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.