This is good for college hockey, and especially for DU.
It forces DU to be competitive, rather than drift into complacency at the top of a diluted WCHA.
It means a much more attractive home schedule with major college hockey powers and rivals appearing in Denver every year.
It gives lower budget teams more opportunities to make the NCAA tourney by allowing them to compete against teams with similar budgets and closer travel.
It solidfies DU's recuiting position in a top conference.
It offers a chance at a National TV contract for the league, something that wasn;t going to happen in the old WCHA.
It offers a chance at new (and potentially better officiating)
I would be willing to bet that the "quality" of officiating will be roughly the same. No top-level official (in USA Hockey's evaluation process) will be officiating NCAA, pure and simple. The only WCHA ref that I am aware of who has qualified high enough to officiate above NCAA was Don Adam and he lost that long ago.
I'm really looking forward to this new league. Home games with Miami, UND, Duluth, UNO (and of course CC) every season--should be sweet.
I think we all agree Anderson is a waste of space. However, if memory serves me correctly, he has officiated several NC games, so someone must think he worth a crap.
From what I hear Jackson should know his plans by the end of the month.
Todd Anderson and Derek Sheperd (in that order) are considered by the WCHA to be their top two officials. Their "highest rated" duos are the ones that get the F5 championship game each year and either TA or DShep have gotten it for the past 8 years or so.
Something that we have to understand and accept is that our refs are mostly not NHL caliber, just like most of the players. The top refs in the world are in the NHL, just like the top players are in the NHL by the age of 21 if not earlier.
NCAA hockey is what it is...and that is amateur-level hockey with some pro-caliber players (who aren't ready) mixed in...
North Dakota recruit, JT Miller (NYR #15 overall) de-committed from the Sioux today, in favor of the OHL's Plymouth Whalers....Huge recruiting loss for the Sioux, but great to see them lose Gregoire and Miller in the span of a week.
While I don't disagree that a certain degree of reveling in ANY misfortune that befalls the Sioux is warranted, I personally hate to see a quality hockey player who had already committed to the college game decommit in favor of Major Junior...even if that player had committed to North Dakota.
Despite recent gains, college hockey is still looked upon with something akin to bemused indifference by many in the sport's upper echelons...particularly by those in Canada. Defections like this only serve to reinforce that perception, and that's not good for the game.
17 comments:
This is good for college hockey, and especially for DU.
It forces DU to be competitive, rather than drift into complacency at the top of a diluted WCHA.
It means a much more attractive home schedule with major college hockey powers and rivals appearing in Denver every year.
It gives lower budget teams more opportunities to make the NCAA tourney by allowing them to compete against teams with similar budgets and closer travel.
It solidfies DU's recuiting position in a top conference.
It offers a chance at a National TV contract for the league, something that wasn;t going to happen in the old WCHA.
It offers a chance at new (and potentially better officiating)
I love this.
We traded UAA, MSUM, SCSU, MTU and BSU for Miami, UNO and potentially Notre Dame, as well as guaranteed annual home games with UND and UMD?
What's not to like?
I would be willing to bet that the "quality" of officiating will be roughly the same. No top-level official (in USA Hockey's evaluation process) will be officiating NCAA, pure and simple. The only WCHA ref that I am aware of who has qualified high enough to officiate above NCAA was Don Adam and he lost that long ago.
A good marketing move by the NCHC would be to ban Todd Anderson, arguably the worst ref in college hockey today, from officiating any of its games.
Will the Shepherds be staying with the WCHA?
now for something completely different
did Dusty Jackson get accepted into Grad school. haven't heard an announcement
I'm not sure if his "acceptance" has been made official, but I know Dusty is on campus, so you may draw from that what you will....
I'm really looking forward to this new league. Home games with Miami, UND, Duluth, UNO (and of course CC) every season--should be sweet.
I think we all agree Anderson is a waste of space. However, if memory serves me correctly, he has officiated several NC games, so someone must think he worth a crap.
From what I hear Jackson should know his plans by the end of the month.
Todd Anderson and Derek Sheperd (in that order) are considered by the WCHA to be their top two officials. Their "highest rated" duos are the ones that get the F5 championship game each year and either TA or DShep have gotten it for the past 8 years or so.
Something that we have to understand and accept is that our refs are mostly not NHL caliber, just like most of the players. The top refs in the world are in the NHL, just like the top players are in the NHL by the age of 21 if not earlier.
NCAA hockey is what it is...and that is amateur-level hockey with some pro-caliber players (who aren't ready) mixed in...
North Dakota recruit, JT Miller (NYR #15 overall) de-committed from the Sioux today, in favor of the OHL's Plymouth Whalers....Huge recruiting loss for the Sioux, but great to see them lose Gregoire and Miller in the span of a week.
Aug 15th is rapidly approaching. What will be the new name for the Sioux?
If Todd Anderson and Derek Sheperd (in that order) are considered by the WCHA to be their top two officials, I can see why DU changed conferences.
@ pessimisticfan...
While I don't disagree that a certain degree of reveling in ANY misfortune that befalls the Sioux is warranted, I personally hate to see a quality hockey player who had already committed to the college game decommit in favor of Major Junior...even if that player had committed to North Dakota.
Despite recent gains, college hockey is still looked upon with something akin to bemused indifference by many in the sport's upper echelons...particularly by those in Canada. Defections like this only serve to reinforce that perception, and that's not good for the game.
FYI...the WAC announced today that University of Texas at Arlington will join the league in 2012.
Linkage: http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_18478605
My reaction: Meh.
I STILL wish DU could have finagled an invite to the West Coast Conference.
Ring_of_fire are you new? Solid comments all week I like it
I agree anon 8:05 . Ring does have good comments. Maybe he's Swami under cover. Still don't know why swami disappeared.
I think we "stole" Ring of Fire from the Denver Post. He comments pretty regularly on Chambers' articles.
Another solid recruit for LetsGoDU. :-)
I've got it D.G.---He IS CHAMBERS!!!
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