Why We Could Hate Life As College Hockey Fans

Over at the USCHO Fan Forum, there’s a thread about why people hate life as college hockey fans. It’s your typical “my school hasn’t done crap in forever” from fans of schools with proud hockey histories that have hit the skids [e.g. Michigan Tech, Lake State, Western, BG], or fans that are frustrated that they can never break through and are watching other schools pass them by [Jan BradySt. Cloud State fans, jealous of Bemidji's recent success], or schools at the top who have fans frustrated with the other fans who want to run their coaches off at the slightest hint of a drop down [usually North Dakota and Minnesota, but sometimes New Hampshire and Maine]. But here’s how I responded to that:

I don’t hate mine. I just keep wondering how much longer I’ll have one with my team as a fan an alumnus of a Division I program.

Bleeping CCHA.

Don’t get me wrong: I love each and every day as a Charger. Every time I come up the stairs in my house, I pass signed photos from the 2008-09 team [our guys signing around this great shot of one of our buckets that wnickelson took] and the 2009-10 team on the ice, right after winning the final CHA tournament and getting the CHA’s final autobid [photo taken by Douglas]. Each of those photos gives me a bit of a lift.

Bleeping CCHA.

Then I remember that UAH is the only independent in D-I, a change from the last time when UAH played as a D-I independent a couple decades ago. We never asked to come to D-I, but when the NCAA pulled the rug out from under D-II hockey [again], back we came to Division I. This time around, we’ve given as well as we’ve gotten, on the whole, including two NCAA tournament appearances in the last four seasons.

Bleeping CCHA.

I love the schedule UAH has this season—rid of guaranteed home dates from CHA schools, UAH can schedule anyone who’ll schedule them back. The coaches, understanding that college hockey is a brotherhood—59 member schools trying to turn young boys into men, educate them, and let them play some hockey at a fun level in front of adoring fans—have seen fit to make sure that UAH has enough games to be viable. Shoot, 32 games + two exhibitions with the US U-18 team gives the boys the most RS matches they’ve had since 2005-06. Does it suck that the Chargers’ D-I schedule ends in mid-February? Sure, but the boys play the hand that they’re dealt.

Bleeping CCHA.

The coaches understand the whole union/brotherhood thing. The AD’s are treating it like a business. That’s their right, of course. They’re missing the larger point, which is that more schools playing D-I hockey will mean more exposure for the sport, and increase the likelihood of some reasonable level of non-regional TV coverage. Yes, this would happen more quickly with more name schools playing D-I hockey—SEC/Big 12/Pac 10—but only in college hockey do we have the chance to see a liberal-arts college with 2,000 students and a $400MM endowment [Colorado College] face off against a school with 39,000 undergraduates and a $2.06B endowment [tOSU] and expect that the little school might win.

Bleeping CCHA.

More schools playing Division I hockey means more kids getting educated, more alumni with tighter bonds to their alma mater, more fans visiting other parts of the country and engaging the local culture, and more opportunities for hockey to really take off in the US.

Bleeping CCHA.

But no, the AD’s are acting with non-enlightened self-interest, worried about this year’s budget knowing that they’re down 15% from last year. I get that. Times are tough everywhere, and with 30 of the 59 schools being public, the current economic environment for governments across the country means that things will probably get worse before they get better—especially in western college hockey, where 21 of 24 schools are public.

Bleeping CCHA.

But yet if six of those schools—10% of the number—can decide to suck it up and travel to the mid-South for a little hockey, maybe we can get the other 52 to care. Or, well, eight of 11 schools in this one midwestern conference.

Bleeping CCHA.

Will told me that I needed to re-post this here.

It’s Been a Year

Remember last summer, when the CCHA kicked UAH in the teeth? That was August 11.

This August, the CCHA is admitting that they’re interested in Penn State possibly becoming the 12th member of the league. Some folks are not happy about that, as it leaves UAH twisting in the wind while a hole that many in the college hockey community felt the Chargers could fill gets taken by a school with a proud club hockey tradition but no varsity experience and no viable, D-I quality arena. Count us among the number of people who are not amused.

In the last year, I’ve heard from a few people that I’d consider “in the know” about off-the-record conversations they’ve had with folks affiliated with CCHA member institutions. The impression that I’ve generally gotten about UAH being denied admission comes down to three points:

1. Cost was a concern for the smaller CCHA schools. Many chose to compare the travel cost to what it took for those member schools to make it to Nebraska-Omaha, which joins the WCHA for this season. While we consider that a fair comparison, it’s clear to us that the CCHA member schools looked at the Mavericks’ move as a fait accompli, and rather than looking at substituting UAH for UNO, they looked at the cost of UAH being in the league as an additional expense, as UNO’s move reduced their costs. It’s certainly one way to look at it, even if you don’t agree with the thought process. It’s also important to remember that the smaller CCHA schools are all public schools in Ohio and Michigan; both states are having a hard time economically-speaking.
2. There was plenty of concern that Bowling Green’s program would no longer be viable, which would potentially leave the CCHA with 11 members if UAH had joined. We largely rejected this argument, but it can be made.
3. Last but not least, CCHA member schools were aware that are a part of the Big Te(leve)n knew that the conference was going to consider expansion this summer. Yes, yes, we’re talking about the much-maligned, but never-really-goes-away “Big Ten Hockey Conference”. If you’ve never read about this, here’s the Cliff’s Notes: if six B10/11 member schools play in a varsity sport, they are allowed to play it under the auspices of the Big Ten. The various proposals for 2010 NCAA conference realignment had Notre Dame moving to the B10/11 as a part of that process. Obviously, this did not happen, but it was a strong possibility this time last August. If Notre Dame joined the Big Ten, that would make six conference schools playing varsity hockey: Minnesota and Wisconsin from the WCHA, and Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State from the CCHA. If those six schools decided to form a BTHC, they would forego an automatic qualifier for at least one [and possibly two; I am not up on the details] season while the conference met eligibility rules for the AQ. The now-defunct CHA had to wait for its AQ, but eventually got it. The BTHC schools, however, are all big enough powers that they’d stand a reasonable chance of making the NCAA tournament as quasi-independents while the league became eligible for an automatic berth.

Obviously, only the first point remains: that Huntsville is an expensive, out-of-the-way place for travel. UAH offered to offset that cost with a yearly payment to the league, widely believed to be $70,000 per year to the league office for its distribution. [This number has never been put officially on the record; suffice it to say that we have good sources on this number.] Considering that 1) this would come out to >$10k for each member school that had to travel to Huntsville each season, 2) the CCHA could distribute it unevenly towards the smaller schools if it chose, and 3) UNO provided no such funding to the league, we consider the financial argument to be a red herring. The larger issue seems to be that, well, the CCHA doesn’t want UAH for its own reasons. We don’t have to like that, but we do have to live with it.

We’ve been quite careful over the last year to express our displeasure with the CCHA’s decision in a respectful manner. If they jump on Penn State going varsity in lieu of accepting a potential future bid by UAH to join the conference, well … we probably won’t be so nice.

What’s a UAH fan to do in the meantime? How about loving the schedule we do have as an independent and supporting our Chargers. If folks want to argue that we don’t support our team, this is the year to prove them wrong. You can’t argue anymore that “no one wants to go see crappy CHA opponents in the VBC” or “we’re tired of seeing the same teams over and over”, because now there is no conference to feed us teams. Sure, BSU and RMU return to Huntsville this year, but they’re not league opponents anymore, and they’re helping the program out by making sure we have a full schedule. Rather than lamenting seeing the Beavers or Colonials four times a season, enjoy it twice and make it special.

Save the Tom Anastos voodoo dolls for the possibility that the Nittany Lions do go varsity.