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I readily admit I am far from an expert on the great sport of hockey. Add in my radical love of college football and not following anything else a whole lot until that ends? I really don't know what's happening on a day to day basis with the hockey team. I just wanted to say that upfront so ya know where I'm coming from....

But....what is going on up there? I was leafing thru the hockey media guide earlier today and noticed, for the most part, BG hockey rocked every decade until about 1996 or so. Am I wrong or has BG had one .500 season and every year other than that, under .500? Is it the fact we play in a tough as nails CCHA? Teams used to fear coming into the Ice Arena...I can remember those games vs MSU in the mid to late 80's, again, a kid without any knowledge of the sport, and it was beyond crazy. It was loud, in your face and just as exciting as college football. And BG was really, really good. And since Moe Ankney wasn't doing anything with the football program, I latched on to hockey and started going to as many games as possible.

However, in the last 10 or so years, BG hasn't done a whole lot. Is it an issue of facilities? Recruiting? What happened that took this nationally known and respected program to the bottom of the conference?

I'm just looking for honest answers. I'm not trying to call anyone out or point fingers where they don't belong. But something here just isn't right. I read thru the hockey posts trying to get a read on who's saying what...cuz they know, for the most part. I don't. But I hate seeing this once proud program taking up residence in the CCHA cellar on almost a yearly basis. It just shouldn't happen at a school with this tradition. It simply shouldn't.

I wanna see this program challenging for not only the CCHA title, but the national title. Unlike college football, where the Bullsh*t Conspiracy Series has a lock on the sport, you can actually win the national title! What a novel idea! The other sports would go up and down but hockey remained a constant winner. Sure, there were a few losing seasons but BG never stayed down. I would talk to people about college sports and it used to be the OSU fans always said "you guys always kick our asses in hockey" and knew they meant it. It was the truth.


Well, I guess if ya wanna respond, please do. We all want the best for all BG teams...every one of them is very important. Thanks for listeing...and GO ICERS!!!

You make some good observations, Freak. There are going to be a bunch of goons that jump on this post and blame the current coach, and to a lesser degree, facilities for our woes. They may be right to some minute degree, but in my opinion, the biggest problem with this program is a lack of institutional commitment to hockey. And quite frankly, I'm getting to the point where the University and the Athletic Dept. need to put up or shut it down. This is getting downright embarassing anymore.

And no, new boards and lights do not count as institutional commitment, in my opinion.

It is alot of different factors. The rising of many new schools to prominence in hockey, many out east and in the WCHA. The CCHA is not the prominent league in the nation.

The power shift in college hockey in terms of recruiting has left us out to dry. The facilities probably do not hurt us in the players we are going after though. There are many sh*tty rinks in the CCHA. Besides UM and MSU we should be able to recruit with anyone in the CCHA. Ohio State's new rink has not really brought them any new success.

There is really no reason BG should not be going after home ice year in and year out.

Other than facilities and recruiting budget, what other "committment" can be given by the administration that impacts the success of the program? That has been mentioned before and I belive that was how Buddy felt - that his upward potential with the program was limited by this but I never asked him to go into more detail.

As far as the Ontario pool drying up - that is true but MSU, Miami and NMU have done a good job in BC and other than the Sigalet's, BGSU has not.

In conversations w/Scott and Ron - they seem to have gone after the top recruits, where Buddy just flat out quit trying, convinced that he could not recruit against UM and MSU - unfortunately the results are the same - the big guys are not coming here. When ask is it coaching or talent - what I can say is that few of the BGSU guys are ever listed on the CSB list - not that you have to be an NHL prospect to make it in college hockey but I firmly beleive there is a correlation there.

Bottom line IMO - it appears that Scott is not getting the most from a not too talented team.

I also throw out there as to how high is the upside for the program wirh 15 plus medicore years, lack of administration support and OK facilities. I too have argued that hockey,more so the FB and BB, is where BGSU can have a NAtional name for themselves even in 2006.

The end of the season highlite reel might only last 2 minutes long and consists of a few goals against a pathetic Windsor team. Also included on the highlite film are teams like Michigan and Mich St icing the puck against us, and a play were we had a breakaway but were barely offside.