(11-07-2017 10:43 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(11-07-2017 10:36 AM)WesternSkillet Wrote:  

(11-07-2017 06:01 AM)NoDak Wrote:  The top team in Michigan so far is WMU, as the Wolverines and Spartans are still struggling.

Sweet music to my ears! Hockey is a very different sport. ND would be better off in the NCHC. My dream would be to get the three MAC schools (WMU, BGSU, Miami) in the NCHC and add ND.

My take away is that the Big Ten Hockey Conference has been hurt by breaking up previous rivalries that fans valued. One approach for the B1G might be to expand from 7 to 8 or 9 schools, adding North Dakota and possibly one more traditional rival valued by the historic powerhouse hockey schools.

I know Miami would likely jump at it given how relevant the Big Ten teams are in our footprint and based on great rivalries we had in the CCHA. At the end of the day, Michigan is just a much bigger name than Minnesota-Duluth even if the latter is vastly better than the other. Won't happen though even if they do decide to expand (an unlikely proposition imo), OSU doesn't want Miami fans taking over their arena like we used to during home-and-homes (yeah, seriously).