Is the Big 10 ruining Division 1 college hockey?

Last summer, it threatened to shatter the sports landscape of the United States.   There was talk that a few of the major college football conferences such as the Big 12, PAC-10 and others may disintegrate to form a mega conference.  Other major conferences like the Big 10, and SEC would also be effected as members unable to get into a new mega conference may wish to join their conferences.  The effects of such a shakeup would disrupt rivalries that had lasted for decades as well as millions of dollars at stake.  For the big schools; this was a consideration to make more money.  While smaller programs, like perennial mid-major powerhouse Boise State would either have to leave to join one of these new mega conferences or do the unthinkable and relegate themselves to Div I-AA.  Some pundits jumped aboard the mega conference bandwagon, saying how they liked the thought of having so many powerful schools residing in one mega conference.  While others saw it as nothing more a giant money grab that threw tradition to the wind in an attempt to land some mega TV deal that could rival the National Football League in its size and scope.  Ultimately, despite all the bluster from ESPN assuring college football fans that it was going to happen only a few minor changes took place and for the most part the conferences stayed intact.  The Big 10 split; as it added the University of Nebraska to its ranks. 

So where am I going with this?  A similar earth-shaking change took place in college hockey late last fall.  It can all be traced to September 17th, 2010, when current Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula gave Penn State University $88 million for a new arena so it could have Division 1 college hockey.  More on that a little later; but college hockey is by far much smaller entity than college football.  The two aren’t remotely comparable; its probably not even fair to make analogy that college football is a giant watermelon while college hockey is a blueberry.  There is a relative small amount of large universities that participate in college hockey that also participate in Division 1-A football.  The Big 10 is perhaps the only major football conference that has nearly half of its members participating in college hockey at the Division 1 level with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and now Penn State.  Many of the other Big 10 schools have had club programs for years and it is rumored that Illinois and Indiana would be close to starting their own Division 1 programs.  So while it may sound like it makes sense for them to combine their big school might into a single college hockey conference; is it really what is best for Division 1 hockey? 

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Pegula’s ‘donation’ was going to mean an inevitable exodus from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association which has enjoyed being one of the most competitive hockey conferences for the last 40 years.  With the Big 10 college hockey conference to start in 2013-14 was announced, the migration was quick to begin.  On May 13th, 2011; another WCHA powerhouse, the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux announced the formation of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.  Its members will include current WCHA members University of Denver, University of Minnesota: Duluth, Colorado College, and the University of Nebraska-Omaha as well as the CCHA’s University of Miami (Ohio).  By the time the defections are over, that leaves the WCHA with Minnesota State: Mankato, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, University of Alaska: Anchorage, Michigan Tech and its newest addition Northern Michigan making the trip over from the CCHA.  The CCHA is also taking a major hit; with lone marquee member Notre Dame, (which will sit in the middle of the Big 10 and I would think is a prime candidate to join the Big 10), Bowling Green, Ferris State, Alaska-Fairbanks, Western Michigan, and Lake Superior State.  There has been discussion between the CCHA and Atlantic Hockey Conference as they hope to invite Robert Morris, Canisius, Niagara and Mercyhurst to its ranks but that still would be a far cry from what it used to be.  Anyone feel as though the WCHA and CCHA will be going from prominence to mid-major status? 

So is this really good for college hockey?  Financially it will likely be quite lucrative for the Big 10 participants but will it lower the profile of perennial hockey power like North Dakota?  The Fighting Sioux are an institution and their battles against the University of Minnesota and Wisconsin were always epic but those big schools won’t be there anymore.  North Dakota could always use the notariety of the Golden Gophers and Badgers in its recruitment discussions, as well as the promise of the visibility of those match ups to justify going there versus going to either of those ‘big schools.’  The Fighting Sioux may have enough of a tradition to not lose a whole lot of momentum, but what about a Bemidji State, Minnesota State: Mankato or St. Cloud State that are still trying to prove they can belong with the big boys now that they’re in a conference will the top tier teams all gone?  That may sound as though I’m demeaning those schools but a quick look at the WCHA’s award winners says it all; the six awards (best forward, student-athlete, defenseman, rookie, scoring champion, goalie champion and coach of the year) are concentrated within just 4 schools (North Dakota, Wisconsin, Denver and Nebraska-Omaha) this year and all of them are leaving the conference.  Ouch! 

Before I say anything more I am a Minnesota Golden Gophers fan.  The Gophers have struggled a lot the last few seasons, and the Big 10 Conference will be very tough but I am not sure I’ll get as big of a charge out of them playing Ohio State as I would against North Dakota or UMD.  Could these moves make some schools give up on Division 1 hockey?  I think it could.  The bigger schools are a draw and now those schools will be concentrated into a single conference.  While I understand the financial considerations for making a Big 10 conference I think you lose out on tradition.  Sure, the Gophers will likely fill up a fair amount of its non-conference schedule with some of its in-state rivalries but I am not sure it will be the same.  Bragging rights are so much sweeter when you have a position in the conference at stake.  Also gone are the nice in-state road trips to conference opponents that Minnesota really started to establish once schools like UMD, Minnesota State: Mankato, St. Cloud State and Bemidji State joined the WCHA.  It certainly helped the coffers of local businesses near those arenas to have so many road-trippers for those in-state battles.  Madison is nearly a 5-hour drive from Minneapolis; but the next closest Big 10 opponent will be over 600 miles away; not exactly a short road trip. 

  Mercyhurst’s Taylor Holstrom bolts for Penn State

The picture above may not seem like a giant shock, but Taylor Holstrom, a player who was Atlantic Hockey’s rookie of the year defecting for a chance to play in the Big 10 with Penn State.  While that certainly is Penn State’s gain what harm now has been done to Mercyhurst who were lucky enough to have recruited Holstrom in the first place.  While the NCAA’s transfer rules still apply, how could this effect a smaller program.  Without question, defections from some of the schools left in the wake of the conference realignment of both the Big 10 and the NCHC has already had an effect on players currently in college hockey and those waiting to go in.  Don’t believe me?  Have you noticed the large amount of American-born players who had committed to play college hockey now going to ply their trade in the Canadian Hockey League?  High profile NHL drafted players like J.T. Miller (North Dakota recruit) to the Plymouth Whalers (OHL), Connor Murphy (Miami-Ohio recruit) to the Sarnia Sting (OHL), and John Gibson (Michigan recruit) to the Kitchener Rangers (OHL) adding to a growing list of other 1-year and out defections of players like Northeastern’s Jamieson Oleksiak (Saginaw, OHL) and Minnesota State: Mankato’s Tyler Pitlick (Medicine Hat, WHL) and its safe to say college hockey is feeling the effects of these changes long before a single game has been played in these newly established conferences.  A North Dakota hockey blogger makes his position rather clear here while Yahoo!’s college hockey blogger tries to say its not as bad as it seems here.  Maybe its because I myself have a college and a graduate degree that I see this early defection of talent out of the college ranks as a bit more disturbing and no one can tell me that as these changes to college hockey’s conference landscape took place that junior teams were quick to pounce on that feeling of uncertainty.   

Maybe its naive of me to think that tradition should trump money, but college hockey not college football.  Even if they put these games on the Big 10 Network, will it really create that much more visibility for college hockey?  Wiscosnin, Michigan, Michigan State and for the most part Minnesota have done well attendance-wise but will those fans travel any better than the in-state rival fans do?  Hard to believe that Ohio State fans will help fill Mariucci the way Fighting Sioux fans do.  I guess I’m pretty skeptical; based on some of the games I’ve seen thus far on the Big 10 Network.  When will they put these games on the Big 10 Network, because you know they won’t push any Men’s basketball games aside for a hockey tilt.  Do you really want to stay up until 10:00-10:30ish to watch Michigan vs. Minnesota when you may already know the outcome before you start because you can’t help seeing the score scrolling along the bottom of the screen?  Sort of like when the NHL decided to rapidly expand into the sunbelt, some of those markets have admittedly failed.  I am not the only one that feels this could weaken college hockey as Candace Horgan writes for USCHO here.  Perhaps the Big 10 is chasing the same thing; just hoping the ‘star power’ of the Big 10 Conference will turn this idea into a winner.  It may make them some money in the short term, but it may prove to be a long-term boondoggle for the rest of NCAA Men’s Hockey.  Its impossible to say what will happen, but in the next few years we’ll see if these massive changes were all worthwhile.