2025-2026 Season

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

New Director of Hockey Ops:

https://bgsufalcons.com/news/2025/8/11/ ... operations

Wow, I’d missed that Schoen had moved on.

https://springfieldthunderbirds.com/new ... ff-updates

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Did Tom Serratore just find a massive loophole in the recruiting rules or is this akin to the Swankler clearinghouse screwup? Either way, Bemidji is suddenly a contender.

https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/b ... ity-center

tl;dr: Bemidji now has two kids on their roster who played in the AHL/ECHL last season. One kid played a few games, one played the ENTIRE season. NCAA clearinghouse granted both eligibility. Neither of these kids were on ATOs.

“These guys went through the NCAA Eligibility Center and were cleared,” Serratore said. “Man, the landscape in college sports is crazy right now. We saw in some other sports that there were guys who played pro who were eligible to play in college again. Why not give it a whirl for us?”

On July 24, the University of Tennessee announced the men’s basketball roster addition of Ethan Burg, who played a year of professional basketball for the Bnei Herzliya Basket in the Israeli Basketball Super League. When Burg was granted eligibility, Bemidji State’s hope to add Thornton materialized.

[pdt1081]

Did Tom Serratore just find a massive loophole in the recruiting rules or is this akin to the Swankler clearinghouse screwup? Either way, Bemidji is suddenly a contender.

https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/b ... ity-center

tl;dr: Bemidji now has two kids on their roster who played in the AHL/ECHL last season. One kid played a few games, one played the ENTIRE season. NCAA clearinghouse granted both eligibility. Neither of these kids were on ATOs.

“These guys went through the NCAA Eligibility Center and were cleared,” Serratore said. “Man, the landscape in college sports is crazy right now. We saw in some other sports that there were guys who played pro who were eligible to play in college again. Why not give it a whirl for us?”

On July 24, the University of Tennessee announced the men’s basketball roster addition of Ethan Burg, who played a year of professional basketball for the Bnei Herzliya Basket in the Israeli Basketball Super League. When Burg was granted eligibility, Bemidji State’s hope to add Thornton materialized.

Interestingly enough, Willy has said in a past interview that he does have Conner Bedard's number in his phone.....

But seriously, with Swankler, he didn't play at all the season before coming here. These guys we declared eligible for Canadian USports last season. Does he Clearinghouse look back more than one season? There's also the aspect of the school helping the athlete get cleared. BG did not with the previous case, not sure about with Levis and Palmer (both had ATOs at some point).

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Looking at how teams are shaping up, the following jumps out at me:

o Tech and BG and now Bemidji got hugely better during the offseason.
o The Tommies and Vikings didn't get any worse during the offseason. Lucas Wahlin is my guess for pre-season POY.
o Ferris will be a lot better; Riley brought a bunch of studs with him from LIU. Don't sleep on the Bulldogs.

So you have Tech, BG, Bemidji, Augie, and the Fighting Ricos all in the mix for home ice. Ferris is a year away and in a spoiler role, but that's still 5-for-4. And I haven't mentioned the Mavs yet. Wow. Where do you slot them? They return Tracy and their stud d-corps, but only Benincasa returns up front so they're looking at 11 out of 12 new forwards. With Eisele bolting for the Buckeyes they go from 5 double-digit goal scorers last year to zero this year. Their incoming recruits are rated bottom half of the league and there aren't any other studs besides Zetterberg coming from the portal. I can't see how they get to 100 goals this year. So how can you possibly give a home ice spot to the Mavs this year? Conversely, how can you not?

The CCHA is going to be really tight at the top this year. When it's all over, I'm really hoping for 2 bids.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

It looks like the top brass at CCHA headquarters heard the grumblings and dropped the price of Midco for this season. $107.88 down from $130 last year. That's feels a lot more reasonable. Here's the link:

https://midcosports.com/streaming/ccha

You have until 10/3 for the early bird pricing but you may need to enter the discount code ERLY3. You'd want the Midco Sports Plus 2, not the All In (that give you access to Summit league stuff).

[jpfalcon09]

It looks like the top brass at CCHA headquarters heard the grumblings and dropped the price of Midco for this season. $107.88 down from $130 last year. That's feels a lot more reasonable. Here's the link:

https://midcosports.com/streaming/ccha

You have until 10/3 for the early bird pricing but you may need to enter the discount code ERLY3. You'd want the Midco Sports Plus 2, not the All In (that give you access to Summit league stuff).

Still overpriced for the simple fact most subscribers are only going to watch the school they care about.

CCHA needs to get with it and either go back to Flo or partner with ESPN.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

It looks like the top brass at CCHA headquarters heard the grumblings and dropped the price of Midco for this season. $107.88 down from $130 last year. That's feels a lot more reasonable. Here's the link:

https://midcosports.com/streaming/ccha

You have until 10/3 for the early bird pricing but you may need to enter the discount code ERLY3. You'd want the Midco Sports Plus 2, not the All In (that give you access to Summit league stuff).

Still overpriced for the simple fact most subscribers are only going to watch the school they care about.

CCHA needs to get with it and either go back to Flo or partner with ESPN.

Lucia inked a 5-year deal with Midco. After this year there's still 3 more years to go. I'm good with the discounted pricing but understand your point.

Edit: Nacho's charge $120 for their early bird special. Following a single team will set you back $115. Yeah, go figure. Still like our current deal.

[mbenecke]

I’ll take any discount I can get with these streaming services that seemingly always increase in price.

Excited to watch this team all year long.

[pdt1081]

Lucia inked a 5-year deal with Midco. After this year there's still 3 more years to go. I'm good with the discounted pricing but understand your point.

3 year deal. My guess is the complaining about pricing and lack of actual new content last season translated to fewer anticipated subscribers for this upcoming season. Midco cut the price in an effort to boost their numbers for negotiations next season.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Lucia inked a 5-year deal with Midco. After this year there's still 3 more years to go. I'm good with the discounted pricing but understand your point.

3 year deal. My guess is the complaining about pricing and lack of actual new content last season translated to fewer anticipated subscribers for this upcoming season. Midco cut the price in an effort to boost their numbers for negotiations next season.

Ah. Thank you.

[Bgsu2016]

3 year deal. My guess is the complaining about pricing and lack of actual new content last season translated to fewer anticipated subscribers for this upcoming season. Midco cut the price in an effort to boost their numbers for negotiations next season.

The whole thing is idiotic. Too many of these services are about to get consolidated in a major way

[mbenecke]

We'll call it... cable.

[pdt1081]

Willy spoke to the Kiwanis Club this week. It's a Facebook reel, so hopefully the link works.

https://www.facebook.com/TheMorningShow ... 7S9Ucbxw6v

[jpfalcon09]

Willy has a Zoom call tomorrow at noon to provide a preview of the season and update the goings on during training camp. There is also an open practice for homecoming at 10:30am on Saturday.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Willy has a Zoom call tomorrow at noon to provide a preview of the season and update the goings on during training camp. There is also an open practice for homecoming at 10:30am on Saturday.

There's also a "Meet the Players" event next week for season ticket holders. If you can meet them all, you're eligible to win a prize!