I am reading the article now at the Anchorage Daily News. The Univ. of Alaska Regents have voted by 8-3 to move (rapidly) to a single accreditation model: 1 university with 3 branches, consolidating "back office" functions along with some academic programs.

What does this mean for UAA & UAF hockey this year? I'm not yet sure. I think the show goes on for 2019-20. Next year, probably only 1 team.
(Obviously, they've got bigger things than sports to consider right now, but this is a college sports fanboard.)
------

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/educatio...istration/
Update, 3:40 p.m. Regents agree to move toward single-accreditation model

In an 8-3 vote, the UA Board of Regents approved a motion that’ll move UA toward a single-accreditation model — the structuring option preferred by UA President Jim Johnsen. Regents Cachet Garrett, Darroll Hargraves and Lisa Parker voted against the motion.

Under the motion, the regents authorize Johnsen to implement four steps:
• Reduce administrative costs immediately through consolidation and standardization of processes in the “back-office functional areas” including IT, finance, university relations and procurement.
• Prepare a strategic approach to combining “duplicative academic colleges and schools, consolidating research institutes and enhanced integration of community campuses" for review and approval by the regents at their September meeting.
• Prepare a plan for board approval to transition from three separately-accredited universities (UAA, UAF and UAS) to a single institutional accreditation with multiple locations over the 2019-20 academic year.
• Consult through the above steps with students, faculty and staff.

(07-30-2019 08:05 PM)MidWestMidMajor Wrote:  I am reading the article now at the Anchorage Daily News. The Univ. of Alaska Regents have voted by 8-3 to move (rapidly) to a single accreditation model: 1 university with 3 branches, consolidating "back office" functions along with some academic programs.

What does this mean for UAA & UAF hockey this year? I'm not yet sure. I think the show goes on for 2019-20. Next year, probably only 1 team.

(Obviously, they've got bigger things than sports to consider right now, but this is a college sports fanboard.)

On the last point, quite ... at the UAA and UAF athletic departments, they'll be scrambling to keep up with what is going up higher up in the University.

But the backbone of hockey and M/W skiing at Fairbanks, MBB, WBB at Anchorage plus other sports based on perceived importance and meeting NCAA & Div2 requirements would not be a surprising final result.

A journalist following the UA Regents' meeting tweeted these comments of UA system President Jim Johnsen:

@mattbuxton
What happens to the athletic programs?
Johnsen (unfortunately): It's something we would work with our communities on.
Says there's a possibility of consolidating the athletics into the minimum NCAA standard of 10.
Johnsen also notes that the biggest historical cut was about $25 million. This one is $136 million.

---------

I found these comments by reddit poster JDChambo interesting:

"There's nothing in NCAA rules that prevents satellite campuses from maintaining separate athletics departments. Penn State uses the same single accreditation model that the Alaska system will be transitioning to, and there's (in)famously an entire DII conference of just Penn State schools. Which means this entirely comes down to funding.

"However, it does appear that any changes to the ADs won't take effect until the 2020-21 season based on the general vaugeness, thus we can assume that both the Nanooks and Seawolves will play out the upcoming 2019-20 season as intended. Whether this turns out to be the swan song for either (or both) hockey teams depends on the next steps taken by the BoR and University administrations. The next BoR meeting is set for September."

(07-31-2019 10:02 AM)MidWestMidMajor Wrote:  A journalist following the UA Regents' meeting tweeted these comments of UA system President Jim Johnsen:

@mattbuxton
What happens to the athletic programs?

Johnsen (unfortunately): It's something we would work with our communities on.

Says there's a possibility of consolidating the athletics into the minimum NCAA standard of 10.

Johnsen also notes that the biggest historical cut was about $25 million. This one is $136 million.

Well, it's just a fact that after consolidating the Universities, consolidating the athletics is on the table. As the reddit poster noted, that is not mandatory ... but in this case, it's the only way to make really dramatic percentage cuts in the AD budget.

The bare minimum budget wise would be cross-country, indoor and outdoor track, MBB, WBB, M/W Volleyball, all at Anchorage ... which is not an athletics program with a very Alaska flavor.

"Work with our communities on" tends to be a lot of "we want you to keep program X!" "Then where are the donations to keep program X alive?" kind of meetings.

Hockey is the flagship among the Division 1 programs, so a lot rests on whether a hockey team is retained. On performance and current support, that would be the Nanooks. Then is the question of what conference they play in.

They could ask to be considered in the 8th spot in the new CCHA being formed ... but those schools will repeat the question of why the CCHA is carrying the ball on all of the long trips in college hockey? That could be spread around with scheduling agreements with the NCHC, Big Ten, and Hockey East each guaranteeing four game home and away stands each season, which they can rotate among their members.

Then they need to talk to the NCAA whether they can get a "two season exemption" to run a Fall/Winter program, and then they can preserve the most notable programs from the two schools with hockey, M/W skiiing and co-ed rifle at Fairbanks, MBB/WBB, W Volleyball (to round out the four team sports), Women's Gymnastics (another Div1 sport Alaska competes in), and M/W cross country to get to 10.

If they can't get a two season exemption, and retaining a hockey program was the first priority, then it would be hockey at Fairbanks, MBB/WBB and Women's volleyball at Anchorage, a track program at Anchorage, and then it's up to the other sports to raise the money to make them revenue neutral on a full cost basis ... eg, a target number of endowed sports scholarships to have team X, Y and Z retained.

All those complexities are why a President is going to say "we are going to work with the community on that."

Fairbanks is the main campus. I say all sports would be merged into the Fairbanks like they did with Alaska-Southwest. Try and raised money to join D1 WAC to get noticed to bring students in from out of state and then go from there in restarting sports at the other 2 campuses.

(07-31-2019 07:02 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Fairbanks is the main campus. I say all sports would be merged into the Fairbanks

Fairbanks is the flagship because it was founded 100 years ago. However, things change in a century. Anchorage is now 4xs the size of Fairbanks, UAA is 2xs the size of UAF in terms of students. Anchorage is closer to where more Alaskans live. Technically under the single accreditation model, I don't think there will be a "flagship" or main campus, just 3 branches of a single university. I think Fairbanks will be the loser in many ways because of pure practicality. When you are pinching pennies, Anchorage seems to be a more cost effective location.

I think some sports will be retained in Fairbanks (esp. hockey since it is much better supported than at UAA). I think most sports will gravitate to the beautiful new arena recently opened at UAA.

(07-31-2019 07:02 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Fairbanks is the main campus. I say all sports would be merged into the Fairbanks like they did with Alaska-Southwest. Try and raised money to join D1 WAC to get noticed to bring students in from out of state and then go from there in restarting sports at the other 2 campuses.

At a time they are cutting massive costs and potentially reducing sports to the D2 minimum of 10 split between the two campuses you want them to spend millions we already know they don't have to add 4 more sports and move to D1? Anchorage is the better place for the teams to be located.

(07-31-2019 09:34 PM)AZcats Wrote:  

(07-31-2019 07:02 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Fairbanks is the main campus. I say all sports would be merged into the Fairbanks like they did with Alaska-Southwest. Try and raised money to join D1 WAC to get noticed to bring students in from out of state and then go from there in restarting sports at the other 2 campuses.

At a time they are cutting massive costs and potentially reducing sports to the D2 minimum of 10 split between the two campuses you want them to spend millions we already know they don't have to add 4 more sports and move to D1? Anchorage is the better place for the teams to be located.

Gotta spend money to lose money!

(07-30-2019 08:05 PM)MidWestMidMajor Wrote:  I am reading the article now at the Anchorage Daily News. The Univ. of Alaska Regents have voted by 8-3 to move (rapidly) to a single accreditation model: 1 university with 3 branches, consolidating "back office" functions along with some academic programs.

What does this mean for UAA & UAF hockey this year? I'm not yet sure. I think the show goes on for 2019-20. Next year, probably only 1 team.
(Obviously, they've got bigger things than sports to consider right now, but this is a college sports fanboard.)
------

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/educatio...istration/
Update, 3:40 p.m. Regents agree to move toward single-accreditation model

In an 8-3 vote, the UA Board of Regents approved a motion that’ll move UA toward a single-accreditation model — the structuring option preferred by UA President Jim Johnsen. Regents Cachet Garrett, Darroll Hargraves and Lisa Parker voted against the motion.

Under the motion, the regents authorize Johnsen to implement four steps:
• Reduce administrative costs immediately through consolidation and standardization of processes in the “back-office functional areas” including IT, finance, university relations and procurement.
• Prepare a strategic approach to combining “duplicative academic colleges and schools, consolidating research institutes and enhanced integration of community campuses" for review and approval by the regents at their September meeting.
• Prepare a plan for board approval to transition from three separately-accredited universities (UAA, UAF and UAS) to a single institutional accreditation with multiple locations over the 2019-20 academic year.
• Consult through the above steps with students, faculty and staff.

I think you are right, there will only be one Alaska Men's Hockey team, and only one Men's and Women's Basketball team, only one M/W Ski team, one M/W Cross Country and one M/W Track and Field team, and one Women's Volleyball team, one Women's Gymnastics team and one Men's Rifle team. Most of the sports will be based in Anchorage, but the Rifle might stay in Fairbanks where they have the ranges.

It'll be one University and one Athletic Department, a little better funded than the two before. But it will kind of suck that the Basketball teams wont play each other, nor the Hockey teams, as the communities sporting fun centered on those. I guess it'll just be HS sports then.

(07-31-2019 09:34 PM)AZcats Wrote:  Anchorage is the better place for the teams to be located.

I wasn't just pulling out locations purely at random when I said M Hockey (F), co-ed rifle (F) and M/W skiing (F), though two of those are more solid than the other two. Fairbanks hockey is better supported (though being marginally more successful may be part of that), where Anchorage has moved from their former rink to a small capacity on campus rink, I presume because it's cheaper and certainly a better atmosphere to have hundreds in a rink that can only hold hundreds than to have hundreds in a rink that can hold over a thousand.

And rifle is a Nanooks program ... if its possible to raise the money to retain it, they are going to be much more successful raising money to support the existing program than they are in raising money to shut down the existing program and start a new one in Anchorage.

MBB, WBB, Women's Volleyball and Women's Gymnastics are all arena sports, so put them in Anchorage.

Anchorage has the bigger track program, so let them keep the cross country program.

Add M/W skiiing (if Alaska can get a two-season exemption for Alaska) and you have a program. 2M/2W team, 5M(/co-ed)/5W sports. The question then is where to put M/W skiing. I still think Fairbanks.

If track has to be added for three season sport compliance, I'd expect that would be Anchorage, since they already have a program.

(08-01-2019 03:48 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  Add M/W skiiing (if Alaska can get a two-season exemption for Alaska) and you have a program. 2M/2W team, 5M(/co-ed)/5W sports. The question then is where to put M/W skiing. I still think Fairbanks.

From what I can tell, Fairbanks only has Nordic skiing. And the Fairbanks area doesn't really have a good Alpine facility for training. UAA has both a Nordic and Alpine team. And Anchorage has Alyeska Resort only 25 miles away (2500' vertical, 8 lifts, 1400 acres).

Would they split the team and give Nordic to Fairbanks and Alpine to Anchorage? I guess they could.

(08-01-2019 07:26 AM)MidWestMidMajor Wrote:  

(08-01-2019 03:48 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  Add M/W skiiing (if Alaska can get a two-season exemption for Alaska) and you have a program. 2M/2W team, 5M(/co-ed)/5W sports. The question then is where to put M/W skiing. I still think Fairbanks.

From what I can tell, Fairbanks only has Nordic skiing. And the Fairbanks area doesn't really have a good Alpine facility for training. UAA has both a Nordic and Alpine team. And Anchorage has Alyeska Resort only 25 miles away (2500' vertical, 8 lifts, 1400 acres).

Would they split the team and give Nordic to Fairbanks and Alpine to Anchorage? I guess they could.

Ok. This is one where King Solomon's "split the baby" solution might be workable. If "50% of the ski team" is in each, that's 30% of the sports at Fairbanks (hockey, rifle, half of M/W skiiing), 70% at Anchorage (MBB, WBB, M/W cross country, W Volleyball, W gymnastics, half of M/W skiing).

Could still train up a couple of biathalon athletes in Fairbanks in that setup.

I was looking at Alaska news. The Chancellor of UA-S (Juneau) Richard Caulfield said that this transition to the single accreditation model will take years:
"What the new UA would look like is not yet defined. The regent’s vote was for UA President Jim Johnsen to begin drafting a plan that will be presented at the next regent’s meeting in September... The transition process will take time, several years at least, but Johnsen intends to work “expeditiously” on the process."
https://www.juneauempire.com/news/chance...are-ahead/

The Anchorage Daily News posted an article with the headline: As University of Alaska moves toward consolidation, two athletic programs are likely to become one.
[quoting the article] (UA system President Jim) Johnsen and the regents will also have to address how many sports survive. If the university opts for 10 sports — the minimum requirement for NCAA Division II membership — expect a debate over what survives and what doesn’t. Another hard decision will come if the university can’t put some sports in Fairbanks and some in Anchorage, either because of NCAA rules or too many duplicated costs. Johnsen said a variety of factors will be considered if it comes down to deciding whether Fairbanks gets college sports or Anchorage does. “Off the top of my head: enrollment, tradition, philanthropic support, fan base. We’d look at the facility availability and look at the conference factor." The idea of dropping to the Division III level — which doesn’t allow athletic scholarships — or moving to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has been tossed around, Johnsen said, but hasn’t been discussed formally. Meanwhile, fall-semester sports like volleyball and cross country will begin practice at UAA and UAF later this month as scheduled. There is no travel freeze “at this point,” Johnsen said. Less certain is how athletics will fare in the spring semester, which begins in January. “I can’t commit to that at this point,” Johnsen said. A number of sports, including hockey and basketball, straddle the fall and spring semesters. Johnsen said he doesn’t think any sport would be eliminated once its season has begun. “Oh boy, I hope not,” he said.
https://www.adn.com/sports/uaa-athletics...ecome-one/

(07-31-2019 10:02 AM)MidWestMidMajor Wrote:  A journalist following the UA Regents' meeting tweeted these comments of UA system President Jim Johnsen:

@mattbuxton
What happens to the athletic programs?
Johnsen (unfortunately): It's something we would work with our communities on.
Says there's a possibility of consolidating the athletics into the minimum NCAA standard of 10.
Johnsen also notes that the biggest historical cut was about $25 million. This one is $136 million.

---------

I found these comments by reddit poster JDChambo interesting:

"There's nothing in NCAA rules that prevents satellite campuses from maintaining separate athletics departments. Penn State uses the same single accreditation model that the Alaska system will be transitioning to, and there's (in)famously an entire DII conference of just Penn State schools. Which means this entirely comes down to funding.

"However, it does appear that any changes to the ADs won't take effect until the 2020-21 season based on the general vaugeness, thus we can assume that both the Nanooks and Seawolves will play out the upcoming 2019-20 season as intended. Whether this turns out to be the swan song for either (or both) hockey teams depends on the next steps taken by the BoR and University administrations. The next BoR meeting is set for September."

Except the Penn State schools are all D3 or NAIA. The D2 conference were all teachers colleges and normal schools.

I find this interesting not sure why.
A single U of Alaska will have thirty thousand students two thirds in Anchorage.
Excellent new arena on campus for basketball/ volleyball in anchorage.
Fairbanks has the better hockey program.
Both have decided to move hockey on campus to save rent.
Fairbanks has a 1300 seat rink that according to fans could easily be doubled in size to 2600 maybe more.
A university that size with 5k arena 3k rink on campus's is a much better setup than they currently have.
I would think fundraising for expansion of campus rink would be easy .
All the current support spread out over ten sports consolidated to keep D1 hockey.
Did not see information for combined endowment basketball attendance .

This article just posted at College Hockey News: Alaska Programs Will Play This Year; Future Remains in Doubt After That

"with school opening less than a month from now, and decisions still up on the air, Friday it was determined that all of the athletic programs at the two universities would proceed as scheduled for 2019-20. In addition, after a meeting with university president Jim Johnsen and athletic directors Greg Myford and Keith Champagne, a "path to a long-term plan was established," though it was vague what that meant."

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2...l-Play.php

So here’s the question, with apologies to the fans of the Alaska schools. If the WCHA’s problem of the multiple Alaska trips sorts itself out through consolidation, would the renegade 7 be willing to reconsider their decision and stay on board? The WCHA would have to promise not to try to get Arizona State or another geographic outlier as a 10th member. They could stay at 9 unless and until there’s some new Midwestern/Plains/Mid-South option. They could play a 24-game schedule where they play half the teams twice and half the teams 4 times. Divisions are probably too unfair, so it could just be rotating. The surviving Alaska program and Huntsville could be permanently matched up, since they have to travel far anyways. Or is the divorce just unpreventable?

(08-04-2019 04:14 PM)CenterSquarEd Wrote:  So here’s the question, with apologies to the fans of the Alaska schools. If the WCHA’s problem of the multiple Alaska trips sorts itself out through consolidation, would the renegade 7 be willing to reconsider their decision and stay on board? The WCHA would have to promise not to try to get Arizona State or another geographic outlier as a 10th member. They could stay at 9 unless and until there’s some new Midwestern/Plains/Mid-South option. They could play a 24-game schedule where they play half the teams twice and half the teams 4 times. Divisions are probably too unfair, so it could just be rotating. The surviving Alaska program and Huntsville could be permanently matched up, since they have to travel far anyways. Or is the divorce just unpreventable?

The problem's the time it takes and the jet lag the trip puts you through as much as anything. Going from Eastern Time to Alaska Time means the players have games end at 1 or 2 AM Eastern. That's a lot of adjusting to do when you have to worry about classes, practice, and traveling on top of all that. Coaches in the league say the trip itself requires a two week recovery.

I can get the WCHA's point of view, being regarded as a bunch of misfit programs that were previously on equal ground with the big boys, and then on top of that having to basically have a month of bad hockey because the NCHC didn't want to take in an Alaska school does leave you a little bitter. It makes the conference as a whole worse in their eyes because the recovery leads to more attrition. Now, as for how they handled it, that part I don't get.

Sadly we're seeing college hockey go from a fraternity to just another sport, thanks in large part to the Big Ten.

This thread would be more aptly be called “Woe is UAA and UAF”. Very little chatter on the actual new conference

(08-04-2019 05:27 PM)Mav Wrote:  Sadly we're seeing college hockey go from a fraternity to just another sport, thanks in large part to the Big Ten.

It really isn't fair to ask the new CCHA to shoulder all of the "long trips to support the sport" burden alone ... it ought to be shared around.

Under the fraternity model, what Division 1 hockey ought to do, supposing that an Alaskan Hockey team survives the shake-up ... is for Hockey East, the Big Ten and the NCHC to each do a 4 game scheduling deal with an independent Alaska team, and for Atlantic Hockey, ECAC and the new CCHA 2.0 to do the same with Huntington.