Minot St has pledges for DI hockey and now they need a league. Suspect the WCHA will take them and Simon Fraser to form a four team division for the Alaska schools, so other WCHA teams don't have to travel to Alaska more than once. Ariz St has been offered by the WCHA out of courtesy, but of course they will decline in favor of the B1G.

Simon Fraser and Minot St both moved from NAIA to DII expressly, in my opinion, to start DI hockey teams. Now both are full DII members and can start DI hockey. Minot has seen quite an influx of oil wealth.

Minot St has been to four ACHA D1 Elite Eights in a row, so they have good community support and a decent arena.

Source?

When someone says "Minot", I think of

I hope what NoDak says is true as I think it would be a really good fit for Minot State. I would also guess that UND would be all for it as compared to NDSU or another rival starting Hockey. They would probably schedule them more often then they would a normal new WCHA type program with some home and home type deals. Definitely interested in seeing a source or link to this.

(03-23-2016 10:40 AM)Shox Wrote:  Source?

MinotDailyNews.com, but it has a pay wall.

(03-23-2016 01:51 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 10:40 AM)Shox Wrote:  Source?

MinotDailyNews.com, but it has a pay wall.

It only sorta does. Use Chrome's Developer Tools and you can unhide content of any article.

(03-23-2016 01:02 PM)Shox Wrote:  I hope what NoDak says is true as I think it would be a really good fit for Minot State. I would also guess that UND would be all for it as compared to NDSU or another rival starting Hockey. They would probably schedule them more often then they would a normal new WCHA type program with some home and home type deals. Definitely interested in seeing a source or link to this.

UND would have no problem with Minot State or NDSU or even UMary starting hockey, but they wouldn't get in the NCHC. Minn St Moorhead will start hockey in the Fargo-Moorhead area before NDSU will, because NDSU admin won't accept a lesser league like the WCHA. When UND was a WHCA school, NDSU tried multiple times to get Fargo to build an arena for them near campus. Voters rejected those arenas. Now that a non profit built an arena for a USHL team far from NDSU, NDSU won't consider hockey even though the USHL team is kicking butt for attendance. USHL teams are feeders for college hockey.

Could see more DII schools like Augustana or Black Hills St in SD, who could take advantage of hockey hungry fans in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. The other Dakota flagships wont because of fb and basketball priorities and UND's stature in the sport.

(03-23-2016 12:38 PM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  When someone says "Minot", I think of

They could at least hitch an incredibly quick ride to the Alaska games. Which would of course immediately be cancelled, but still.

I thought you couldn't go D1 anymore in just one sport? Aren't lacrosse and hockey schools like John Hopkins and St Cloud St grandfathered in? Wouldn't Minot St have to move all its sports to D1?

(03-23-2016 02:40 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  I thought you couldn't go D1 anymore in just one sport? Aren't lacrosse and hockey schools like John Hopkins and St Cloud St grandfathered in? Wouldn't Minot St have to move all its sports to D1?

If DII doesn't sponsor the sport (which it doesn't), they can play DI

Johns Hopkins is DIII, and the ability for DIII to participate has been eliminated, except for those grandfathered in.

(03-23-2016 02:40 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  I thought you couldn't go D1 anymore in just one sport? Aren't lacrosse and hockey schools like John Hopkins and St Cloud St grandfathered in? Wouldn't Minot St have to move all its sports to D1?

DII doesn't offer certain sports, like hockey. Only those sports can a DII move up now. Lacrosse and baseball can't move up without a Division move.

(03-23-2016 02:40 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  I thought you couldn't go D1 anymore in just one sport? Aren't lacrosse and hockey schools like John Hopkins and St Cloud St grandfathered in? Wouldn't Minot St have to move all its sports to D1?

From what I can gather, if your division doesn't sponsor a championship in a sport, you can move your team to the next-highest classification that does without being forced to bring all sports into compliance to the upper division's rules. Since Division II hockey doesn't exist, the teams that belong to D-II athletic programs can play in D-I without it affecting anything else in the program.

Article says they are 10-20 years out and would want to raise 37 million for an endowment like MSU-M tried....which means that this isn't happening. Bummer though, it would be a great fit for that community and good for college hockey.

(03-23-2016 03:14 PM)Shox Wrote:  Article says they are 10-20 years out and would want to raise 37 million for an endowment like MSU-M tried....which means that this isn't happening. Bummer though, it would be a great fit for that community and good for college hockey.

There is a lot of money floating around because of oil royalties.

Minot St is a lot like Bemidji St, even down to the nickname Beavers, and Bemidji has DI hockey.

Minot State really needs to get their enrollment up - even for a single sport member of Division I, having only 2300 students at a public institution doesn't really lend itself to success at the Division I level.

(03-23-2016 05:39 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  Minot State really needs to get their enrollment up - even for a single sport member of Division I, having only 2300 students at a public institution doesn't really lend itself to success at the Division I level.

Minot St gives in-state tuition rates to Canadians. That is a big part of its drive for hockey, to broaden it's appeal north of the border.

(03-23-2016 06:20 PM)sportsrankings Wrote:  I believe Bemidji couldn't offer scholarships since they're not grandfathered in.

Bemidji St can offer scholarships because they play DII.

Union and RIT are the schools that can't offer hockey scholarships at the DI level because they are DIII schools that aren't grandfathered.

bsu can offer scholarships. Its really a great school and area of the state. There even on TV here in mn for all home games.

(03-23-2016 06:49 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Union and RIT are the schools that can't offer hockey scholarships at the DI level because they are DIII schools that aren't grandfathered.

The level of success RIT has had without scholarships is pretty surprising, to me at least.