OT: 2019 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Having been following college hockey for more than 50 years, I was surprised to learn that this will be the first time since 1969, and only the second time ever, that the NCAA men's hockey tournament will have no Boston University, Boston College, Maine, Michigan, Michigan State, North Dakota, Minnesota or Wisconsin in the field. In 1969, Denver, Harvard, Cornell and Michigan Tech were the only four teams in the tournament. Among those four teams, only Michigan Tech is missing from this year’s field. LINK
Of the 16 teams in this year’s tournament, eight of them (American International, Arizona State, Bowling Green, Minnesota State-Mankato, Ohio State, Quinnipiac, St. Cloud State and UMass-Amherst) either didn’t exist as major varsity hockey programs or didn’t exist at all when the 1969 NCAA tournament was played. LINK
March 26th, 2019 at 12:13 AM ^
only the second time ever, that the NCAA men's hockey tournament will have no Boston University, Boston College, Maine, Michigan, Michigan State, North Dakota, Minnesota or Wisconsin in the field
And it will have an Arizona State. Which went varsity in 2015/16.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:57 AM ^
Go blue!
It hurts to see this labeled as "OT".
Well, damn.
U ain't lyin'.
I didn't go to as many M Hockey games as I should have when I was a student (and it's one of my regrets from my college days) but I love the program. The Frozen Four almost felt like a birthright from 92-03.
I hope to see M Hockey experience another dominant era with a bunch of National Championships to show for it.
It hurts that we suck so much this year because the frozen four is in Buffalo and that's in relatively easy driving distance for me. I had dreams of seeing a Michigan frozen four close by.
I'd be interested to understand why so many of the traditional powers are struggling so much. Maybe it's a weird year, but I also wonder if it doesn't have to do with a bunch of other programs using over-agers to their advantage
it's moslty the smaller programs using overagers and the bigger schools haven't caught up to do the same just yet.
some of it is a pretty seminal fall off and subsequent change in coaches at BU, BC, UM, MSU over the last 5-7 years.
part of it (and this may just be my perception) is fewer high end CDN prospects are looking to US college hockey. Not sure why exactly but it may be that the big programs (M, MSU, W, Minn, BC, BU) have transitioned toward recruiting the USNDP players - I know M made this transition in the '00's. Not exclusively ignoring Canadians by any means, but it's more of a focus shift. Maybe the MJ HLs in canada are marketing their league and educational benefits more effectively these days too, but IDK of any shifts up there specifically.
I don't know how it was in the 90's and early 2000's, but since I started following the team around 2007, it seems like we've been fairly successful at getting a few really high caliber commitments from guys in the GTA per year (or at least were with Red around), but it also feels like we've been getting torched on those at like a 75% clip - maybe more lately. I don't know if that's a change from how things used to be or not.
So, OSU is now good
Nah, tOSU just sucks less (and in a really shitty conference)
DU is going to destroy tSOU. Like The Dream Team versus Angola destroyed.
The Midwest Regional is in Allentown, PA?!?
I suppose that's west of Providence, RI and Manchester, NH, but still seems a little bit of a reach for the midwest.
It's crazy, but the way the regionals work, a team has to bid to be the host team a couple of years in advance. The arena can't be their home arena, and it can't be an NHL rink, so that leaves AHL and ECHL rinks. It turns out that it's just way too much hassle to host a regional, so no one bids for it, leaving the NCAA to have to use places like Allentown for the Midwest because no Midwestern teams wanted it.
Sounds like they need to transition to campus sites like almost every other sport uses...
Nothing can beat the atmosphere inside Yost back in 1998 for West Regionals.
Yeah we need to go to home sites, but the small schools always cry foul and they say it's an unfair advantage so we continue to play in arenas that are 80% empty so we don't upset the RITs of the world.
March 26th, 2019 at 10:23 AM ^
Tell me why "lacrosse-style" isn't better. Top 8 host, #9-#16 play on the road.
Bowling Green at #1 St. Cloud
Notre Dame at #2 Minnesota-Duluth
Arizona State at #3 Minnesota State
Harvard at #4 Massachusetts
Cornell at #5 Northeastern
American International at #6 Clarkson
Providence at #7 Quinnipiac
Ohio State at #8 Denver
Play single game or best-of-3 in the first round; doesn't matter. Next weekend, have the quarterfinals (1v8, 4v5, 2v7, 3v6)--single elimination at 2 neutral sites or best-of-3 at 4 home sites--and then the Frozen Four wouldn't have to change at all.
March 26th, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
Or you could go "field hockey style" and keep the 4 regionals of 4 teams but have them at the top 4 seeds:
St Cloud Regional: SCSU v Bowling Green, Quinnipiac v OSU
Duluth Regional: UMD v Harvard, Northeastern v Arizona State
Mankato Regional: Minnesota St v Notre Dame, Denver v Cornell
Amherst Regional: Massachusetts v American Int'l, Clarkson v Providence
Not the greatest (it doesn't help to have the top 3 all in the middle of nowhere), but better than the current setup. I guarantee lots of enthusiastic, sold out crowds in either format. Makes for great television.
March 26th, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
I hearby nominate Alton for Supreme Chancellor of college hockey.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
Endorsed.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
The "lacrosse structure" is a great idea in terms of incremental improvement.
You wouldn't get lower seeds getting home ice. The 1st Round hockey games would get better attendance. The Frozen Four would remain what it is. The QF sites might get some unlucky geographical draws - but that happens from time-to-time in lacrosse too (Denver and Notre Dame played at Hofstra in 2017).
Your idea isn't perfect, but it's unquestionably better.
I don't think the NCAA has announced any 2020 NCAA regional sites yet. So perhaps this is possible.
The lacrosse format also saves on travel. You could put the Quarterfinals in (say) Manchester and Minneapolis or (say) Boston & Chicago. If you do that, you only have to have 4 teams flying to their first round sites and 3 teams flying to their second round sites. Everybody else can travel by bus--or is already at home.
That's fewer flights paid for by the NCAA than with the current format, fewer hotel rooms, more tickets sold, better TV ratings due to the packed stands with college atmospheres and more flexibility with the broadcast times.
For Example, if you go with the single-elimination format:
AIC at Clarkson, Friday 7:00 ET
Ohio State at Denver, Friday 7:30 MT
Harvard at Massachusetts, Saturday 3:30 ET
Bowling Green at St Cloud, Saturday 5:00 CT
Arizona St at Minnesota St, Saturday 7:30 CT
Cornell at Northeastern, Sunday 2:30 ET
Providence at Quinnipiac, Sunday 5:00 ET
Notre Dame at Minnesota-Duluth, Sunday 6:30 CT
Just found this. They haven't selected any sites for 2020, but they have requested bids for hosting in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Here's a 21-page booklet on the bid requirements:
Thanks for that link. Interesting perusing.
Going to be interesting to see (1) how Allentown does in attendance this weekend and (2) if they're bidding again for 2020-2022.
Last year, attendance wasn't great, but at least it wasn't terrible either. 3rd highest for the weekend of the 4 sites. That was with Penn State, of course (for 1 of the 2 nights).
This year, it's UMD, Qunnipiac, ASU and BGSU. Yikes.
It's somewhat easy to get bids from 2 neutral-site Northeastern Cities and a Dakota city. But the Midwest has become a neutral-site wasteland. Such a shame, given the number of good programs from OH to MN.
It is.
But in the late 90s opposing coaches complained so much about Yost they said the game was already 0-1 before the puck even drops.
So now we have the shitty system that we have.
Being in Minnesota, it is good to see MN St - Mankato (home of Coach), MN-Duluth and St. Cloud St. all #1's.
First time in a long time a school from the state of Michigan not in the Tournament, state of Michigan schools have won 19 NCAA hockey national championships more then any other state. The hockey states of Massachusetts has won 11, Colorado 10, and Minnesota 7.
March 26th, 2019 at 11:09 AM ^
I went a couple of frozen fours at Joe Louis. MSU, UM, Lake Superior State, VMI, etc were all powers then.
American International? This better not be an American university with a satellite campus in Moose Jaw to accommodate its hockey program.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
Despite the fact Michigan did not qualify this year, it is great to see the "new" teams make it as the sport continues to grow in the US, other than Ohio State, fuck them!