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The last few years the CCHA has had very weak showings in the NCAA tourney. Last years Frozen Four was all WCHA teams and it looks like they will probably win it again this year. Is is possible that this is just a down swing or is the CCHA going to become a second tier league to Hocley East and the WCHA?

Top to bottom, the CCHA is the most competitive league in the NCAA. Because of the parity that exists within the league, it's very difficult for the best teams to advance to the NCAAs. To prove this, you have to look no farther than BG and the teams they beat.

It's also very cyclical. I've seen all of the major leagues have their up periods and they're down periods.

I disagree the CCHA is not the most competitive league. Parity often times shows how weak a league actually is. Case in point the big ten in basketball. It was not a league full of great teams beating up on eachother through the regular seasons. You dont know exactly how good a league is until the tournament.

Yes sports are cyclical but the WCHA has minus Duluth and Tech, all brand new rinks seating 8-17k. The CCHA besides OSU and Nebraska doesnt have any new rinks. Ferris plays in an average junior B rink. My point is that this looks like it might be a long cycle if thats how you view it. Maybe the next 50 years. Just my opinion.

dannyk wrote:I disagree the CCHA is not the most competitive league. Parity often times shows how weak a league actually is. Case in point the big ten in basketball. It was not a league full of great teams beating up on eachother through the regular seasons. You dont know exactly how good a league is until the tournament.

Yes sports are cyclical but the WCHA has minus Duluth and Tech, all brand new rinks seating 8-17k. The CCHA besides OSU and Nebraska doesnt have any new rinks. Ferris plays in an average junior B rink. My point is that this looks like it might be a long cycle if thats how you view it. Maybe the next 50 years. Just my opinion.

Look at the out of conference records. You cannot say the CCHA is an inferior league when you do that.

Hockey is a team sport. One player cannot carry a team by himself like in basketball.

One more thing....UNO does not HAVE a new facility, they just play in one. UNO has no facility and are at the mercy of the owners of the facilities they play in. They've been known to be forced back into the old facility by a, get this, monster truck show at the Qwest.

I haven't heard of any new facilities in Hockey East and yet they seem to be doing pretty well. This whole facination with facilities equating to good teams is getting old. Some may be wowed into playing because of a faciltiy, but not all by a long shot.

BGFan wrote:I haven't heard of any new facilities in Hockey East and yet they seem to be doing pretty well. This whole facination with facilities equating to good teams is getting old. Some may be wowed into playing because of a faciltiy, but not all by a long shot.

Personally, I'd rather have a player play for us because he WANTS to play for the TEAM rather than because he gets to play in a new facility.

dannyk wrote:The last few years the CCHA has had very weak showings in the NCAA tourney. Last years Frozen Four was all WCHA teams and it looks like they will probably win it again this year. Is is possible that this is just a down swing or is the CCHA going to become a second tier league to Hocley East and the WCHA?

Hockey East is more than BC, BU, Maine and New Hampshire. Yet over the last six years (I started in the 1999-00 season) only one team other than those four (Providence in 2001) has received an invite to the NCAA tournament.

In that same span, the CCHA has sent Ohio St (2005, 2004, 2003) Ferris State (2003) Notre Dame (2004) Miami (2006, 2003) and Nebraska-Omaha (2006). Obviously I threw Michigan and Michigan State out of the mix, CCHA's equivalent to Hockey East's Big Four.

As for the WCHA, I think everybody except Michigan Tech, Alaska-Anchorage and MSU-Mankato has had an invite in that same span (yes, even St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth).

My point is that I think the 'have-nots' in the CCHA are at the very least on par with the WCHA and better than the ones in Hockey East. And when assessing the league as a whole, you have to consider everyone, not just your perennial powerhouses.

Performace once they get to the tournament is a different matter. In that regard, the WCHA is head and tails above everyone else lately.

BGFan wrote: I haven't heard of any new facilities in Hockey East and yet they seem to be doing pretty well. This whole facination with facilities equating to good teams is getting old. Some may be wowed into playing because of a faciltiy, but not all by a long shot.

*cough*Agganis Arena*cough*

In all seriousness, Hockey East teams have opened four arenas in the last 10 years (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, UMass Lowell, BU) and at least two others (Maine, BC) have undergone some major rennovations. Merrimack's had some minor rennovations, Providence doesn't look like anything's been done to it for at least 150 years, and I couldn't begin to tell you the last time Northeastern had anything more than some new paint thrown on it. I know nothing of the history Vermont's building.

Does it really make a difference in recruiting? It could, but I don't think it's the only factor a recruit looks at. If facilities were the end-all-be-all of any one kid's decision to attend a given school, there's no way in hell a kid would choose Maine over Massachusetts. But it happens all the time.

I would think that rapport with the coaching staff, role on the team, and 'the right fit' as the guys call it, would be more important than the facilities (not to mention what financial package is offered). But then, what do I know?

I said that I hadn't heard of any, not that there weren't any... At any rate, I don't think that it will be too long before we see renovations of our own. Hopefully we'll hire a hockey-centric AD that will help move things along in that direction.

I'd like to suggest one key reason why CCHA teams have not fared well in the NCAA tourney recently...officiating. The general concencus seems to be that CCHA officials follow the 'letter of the law' much more closely than those in the other conferences...particularily with regard to whatever the NCAA has selected as this year's 'point of emphasis'. (This year it was 'checking from behind' and 'faceoff interference'...last year it was 'contact to the head' and 'crease violations'. It seems to me that by the end of the season (especially once tournament play begins), enforcement of all this stuff has slacked off...CCHA teams (having been conditioned to play within the limits of tighter officiating, will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage when those rules go 'out the window' and they face an opponent who has played all year without that same strict enforcement.

Freddie,
the CCHA sent 5 referees and I believe 4 AR crews to the NCAAs this year...

FlagCityFalcon wrote:Freddie,
the CCHA sent 5 referees and I believe 4 AR crews to the NCAAs this year...

True, but the NCAA generally tries to keep referees from officiating games in which one of their own conference's teams are involved. In other words, the CCHA refs were not officiating games involving CCHA teams. I know at the Northeast Regional (BC, BU, Miami, UNO) they had WCHA officials. And I believe it was the Green Bay regional where the Hockey East refs landed.