{"id":142479,"date":"2023-10-04T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=142479"},"modified":"2023-10-01T21:20:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T02:20:32","slug":"as-college-hockey-commissioners-get-on-same-page-regarding-philosophy-of-game-its-better-for-college-hockey-in-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/10\/04\/as-college-hockey-commissioners-get-on-same-page-regarding-philosophy-of-game-its-better-for-college-hockey-in-general\/","title":{"rendered":"As college hockey commissioners get on same page regarding philosophy of game, ‘it\u2019s better for college hockey in general’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Heather Weems (left) and then-NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton present the 2022 Frozen Faceoff most outstanding player award to Minnesota Duluth’s Ryan Fanti (photo: NCHC).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Joe Bertagna stepped down after 23 years as Hockey East commissioner at the end of the 2019-20 season, he had no idea that he was setting a trend.<\/p>\n

Two years after Bertagna\u2019s departure, Josh Fenton left the NCHC after serving as that league\u2019s only commissioner since its inception in 2013.<\/p>\n

At the end of the 2022-23 season, Bob DeGregorio left Atlantic Hockey after 20 years and Steve Hagwell retired from the ECAC after 18 years.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the men\u2019s side of the WCHA folded in 2021 and Bill Robertson, who\u2019d replaced longtime WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod in 2014, left college hockey as well.<\/p>\n

Including DeGregorio\u2019s three years as Hockey East commissioner in the 1990s, that group had 80 collective years of college hockey conference leadership experience. Serving seven years, Robertson was the group\u2019s newest member.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had, I\u2019ll call it, the Mount Rushmore of the commissioners,\u201d said Heather Weems, now in her second year as NCHC commissioner following Fenton\u2019s departure. \u201cThey were there for a really long time \u2013 forever, if you look at the history with Steve Hagwell and Joe Bertagna and Bobby DeGregorio, these voices who had been at the table for a really long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weems and her colleagues respect the group of men who shaped D-I hockey for decades, who brought the game out of rinks and into the homes of fans with the rise of the internet, streaming services, and television deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a solid group,\u201d said Bertagna, now in his third season as commissioner of the Eastern Hockey League. He said that serving as commissioner of an NCAA hockey conference is a balancing act, with each league leader looking out for their own interests but realizing that hockey doesn\u2019t \u201chave a seat at the table in a lot of places\u201d because most conferences are single-sport organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to get along,” he said.<\/p>\n

That spirit of cooperation continues with this current group, whose longest-tenured member is Bertagna\u2019s successor in Hockey East, Steve Metcalf. Former Minnesota coach Don Lucia became the newly reconstituted CCHA\u2019s commissioner in 2020, a year before that league began to play. Weems came aboard in 2022, and the two newest commissioners are Michelle Morgan in Atlantic Hockey and Doug Christiansen in the ECAC. Morgan is also commissioner of the D-I women\u2019s conference, College Hockey America.<\/p>\n

Also part of this group \u2013 sort of \u2013 is Adam Augustine, who oversees hockey in his position as the senior director of sports administration for the Big Ten. The Big Ten itself hired a new commissioner to oversee all of its operations, Tony Petitti, who replaced Kevin Warren in May of this year.<\/p>\n

Augustine\u2019s roots in college hockey go back to his undergraduate days at Wisconsin in the early 2000s, when he volunteered with the men\u2019s hockey team. After graduating, he became the media relations contact for the Wisconsin women\u2019s team, and from 2008 to 2010, he served as the women\u2019s video coordinator.<\/p>\n

With the Big Ten, Augustine has been a strong advocate for college hockey. He sees timing of the turnover at the top of the D-I conferences as fortuitous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the fact that there\u2019s been so much change,\u201d said Augustine. \u201cIt\u2019s that the change continues to accelerate on top of that. Issues emerge and there are a lot of structural, systemic, existential-type issues that are out there for college athletics right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo line that up with the moment where you have so many new voices in that commissioners\u2019 room or across the country in influential positions, to me that\u2019s all really exciting. I think we all have to approach this understanding that we don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know, but so far I\u2019ve been very impressed with the room. It\u2019s a group that can meet these challenges, can work together, and take everything in a very positive step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The buzz in the proverbial room is palpable. There is a camaraderie that is evident in every conversation, a sense of cooperation and collegiality, and the kind of energy that sometimes accompanies the beginning of great new adventure. Everyone brings something unique to their position, and everyone else seems to be aware of how valuable that is.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf is now in his fourth season at the helm of the conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Metcalf, the president of the Hockey Commissioners Association, worked for New Hampshire athletic department for 20 years, and he was deputy athletic director there just prior to moving to Hockey East. He chaired the NCAA Division I Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Committee from 2018 to 2020, having served on that committee since 2015.<\/p>\n

Metcalf said that he\u2019s \u201cincreasingly aware\u201d of his role as \u201celder stateman\u201d among this group of commissioners. \u201cI wasn\u2019t planning to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as being the veteran of the group,\u201d said Metcalf, \u201cI guess when I entered into this position, I already was in a situation where I had really strong relationships with the commissioners because I just had come off being the chair of the NCAA committee. That was advantageous to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metcalf joked that being elected president of the commissioners association came about not only because of his previous experience, but because \u201cmaybe others just didn\u2019t want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you fast-forward \u2013 and really fast-forward not too far \u2013 and Michelle comes in and Doug comes in, and I\u2019ll be honest with you,\u201d said Metcalf, \u201cI talk to them all the time. Those two call me all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe jokes a little bit because Doug and I are the two newest kids on the block and I\u2019m only maybe two months ahead of Doug,\u201d said Morgan, who was the senior director of athletics at John Carroll from 2018 to 2023. \u201cHe says, \u2018I\u2019m going to start charging you guys for all the questions you ask,\u2019 and I say, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve already sent you a coffee gift card. What has Doug sent you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the relationship among our group of commissioners,\u201d said Metcalf. \u201cEveryone leans on each other, seeks advice each other, best practices, share experiences and situations with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan began her career in college athletic administration at St. Thomas, where she played hockey (2001-05).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many new things in recent years, with name, image and likeness, and social media, and things like that which really are opportunities,\u201d said Morgan. \u201cHow do we become better masters of telling our stories and showcasing all of the tremendous things that are happening beyond what\u2019s happening on the ice. What\u2019s the human interest and the people side of it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan calls single-sport conferences an \u201cadditional layer of challenge\u201d because they are \u201ca little more isolated\u201d without the advantages of access to NCAA governance and policy-setting that multisport conferences \u2013 like the Big Ten \u2013 enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a challenge,\u201d said Morgan, \u201cbut it\u2019s also an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christiansen, a Union College hockey alum (1998-2002), has a resume that encompasses many different vantage points in professional hockey, from playing to coaching, to administration. Immediately prior to taking the reins in the ECAC, Christiansen was deputy commissioner of the USHL for nearly a year. Christiansen also spent four years coaching in the USHL as well as four years as the league\u2019s director of player development and recruitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that college sports are obviously in a very interesting phase in terms of moving pieces, but I think that college hockey is extremely strong,\u201d said Christiansen. \u201cOn the men\u2019s side, we\u2019re producing more NHL players than we ever have. On the women\u2019s side, it is the premiere place for players to come and develop as people and as players. There\u2019s no better example than if you look at the PWHL draft. Twenty-nine college players were drafted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christiansen said that the job of commissioners is to \u201chelp amplify\u201d the progress already happening on college campuses, as well as to build on the foundations of previous commissioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve Hagwell did an outstanding job, but the things that were relevant at the beginning of Steve\u2019s term versus the things that are relative at the beginning of my term have just fundamentally changed,\u201d said Christiansen. \u201cSocial media, 15 years ago, wasn\u2019t applicable to what we\u2019re looking at now. Streaming wasn\u2019t applicable to what we\u2019re looking at now. How people are getting their information, how we grow our league, how we generate new revenue, how we attract new people to games in person is fundamentally different than it was 10, 15 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weems, who came to the NCHC front office after spending 10 years as Director of Athletics at member school St. Cloud State, said that organizational change brings new perspectives, and new perspectives can lead to new ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the landscape changes in college athletics, having those different voices and trying to figure out how to maintain the visibility and voice of hockey is going to be really important to us,\u201d said Weems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one of the few and only really revenue-generating sports that isn\u2019t part of a multisport conference, and I think at times we get lost because of it,\u201d said Weems. \u201cThe only seat at that table is the Big Ten, in terms of governance structure, and so I think in the new age of the NCAA trying to figure out how everything works \u2013 what governance is going to look like, how championships work, and look at the de-bundling of television \u2013 we have to look at how we represent and grow hockey, maybe differently than what we\u2019ve done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Doug Christiansen comes to ECAC Hockey following a stint as the USHL’s deputy commissioner (photo: Dan Hickling).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bertagna, who has also served as the executive director of the American Hockey Coaches Association since 1991, said that this new group benefits from its wide-ranging experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon Lucia and Doug Christensen have both played and coached hockey,\u201d said Bertagna. \u201cMichelle Morgan played hockey at St. Thomas. Heather Weems was on the rowing team at Iowa. Not that you have to have played or been in a locker room, but a lot of us feel that it does help. That was always the path to being an administrator for those of us who are older. We came up through the game. On the other hand, with some of the issues we are facing, a former athletic director will be really helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do see the repeating of everybody having a role, and some of those roles are still being shaped and shifting around.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Lucia sees it, too. Lucia has been involved with college hockey since his playing days at Notre Dame (1977-81). Right out of college, Lucia was hired as an assistant coach at Alaska \u2013 then Alaska-Fairbanks \u2013 and spent the next 36 years coaching hockey. He\u2019s most remembered for the time he spent behind the Minnesota bench (2001-18), where he coached the Golden Gophers to consecutive national championships (2002, 2003).<\/p>\n

All of that coaching experience was put to use immediately when Lucia came out of his brief retirement in 2020 to lead the reconstituted CCHA. He gets \u201cvolunteered\u201d for discussions that involve officiating because of his years on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on all those calls with the officials supervisors,\u201d said Lucia, who also attends the meeting that Big Ten officials have every January to review the first half of the season and prepare for the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more dialogue with the NHL people,\u201d said Lucia. \u201cYou go back 10 or 15 years ago, we had some head coaches \u2013 and I was included \u2013 with [NHL] general managers trying to make things better for college hockey. On our last call, Steve [Metcalf] says, \u2018I don\u2019t want to volunteer you, but you\u2019re kind of a natural for that because you were on that before.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucia said that there are \u201ca lot of changes going on\u201d and that \u201cchange can be positive.\u201d The changes extend to players, too. \u201cKids are different today from what they were. What are their interests? What\u2019s their passion? You have to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get back to the passion that I have seen in the past from our commissioners, the passion for trying to make college hockey for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Bertagna, Lucia sees the value \u2013 and the potential \u2013 intrinsic to this group of leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all come from diverse backgrounds,\u201d said Lucia. \u201cThe more we can cater this group of commissioners to our strengths, I think it\u2019s better for college hockey in general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Joe Bertagna stepped down after 23 years as Hockey East commissioner at the end of the 2019-20 season, he had no idea that he was setting a trend. Two years after Bertagna\u2019s departure, Josh Fenton left the NCHC after serving as that league\u2019s only commissioner since its inception in 2013. At the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":135347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[812,1671],"coauthors":[802],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAs college hockey commissioners get on same page regarding philosophy of game, 'it\u2019s better for college hockey in general' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Joe Bertagna stepped down after 23 years as Hockey East commissioner at the end of the 2019-20 season, he had no idea that he was setting a trend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142479\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As college hockey commissioners get on same page regarding philosophy of game, 'it\u2019s better for college hockey in general' - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Joe Bertagna stepped down after 23 years as Hockey East commissioner at the end of the 2019-20 season, he had no idea that he was setting a trend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142479\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-04T15:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-02T02:20:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/weems_fanti.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paula C. 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