A number of tweets suggested Alabama is looking in to starting hockey. Let's Play Hockey is a media source from Minnesota. Alabama currently plays club hockey In Pelham's Civic Center, a 3000 seat arena in the Birmingham suburb. A varsity team would almost have to practice and plan in Tuscaloosa. Other teams off the top that could possibly start hockey are Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and LSU, as minor leagues teams play in their cities or close by. UAH sponsors the only DI team in the south, but others like FGCU, Kennesaw St, Lindenwood, Liberty, and Navy have seriously looked into it.

Personally, I think this is more a ploy to make it look like UA has sympathy for UAB and UAH, but that's the cynical part of me. The SEC Network must need more programming.



Let's Play Hockey @LetsPlay_Hockey · Dec 17


University of Alabama officials are interested in D-I hockey. There is more support from alumni than ever after ASU announced going DI. 1/3



Let's Play Hockey @LetsPlay_Hockey · Dec 17


The Bama club pgm will host the ACHA DIII Natl Tourney in March. As the club pgm grows, it becomes more interesting w/ officials/alumni. 2/3



Let's Play Hockey @LetsPlay_Hockey · Dec 17


Alabama is in a unique position to lead the SEC into Division I hockey because they know about hockey from its successful club program. 3/3

Here's an interesting NCState blog on the possibility of hockey. NCSU would seem much more viable because of the presence of the Hurricanes. There also have a conference that is supposedly setting up a network. Two ACC schools already have hockey, ND and BC, and two should have: Pitt and Syracuse.

http://wolfpacksportstv.tumblr.com/post/...itimate-in

If they start D-I hockey in Tuscaloosa, will the Alabama Board of Trustees force UA-Huntsville to drop their hockey program?

(12-21-2014 01:00 AM)Wedge Wrote:  If they start D-I hockey in Tuscaloosa, will the Alabama Board of Trustees force UA-Huntsville to drop their hockey program?

You had the exact same thought I did.... those BoTs run their show there too, not just UABs.

(12-21-2014 01:18 AM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(12-21-2014 01:00 AM)Wedge Wrote:  If they start D-I hockey in Tuscaloosa, will the Alabama Board of Trustees force UA-Huntsville to drop their hockey program?

You had the exact same thought I did.... those BoTs run their show there too, not just UABs.

Here's a UAH hockey blog written prior to these tweets, which said UAH and Alabama hockey teams would need each other and might even play in the same conference. Comments disagreed, as UAH hockey already was left for dead by the UA board, but got saved by a conference offer and much community support.

http://uahhockey.com/blog/2014/11/20/wha...t-varsity/

Auburn has had club level hockey for a few years. They play in Columbus, Georgia where there is a minor league hockey franchise so the rink is safe and ready for play. But let's face it guys, the only reason hockey has gained in popularity in the South is because it's the only place Southern beer drinking good ole boys can go to watch Northern beer drinking good ole boys knock each other's teeth out. I doubt we have the depth of talent to field a credible NCAA level team. But, if people will come and pay to watch we can always issue more scholarships up North.

(12-21-2014 12:12 AM)NoDak Wrote:  Other teams off the top that could possibly start hockey are Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and LSU, as minor leagues teams play in their cities or close by.

Depends on what you mean by "close by"

Columbia used to have an ECHL team, the Columbia Inferno, but instead of allowing them to move into what became Colonial Life Arena the university made them stay in the substandard Carolina Coliseum and the team has been "voluntarily suspended" since 2008.

Now there are regional teams in Charleston (2 hrs) and Augusta, GA (1.25 hrs), but I wouldn't consider either of them "close by".

The University has a club hockey team, but they play at IcePlex in Irmo. It is essentially a rink in a huge barn in the suburb town of Irmo. It isn't capable of hosting a DI team. To put a DI team on the ice South Carolina would have to either renovate Colonial Life Arena or build a facility. They would probably have to do it on their own because of the university not being willing to work with the city of Columbia in the past in regards to the Inferno, a joint use baseball stadium for a minor league team (The city is building their own baseball stadium now) or attracting an arena football team.

I believe all SEC schools are playing club hockey, although there are eight SEC schools that are SECHC members including Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Auburn, Mississippi State and LSU were provisional members last year, but I don't see them listed on the SECHC site as such this season. Alabama (#2), South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss are ranked in the top 10 of the South Region of the ACHA's third division, which I suppose is like saying they are on the radar, but just barely visible. It would be a huge jump for any of those schools to go from the lowest division of the ACHA to playing NCAA Division 1 hockey. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I would be pleasantly shocked.

Alabama possible even if that seems extremely unlikely. Cannot see the SEC as a whole doing it. Adding it literally required the biggest donation ever to Penn State as the facilities if not in place are quite expensive. I can't see them getting 6 teams to all upgrade together for a sport that's unlikely to be competitive or make them much money.

If Alabama does upgrade, I'd have to agree UAH would love it not hate it. They need more southern teams.

Title IX will also be an issue - the SEC will almost certainly need to sponsor women's hockey as well.

I'm sure the Arizona State announcement has caused some envy, but I would more likely believe something was up in Tuscaloosa if the last renovation of Coleman Coliseum included ice-making equipment. I also question whether Coleman is physically large enough to hold a regulation size rink. Then again, Alabama did move its volleyball an women's basketball teams to Foster Auditorium a fee years ago, so that did free up a number of dates for a potential hockey team or two . . .

Rupp Arena should still have its ice-making facilities from when the ECHL was there in 2002-2003, so Kentucky really would just need to add personnel. Hockey may complicate any future renovation of Rupp, as the idea was to essentially re-build the arena in place.

I would also keep an eye out on Texas, as ESPN could have the Longhorns play their home games on LHN and their conference road games on SECN. This would presume the SEC would even allow affiliate members:

Alabama
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
UAH (men)/Lindenwood (women)

Lindenwood is the southernmost women's team in Division I, and in St. Louis, Missouri, now a part of the SEC footprint.

(12-21-2014 01:00 AM)Wedge Wrote:  If they start D-I hockey in Tuscaloosa, will the Alabama Board of Trustees force UA-Huntsville to drop their hockey program?

That was my first thought

A&M has a club team that plays at the local ice rink in CS.

A lot of those guys went on to O&G careers and have deep pockets so if the SEC wanted to make this happen, I bet A&M could come up with the funding....the trick would be adding women's hockey to balance out Title IX. There is a women's club team but its always kind of struggled to stay afloat.

(12-21-2014 10:10 AM)10thMountain Wrote:  A&M has a club team that plays at the local ice rink in CS.

A lot of those guys went on to O&G careers and have deep pockets so if the SEC wanted to make this happen, I bet A&M could come up with the funding....the trick would be adding women's hockey to balance out Title IX. There is a women's club team but its always kind of struggled to stay afloat.

I could actually see that, as being the first team in Texas would be a huge advantage. A&M could always add Women's Lacrosse (MPSF) or Field Hockey (perhaps join America East like the California schools) instead of adding women's ice hockey, but that may not really save much in terms of money if A&M has to make a capital investment for an ice hockey arena.

Women's lacrosse would work. It's not as costly as others and A&M recently built quality facilities for both its men and women's soccer and lacrosse club teams.

I don't know if they'd build an on campus facility when the CS ice rink is just a few minutes from campus. So at least in theory there would be no rush to build a facility of our own when we can rent for awhile

Hockey has become pretty big in Middle TN because of the Predators.

I would think that any content that the SEC adds helps the network. While hockey may be expensive, I would love to see an SEC DI level hockey league, even with affiliates. The Big 10 has their John Hopkins/Maryland we can have UAH/Alabama.

One would think that Mizzou would be the first SEC team to start up a team, there's no D1 team in any surrounding state, their athletic department is profitable, and the sport is pretty popular in Missouri.

(12-21-2014 12:25 AM)NoDak Wrote:  Here's an interesting NCState blog on the possibility of hockey. NCSU would seem much more viable because of the presence of the Hurricanes. There also have a conference that is supposedly setting up a network. Two ACC schools already have hockey, ND and BC, and two should have: Pitt and Syracuse.

http://wolfpacksportstv.tumblr.com/post/...itimate-in

Nope, not going to happen.

Lots of schools would love to add men's hockey (including several Big Ten schools that have top level club teams and legit fan bases). The main issues are that (1) few schools can add *only* men's hockey - they almost all have to add enough women's scholarships for Title IX (meaning you're really adding 2 sports as opposed to just one) and (2) the facilities required are extremely expensive and capital intensive. The entry cost is extremely high, which is why the sport has such anemic growth despite pretty good popularity.

The Miami Redhawks are a model for what Southern team can do for Title IX. Add men's hockey but also add a varsity women's synchronized skating team to use the same facility. The NCAA recognizes synchro skating. There aren numerous teams in the North, but mostly club teams and most are non-scholly.

Women's hockey simply doesn't have the player base to expand to many more DI teams