The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Watching the GLI Championship game between Michigan and Michigan State. Oops! It's the consolation game! LOL.

Congrats to BUGS on bringing home a GLI title, a team that the Broncos beat easily last week. The Walmart wolverines and Spartans enjoyed watching their teams in the consolation game lol

I know it's a Great Lakes tournament thus BG but something doesn't set well with an Ohio team coming in and winning a Michigan based tourney. Out side of scum and sparty how are the other two participants chosen and why is WMU an infrequent participant.This year's team would have cleaned up. Didn't WMU win it last year?

(01-03-2018 08:42 AM)goldsworth Wrote:  I know it's a Great Lakes tournament thus BG but something doesn't set well with an Ohio team coming in and winning a Michigan based tourney. Out side of scum and sparty how are the other two participants chosen and why is WMU an infrequent participant.This year's team would have cleaned up. Didn't WMU win it last year?

Michigan Tech has been the host school of the GLI since it began (1965). Michigan became a co-host in 1976. State gets invited every year as the 3rd school. The 4th school is an at-large selection.

They should just rotate all the other Michigan schools through the 4th spot: Western, Ferris, Northern, Lake St. No reason to have an out of state school in the GLI.

I think Western is back in the GLI in the next few years.

(01-03-2018 10:41 AM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  

(01-03-2018 08:42 AM)goldsworth Wrote:  I know it's a Great Lakes tournament thus BG but something doesn't set well with an Ohio team coming in and winning a Michigan based tourney. Out side of scum and sparty how are the other two participants chosen and why is WMU an infrequent participant.This year's team would have cleaned up. Didn't WMU win it last year?

Michigan Tech has been the host school of the GLI since it began (1965). Michigan became a co-host in 1976. State gets invited every year as the 3rd school. The 4th school is an at-large selection.

They should just rotate all the other Michigan schools through the 4th spot: Western, Ferris, Northern, Lake St. No reason to have an out of state school in the GLI.

I think Western is back in the GLI in the next few years.

I saw interviews with the uofm and msu coaches both indicating how un happy they were playing in the consolation game . Both stated they intend to get back to the championship game next year. Not if WMU has anything to say about it.

A "MAC" team has been invited to the GLI in 3 of the past 5 years. And in each case that team was the champion.

I don't mind BGSU in the GLI because its close proximity to Detroit. In the past there would be schools like Colorado College and Providence in it. Hopefully teams from that far won't be happening again.

WMU keeps getting snubbed so that the MSU's and UM's have a chance... I guarantee the GLI committee collectively crapped themselves when both MSU and UofM went out in the first round...

I agree, the committee is too afraid to invite WMU anymore because we just wax Sparty and Scum right off the ice, and they darn right know that the NCHC is far better than the pigten. I don't mind playing Michigan Tech, I wish we would schedule them for a non-conference game every year, kinda like we have done with Ferris.

I think even one year they invited Harvard

(01-03-2018 11:17 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  A "MAC" team has been invited to the GLI in 3 of the past 5 years. And in each case that team was the champion.

I don't mind BGSU in the GLI because its close proximity to Detroit. In the past there would be schools like Colorado College and Providence in it. Hopefully teams from that far won't be happening again.

They used to invite more distant teams because the local teams were in the CCHA with the exception of Tech, meaning they'd want to see new teams at JLA

This tournament has never been Michigan only teams.

This team needs to learn how to win on the road, something they have greatly struggled at this season, hopefully they can figure it out as more games are on the road in the second half of the season.

(01-03-2018 08:42 AM)goldsworth Wrote:  I know it's a Great Lakes tournament thus BG but something doesn't set well with an Ohio team coming in and winning a Michigan based tourney. Out side of scum and sparty how are the other two participants chosen and why is WMU an infrequent participant.This year's team would have cleaned up. Didn't WMU win it last year?

BG is basically metro Detroit

We've played in the GLI three times since 2011 and we've won it twice. What more do you want?

(01-03-2018 10:41 AM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  They should just rotate all the other Michigan schools through the 4th spot: Western, Ferris, Northern, Lake St. No reason to have an out of state school in the GLI.

I don't mind having BG in it. They're a good program and as I already mentioned, BG is an exurb of metro Detroit. They get a lot of Michigan players and there are quite a few BG grads who live in metro Detroit.

I'd like to see them offer Notre Dame, who hasn't been hosting their own holiday tournament recently.

My GLI observations--

Need to move back to the traditional between holiday schedule, though attendance was better than I expected for 1/1.

scUM and MSU are not very good to see the least and I expect them to get worse as the season moves on, though the Big 14 is very overrated outside of Notre Dame, so they'll have opportunities for wins.

Lukas Craggs is a beast

(01-03-2018 08:42 AM)goldsworth Wrote:  I know it's a Great Lakes tournament thus BG but something doesn't set well with an Ohio team coming in and winning a Michigan based tourney. Out side of scum and sparty how are the other two participants chosen and why is WMU an infrequent participant.This year's team would have cleaned up. Didn't WMU win it last year?

I believe Michigan Tech and Michigan are the host teams. It was Tech that got it started at the old Olympia years ago.

Michigan State became an obvious regular and the 4th spot has been a fill-in. RPI, Northern Michigan, LSSU, Boston U, NDSU, Colorado College, Ferris, WMU and others have filled that 4th spot.

Fed up with the GLI. UM and MTU are co-hosts so they automatically are in. MSU gets invited every year, who knows why? If they truly wanted to make it an invitational they could bring in two top-name programs from out of state, but there are too many Spartan fans demanding to be the third team every year.

So, that leaves only one slot for someone else. They don't like to bring WMU because we've had too much success beating MTU and UM the last few times we were invited. The GLI is all about money and, in Detroit, that means UM and MSU need to be in the Championship game year after year. There are enough MTU fans working in the Auto Industry to make for a reasonable crowd if they make the championship game.

But, the infrequency of WMU appearances in the GLI has dampened us building a crowd base in Detroit. We usually have pretty good success when we're invited, it's just not frequently enough. When we have been there I've attended the games and enjoyed it.

(01-07-2018 12:28 AM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  Fed up with the GLI. UM and MTU are co-hosts so they automatically are in. MSU gets invited every year, who knows why? If they truly wanted to make it an invitational they could bring in two top-name programs from out of state, but there are too many Spartan fans demanding to be the third team every year.

So, that leaves only one slot for someone else. They don't like to bring WMU because we've had too much success beating MTU and UM the last few times we were invited. The GLI is all about money and, in Detroit, that means UM and MSU need to be in the Championship game year after year. There are enough MTU fans working in the Auto Industry to make for a reasonable crowd if they make the championship game.

But, the infrequency of WMU appearances in the GLI has dampened us building a crowd base in Detroit. We usually have pretty good success when we're invited, it's just not frequently enough. When we have been there I've attended the games and enjoyed it.

1. It's not our tournament.
2. It's not Tech's nor Olympia's responsibility to help us grow a "crowd base" in Detroit, whatever that means. I think we have a pretty large "crowd base" in Detroit, regardless.
3. Sure, UM/MSU is the title game is financially optimal for the tournament. But in reality, this has only happened five times since 2000. It's not the 90s anymore. They could also go the Beanpot route where every three years MSU/UM square off in first round, but they have choosen not to do this.
4. The GLI would likely be a financial mess with two out of region teams. Why do you think they got away from this anyway? Because no one from New Hampshire was following the team to Detroit to watch them play in the GLI.
5. We haven't been invited frequently enough? We've been invited three times since 2012. That's not enough?
5. You have absolutely no evidence that WMU has or is being excluded because we have too much success there. They're rotating through regional schools now and we'll be back soon enough.

(01-06-2018 12:11 PM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  My GLI observations--

Need to move back to the traditional between holiday schedule, though attendance was better than I expected for 1/1.

scUM and MSU are not very good to see the least and I expect them to get worse as the season moves on, though the Big 14 is very overrated outside of Notre Dame, so they'll have opportunities for wins.

Lukas Craggs is a beast

Now they have to schedule around the Red Wings and Pistons so I can see the dates floating from year to year.

(01-07-2018 12:08 PM)BaldingBroncoFan Wrote:  Now they have to schedule around the Red Wings and Pistons so I can see the dates floating from year to year.

Unless Olympia (and/or the NBA/NHL) is making Tech and the tournament committee pay out the rear to have "premium dates" between holidays, I don't see why it is so difficult to keep it between the holidays and on weekends. It's two days per calendar year. They had two available dates between the holidays this year and they made them take 1/1-2.

(01-07-2018 12:18 PM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 12:08 PM)BaldingBroncoFan Wrote:  Now they have to schedule around the Red Wings and Pistons so I can see the dates floating from year to year.

Unless Olympia (and/or the NBA/NHL) is making Tech and the tournament committee pay out the rear to have "premium dates" between holidays, I don't see why it is so difficult to keep it between the holidays and on weekends. It's two days per calendar year. They had two available dates between the holidays this year and they made them take 1/1-2.

My guess is this is a one year issue w/ the GLI being after New Years. Getting all the dates in for Wings, Pistons, concerts, etc was probably at max complexity in LCA's first year.

I agree with your thoughts on the GLI. This is Tech's tourney & Michigan/MSU are the local names who bring in ticket sales. They don't owe Western anything. And yet, we've still played in it frequently lately. In fact, we are the only team to ever win the GLI @ Comerica Park & we won the last GLI @ Joe Louis Arena.