1G tournament title
Have fun watching the rest of the season on tv.
Naurato has done it again.
In all the good…
Unreal.
In all the good ways.
Hold fast.
Holy cow.
Hold fast.
Yeah. I was really hard on Stroud after the 2022 game. But in retrospect a big factor in his frustrations was that he was playing an elite defense with a game-changing scheme and underrated elite players. It was easy to pick on Stroud, and fun in rivalry terms, but then he went and played really well against Georgia and lit up the NFL, and that same defense devoured literally everybody the next season.
I have no problem recognizing that the problem wasn’t Stroud. The problem was playing against Michigan.
I hope we win.
You think this is crazy, find the "College Hockey Championship Belt" thread(s) on the same site. Ralph Baer finally retired from the task after something like two decades of it. A remarkable rabbit hole.
Love this, great pic.
Perhaps unsurprisingly there's a guy on USCHO who has done some exhaustive work on the topic. I have (at times publicly) disagreed with a few of his metrics but you can't argue with the work or most of what he's using. He exhaustively ranks each program from an all-time perspective.
Before last year's postseason North Dakota was narrowly #1 over #2 Michigan, but he stated in the thread that he expected Michigan to jump NoDak after last year's postseason. He has not since crunched the numbers, but this is a hobby sort of thing. You can find the thread here. It is, uh, six years long, the link should take you to his most recent comprehensive ranking. Which is:
North Dakota didn't get started as early as Michigan, but they've been a power for many decades. Beating them this year is a big deal; they were a top four team for a big part of the year until they got ambushed by Omaha in the NCHC playoffs.
I guess how one views a blue-blood can vary. But I would consider MSU and UMD to be on that list; multiple decades of elite hockey, multiple titles, Hobey winners. MSU and Maine both having renaissance seasons this year helps both in this area; contrast with LSSU, which was elite for almost 20 years but hasn't been relevant since Jeff Jackson left.
Michigan vs State in the tournament. It's a whole new level of crazy.
Be a good time to get another win on them after the last few games.
That's great.
Beat State.
2 minutes 5 on 6.