What's the future of West Coast hockey? While the PAC officially competes at the ACHA D2 level, ASU has moved to NCAA D1 and Utah will now be joining CU and Arizona by moving up to ACHA D1.

http://universityofutahhockey.com/utah-a...ivision-i/

I would love to see a west coast hockey league. Arizona St is paving the way. Colorado College, Denver, and the Alaska schools may choose to join. Arizona could move up. Maybe some of the other mountain schools like BYU, Utah St, Colorado St, Air Force, New Mexico, and Wyoming? Just a thought. The Mountain West could be the host conference.

Pacific coastal schools like those in California, Oregon, and Washington may at some point. Then could split into PAC hockey and Mountain West hockey.

To me, for importance to the average university, hockey falls along the lines of soccer and lacrosse for men's college sports just behind baseball which is just behind basketball and football. I don't know if many schools would be willing to add men's hockey due to Title IX.

Colorado College, Denver, Air Force, and ASU are or will soon be NCAA D1. CSU is the only MWC school at ACHA D1. If all the ACHA D1 were to move up, you'd have Denver, CU, CSU, AFA, Col College, Utah, Arizona, ASU.

Pac 12 has a cheap out with Title IX - 2 of their members already sponsor field hockey. If two Pac 12 schools start the sport, that gives the Pac 12 four of its own members, plus 2 affiliates within the state of California. All Pac 12 schools play football and soccer so facilities would not be an issue.

(02-13-2016 03:04 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I would love to see a west coast hockey league. Arizona St is paving the way. Colorado College, Denver, and the Alaska schools may choose to join. Arizona could move up. Maybe some of the other mountain schools like BYU, Utah St, Colorado St, Air Force, New Mexico, and Wyoming? Just a thought. The Mountain West could be the host conference.

Pacific coastal schools like those in California, Oregon, and Washington may at some point. Then could split into PAC hockey and Mountain West hockey.

To me, for importance to the average university, hockey falls along the lines of soccer and lacrosse for men's college sports just behind baseball which is just behind basketball and football. I don't know if many schools would be willing to add men's hockey due to Title IX.

UNLV is close to adding hockey. Hockey is generally too much an expense for a G5 school, but the NHL and as a backdoor to the PAC12 for UNLV may be good reasons.

Colo St has an appropriate arena in Fort Collins, but don't see them going for it. Boise St might as they have Taco Bell arena.

Could see USC, Stanford, Utah and Oregon coming forward.

(02-13-2016 06:15 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  Pac 12 has a cheap out with Title IX - 2 of their members already sponsor field hockey. If two Pac 12 schools start the sport, that gives the Pac 12 four of its own members, plus 2 affiliates within the state of California. All Pac 12 schools play football and soccer so facilities would not be an issue.

Womens lax is much more popular. Ariz St added that and triathlon to go with men's hockey. With Ariz St, the PAC12 will sponsor women's lex.

Five schools already sponsor women's lacrosse (Stanford, USC, Cal, Colorado, Oregon) so that won't work for those schools. But yes, it is an option for the Arizona schools. Stanford and Cal already sponsor field hockey, but they are probably the least likely to start ice hockey.

What would probably be the fastest way for the Pac 12 to sponsor ice hockey would be to get Utah, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado to sponsor the sport - they have the most options as far as Title IX offsets. Air Force would probably be welcomed as an affiliate if a sixth Pac 12 school was not ready to go in time, especially since the Pac 12 would be an exponentially better situation than Atlantic Hockey.

Beside UNLV, a hot rumor is that Miami (Fl) is looking at starting hockey.

(02-13-2016 07:41 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  What would probably be the fastest way for the Pac 12 to sponsor ice hockey would be to get Utah, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado to sponsor the sport - they have the most options as far as Title IX offsets. Air Force would probably be welcomed as an affiliate if a sixth Pac 12 school was not ready to go in time, especially since the Pac 12 would be an exponentially better situation than Atlantic Hockey.

Denver and CC would probably bolt for a PAC12 hockey conference. UND would too for that matter, if it was a high performing conference.

Air Force can not recruit high level players. They seem happy with Army and the AHA.

Simon Fraser could align with the Alaska schools. Maybe Black Hills St could too, as a new arena is being built by campus.

I thought Colorado and Denver were already division one?

I would think that B1G would make more sense for NOrth Dakota considering its rivalries with Minnesota

(02-15-2016 01:20 PM)superdeluxe Wrote:  I thought Colorado and Denver were already division one?

I would think that B1G would make more sense for NOrth Dakota considering its rivalries with Minnesota

Colorado College is DI in hockey. Colorado College isnt.

The Minneapolis Tribune had an exposed on why Gopher hockey is so down in attendance. It summizes that the Gophers fans want local rivalries, and the ticket sales from rivals have an effect and generate crowd noise. Wisconsin is down even worse, because they are not competitive.

UND won't get in the B1G hockey conference because it's not AAU.

Gopher hockey and Wisconsin hockey are both down in attendance because the teams suck. Wisconsin fans are waiting for Mike Eaves, their head coach, to be fired.

(02-15-2016 03:52 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(02-15-2016 01:20 PM)superdeluxe Wrote:  I thought Colorado and Denver were already division one?

I would think that B1G would make more sense for NOrth Dakota considering its rivalries with Minnesota

Colorado College is DI in hockey. Colorado College isnt.

The Minneapolis Tribune had an exposed on why Gopher hockey is so down in attendance. It summizes that the Gophers fans want local rivalries, and the ticket sales from rivals have an effect and generate crowd noise. Wisconsin is down even worse, because they are not competitive.

UND won't get in the B1G hockey conference because it's not AAU.

Think you meant University of Colorado isn't D1. Colorado College is.

I wonder if outsiders appreciate how close-knit the old WCHA was. High school hockey is king in MN, bigger than football. Most of the local kids ended up at WCHA schools. Half of the schools were in the state of MN. And even when UMN was "boycotting" UND over the mascot issue, they kept the hockey series alive. Aside from the Wisconsin rivalry, all of that tradition was just nuked.

It's so odd to believe they could swap a brand new Penn State hockey program for an established, elite program like UND. Imagine replacing Penn State football with UND.

I know I for one miss the wcha and how easy it was to travel to games. The gophers hockey program is in sad shape. At least there are 4 other in state schools to watch.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if the ACC had enough teams to start a hockey conference.... would Boston College be forced to join and leave Hockey East??? I would think it would be a catastrophe for them.

It's good for hockey that it's expanding out west into non-traditional markets, first with ASU and now maybe with Utah or UNLV. I'm actually surprised that there isn't a DI team in the state of Utah already given how they love winter sports so much out there.

I wouldn't mind one bit if CC and Denver left the NCHC for a western hockey conference (maybe with those two, UNLV, ASU, Air Force, and Alaska?) if we replaced them with midwestern schools like Notre Dame and BG. But that new conference would be horribly weak for a while, and that's enough for CC and Denver to stay put.

(02-18-2016 09:45 AM)mike012779 Wrote:  It would be interesting to see what would happen if the ACC had enough teams to start a hockey conference.... would Boston College be forced to join and leave Hockey East??? I would think it would be a catastrophe for them.

The ACC only has BC and Notre Dame. Would have to have Pitt, Syracuse, NC State, and one other. Miami is rumored.

(02-18-2016 09:45 AM)mike012779 Wrote:  It would be interesting to see what would happen if the ACC had enough teams to start a hockey conference.... would Boston College be forced to join and leave Hockey East??? I would think it would be a catastrophe for them.

How would it go over if UND hockey got the spotlight on Fox Sports North as the rumor mill says? Would Gopher fans go apoplectic?

Same thing with Notre Dame I believe they make some money with Nbc sports showing some of there Hockey East games. I doubt it would be the same scenario if they were playing a bunch of ACC start up programs and BC.