(02-25-2017 07:21 PM)ohio1317 Wrote: Very much approve of this move. If you are going to expand, go for powerful teams that regionally make sense and that the existing fanbases are going to be excited for good. Good move for the western big hockey schools (Notre Dame meanwhile is a good one for the eastern hockey members).
Well nothing has happened yet.
But a couple of circumstances that say it might be true:
UND has joined the Summit League. Our intent when we joined the Big Sky was to be a western focused school to influence more western DI FBS schools to play hockey to replace the ones we lost - MN and WI. That was abandoned by our President, who has been talking UND will get even greater coverage soon because of the move to the Midwest Summit. Fargo media doesn't count.
Fox Sports North has been broadcasting non-hockey UND sports, and has been mentioned as a possible hockey broadcaster too. If we go to the Big Ten in hockey, those home games would be much more valuable and wouldn't be broadcast by the BTN.
Minnesota has stopped the Dairy Queen cup with the other four hockey schools in the state. When the Big Ten was at six teams, that meant only 20 conference games out of 34, so the Gophers would have needed 14 OOC games. If it goes to 8 teams, that would be 28 possible conference games, which makes OOC games scarce.
Minnesota has suddenly been nice to us in scheduling. They refused to schedule us in hockey for a few years making both fan bases bitter. Now, a game has been scheduled in Vegas next year, and they have also been scheduling other sports like vb and bb's.
Minnesota and Wisconsin miss other local rivals as their home games are like morgues. Michigan doesnt bring the juices flowing yet, especially with opposing fan bases. UND will liven up those joints.