A Hockey NIT Idea

[mbenecke]

8 teams, single elimination. They could play it on the off weekend between the first/second round and the Frozen Four. They could play the first and second round at campus sites, where the hosts could be determined by the PairWise.

So this year, it would be BG hosting one "regional" and Boston hosting the other.

So in BG, it would theoretically be:
Friday
#1 BG vs. #8 WMU
#4 Union vs. #5 Colorado College

Winners play on Saturday.

And in Boston, it would theoretically be:
Friday
#2 BU vs. #7 Princeton
#3 Omaha vs. #6 Tech

Winners play on Saturday.

Then the finals would be the night in between the Frozen Four semifinals and the championship, in the arena of the Frozen Four, this year in St. Paul. It would add an exciting new element to that entire weekend.

[gmartin]

I like the Frozen 4 and the 16-team just the way it is. I don't want any more tournaments. Just like they need to get rid of the CIT, CBI and the NIT in basketball.

[AZIce]

College Hockey budgets are already razor thin for most schools and especially WCHA schools like us.

Nobody would want to spend money and travel for what would be meaningless games that would be poorly attended. Heck, back when BG hosted real NCAA games at home it was always tough to get sellouts due to everyone having to buy a ticket, no student passes, these would be an even tougher sell.

[mbenecke]

Fair enough. I just thought it would be nice to be able to keep playing after the conference tournament. Sad to me that the only way to end the season with a win is if you win the national championship or you're done after the regular season.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Turns out this very topic is being debated on USCHO.

http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?1 ... ost6646292