(01-10-2022 12:35 PM)nodak651 Wrote:  

(01-10-2022 12:05 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(01-10-2022 11:25 AM)nodak651 Wrote:  

(01-10-2022 11:18 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  What exactly is the advantage to a school of moving hockey from ACHA D1 status to NCAA D1? Seems like it's a lot of money that won't really make that big of a difference to the university, all things considered. Like you maybe get a little more media attention, and a few more fans at games, but is that worth all of the costs to a school?

Why don't FCS football teams just play club football instead? The answer is probably similar for hockey. Should William and Mary just play club football?

Here's Augustana's explenation: "The plan includes an effort to provide student-athletes the opportunity to compete at a higher level, elevate the university’s profile and inspire Sioux Falls to enthusiastically embrace Augustana University as its hometown team by serving the community and integrating its mission with the community’s needs. " https://www.augie.edu/news/2021/augustan...ound-midco

Even at a small school like W&M we can pull in 10k fans when we're good, 7k when we're not. We also have a solid tailgating scene. Football brings alumni back to campus, and helps keep people engaged in the community. At some schools it can also be an enrollment ploy, especially at D3/D2 levels.

At some schools, hockey can bring these type of crowds too. I just have a hard time seeing UNLV hockey pulling 15k fans to a game, and UNLV already has a pretty popular basketball team and an FBS football team to help with that.

Hockey programs also have 4x the number of home games as W&M football.

You asked what the advantage was of elevating a hockey team from D1 ACHA to D1 NCAA - do you really think the UNLV hockey program would need to become more popular than their basketball program for it to be worthwhile? If not, I don't get your point in regard to UNLV. Without hockey popularity eclipsing basketball at UNLV, it can still generate enough hockey money to make a difference. Hockey isn't actually a non revenue sport, despite what many want you to believe.

But like everything else, this is only the case for the higher level schools. For the schools drawing less than 2,000 fans a game, there's no way that they are making money.