Another season has come and gone. We wrap up the 2016-17 college hockey season and put it in the history books. This week, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference released its annual report. I’ve been picking through the report and a few things have piqued my interest. Since it’s inception, the NCHC has been on the cutting edge with their social media campaign and with their fan experience. A lot of great things have happened on the ice, too. You can read the report here.
Overtime – For the second straight year, the NCHC implemented a 3-on-3 overtime structure to follow the NCAA-mandated 5-minute 5-on-5 overtime. The NCAA added to its rulebook last offseason, allowing the use of 3-on-3 overtime and a sudden death shootout by conference policy, which was then adopted by another conference (WCHA). Of 96 NCHC conference games, 11 games (11.5 percent) required 3-on-3 overtime (up from six in 2015-16), with five of those 11 games ending in 3-on-3 overtime and the other six ending in a shootout.
The NCHC hasn’t been afraid to try new things. For two seasons, the NCHC has used the 3-on-3 overtime to break ties for conference points. My only complaint; it takes five minutes of 5-on-5 overtime before we move on to the 3-on-3 overtime. Obviously, there’s going to be some fans that don’t like the 3-on-3 overtime. I’ve read a few comments from fans referring to the 3-on-3 overtime as a gimmick. Now, if I had a say in the matter, I would drop the 5-on-5 overtime and go straight to a 3-on-3 overtime like the NHL does. I would also award a single point for losing in the 3-on-3 overtime. That’s the only change that I would make.
Overtime – With the NCAA adding the NCHC’s 3-on-3 overtime and sudden death shootout as an allowable format to resolve a tie after a 5-on-5 five-minute overtime in the NCAA rule book, the conference plans to continue to use the format it has used the previous two years.
Again, if I had a say in the matter, I would like to see everyone in college hockey use the 3-on-3 overtime to break ties. Like the NHL, the 3-on-3 overtime is exciting and games rarely get to the shootout. I like the fact that every conference game ends with a winner and a loser.
Television – The NCHC continued its strong television partnerships in 2016-17 with CBS Sports Network, American Sports Network (ASN) and FOX Sports. A total of 14 NCHC games once again aired nationally on CBS Sports Network, including the College Hockey Showdown at Madison Square Garden and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. In its second year on ASN, the NCHC had 10 games air on American Sports Network, which was two more than in 2015-16. Eight NCHC games were also shown in the Upper Midwest region, a key NCHC region, on FOX Sports North, originating from St. Cloud State or Minnesota Duluth, with all eight of those games, along with 11 other games, being elevated up to FOX College Sports, which is available nationally. Seven games involving NCHC teams were also aired on TSN or one of its affiliates in Canada.
First things first, CBS Sports Network does an awesome job broadcasting the games for the NCHC. My only complaint; not having enough CBSSN broadcasts, I’d like to see more than 14-18 broadcasts. The on-air staff is second to none.
Breaking this down further: when Midcosports.net was awarded the television rights for UND sports, UND hockey went from having most of their home games broadcast on Fox College Sports to having an occasional game broadcast on FCS and FSN. One of the reasons; Midcontinent has been trying to get into the Fargo, ND market and doesn’t want their broadcasts being available outside of their regional footprint. In other words, Midcontinent doesn’t want potential customers to be able to see their product without paying for it.
Obviously, this doesn’t work for many UND hockey fans that live outside of the Midcontinent regional footprint and frankly, this is unacceptable. IMHO, the NCHC is like the SEC of college hockey. From my perspective, UND hockey needs to have more of their games on national television or in a minimum, I like to see a return of UND’s home games to FCS.
I also want to give credit where credit is due, the games that have been broadcast on FSN have been outstanding, and their picture has been high quality.
The negative aspect: many UND hockey fans live outside of the Midco SportsNet regional footprint and have had to rely on NCHC.TV to watch the games. When they’re watching UND home games, for the most part, the quality has been very good. I don’t have any complaints. Now, when I’ve watched other school’s broadcasts on NCHC.TV, not all is equal.
Some schools really need to step up and do a better job with their broadcasts. I believe there needs to be a certain standard to be able to sell a school’s games on NCHC.TV. I am not going to single out any particular school, but there are at least 2-3 schools that have substandard webcasts and they need to get better. At times, some of their broadcasts have been unwatchable. In a high-quality entity like the NCHC, this is unacceptable. I’ve talked to other fans that feel the same way.
Finally, there’s this announcement. It’s a great idea, but I wish UND and Denver would be season-ending rival series.
The final week of regular season will now always be UND vs. Omaha; SCSU vs. Duluth; Western vs. Miami; CC vs. DU https://t.co/0Go4zjG4qv
— Brad Elliott Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) June 2, 2017
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