Here’s an email that came to us recently that the writer, Brian Patterson of Minneapolis, agreed to let us publish:
As a big college hockey fan, I have been following the recent developments closely and my concern, like many, is that the new conferences are completely ignoring the great history of college hockey.
Consider this — in the last quarter century, the NCAA Champions break down like this (by their “future” conference): Big Ten – 7; Hockey East – 7; NCHC – 6; ECAC – 1, WCHA – 1. You will probably notice this only adds up to 22. That is because the other three belong to Lake Superior State University — one of the remainders/castoffs (as of this date) from the CCHA.
(Full disclosure — I am a LSSU grad, and thus biased).
If NCAA football were to realign, would they cast off one of their storied teams? I doubt it. Now, I grant you that LSSU has not been highly/consistently competitive in at least 10 years — but (to continue the analogy to football above), has Notre Dame been competitive in football?
Of course, I realize this is not about storied teams and traditions, but about money. If you don’t think this is the case, then consider this — a three time NCAA Champion is being (kind of) replaced by a school (Penn State) that up to this point has had nothing more than a club team. I cannot be the only one that finds this astounding.
I am not blaming Penn State, by the way — their entrance into college hockey will likely be a very good thing, all told, when all is said and done.
The ironic thing is, and I am not the first to say this — for years college hockey fans have wanted their sport to get more attention within the overall collegiate landscape and be more “like” NCAA football and basketball. Well, we got it.
Be careful what you wish for.
What’s your reaction? Let us know in the comments below.
