Independence? At least we’d have some possibility of playing teams east of the Mississippi?
That’s not the question any longer.
What should Miami do in 2022 and beyond?
Doesn’t work. Nearly impossible to schedule games, no media deal, no split of the conference winnings, no way to automatically qualify for the tourney. You lose way more money than you gain.
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What “media deal” are we benefiting from? None of our games are accessible over ESPN on any regular basis…
The NCHC media rights are held by NCHC.TV and CBS Sports Network.
I do not profess to be a close follower of our hockey program but it would seem to me if the ship can’t be righted pretty soon, we may want to consider the new CCHA. Better to be a big fish in a small pond than a perennial doormat in a better conference.
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This CBS Sports Network deal is a big piece of shit! We used to have like 15-20 conference games aired throughout the season (which still wasn’t great when dividing that up amongst 8 teams). Now it seems like 7 conference game a year (including the conference tournament game) are included in that. Really not a lot of exposure. I would rather us stream via ESPN+ (Like some North East schools do) so at least that’s one less streaming service to pay for (NCHC.tv) and hopefully better production quality.
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I don’t believe the problem is necessarily the conference. This year has proven we can’t beat bad teams regardless of conference. We’re just a bad team.
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An ESPN streaming deal would be much more convenient for sure. I would assume if it was more financially lucrative the league would have done that. Maybe if ESPN does well with the NHL they will look to expand more into college hockey.
I think the original deal when the conference was formed ran through the entire conference regular season. For a while now it’s only been the second half.
Outside of the Big 10 does any other conference have a non-regional cable contract?