Brackets announced: 4 teams each from NCHC and B10.
P.S. and no, we did not get an at large bid.
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If Omaha had beaten Denver in the league play-off, the NCHC would have gotten 5 teams in the NCAA tournament. Colorado College was edged out by U Mass by 0.0004.
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Big fan of the MSU/NoDak/WMU/Michigan regional that’s taking place in an arena with 1,100 fewer seats than Goggin. If the NCAA considers 2,500 large enough to host a regional, why aren’t we bidding to host every year?
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Lack of hotels in Oxford perhaps?
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NCAA “requires” an arena with 5k seats, but there haven’t been enough groups bidding for regionals so this one won by default.
The whole regional system for hockey isn’t great right now. There have been talks about moving to campus sites instead, but it’s faced some push back. Part of that is smaller schools think the regionals give them a better chance for getting wins versus playing away games. When you look at regionals like #3 Denver this year getting UMass, Maine and Cornell in Springfield Massachusetts, I definitely see their point.
Apparently, due to the small arena size (2500) of Centene Center outside St. Louis, and the demand from North Dakota fans, tickets are going for upwards of $1,000 for that venue for quarter finals there.
Jokes on them, the traffic getting in/out of that area for concerts at Riverport next door is legendary.
Does this lack of ability to rent a decent Regional hockey arena indicate how the Secondary sports will NOT benefit from the NCAA’s Gazillion Dollar ESPN football deal whatsoever? That’s a “yes”.
The NCAA didn’t sign a gazillion dollar football deal with ESPN, the College Football Playoff did.
The NCAA did sign a different deal covering their championships with ESPN recently: ESPN and NCAA Reach New, Eight-Year Media Rights Agreement - NCAA.org
That deal actually is good for secondary sports. The NCAA could have probably made more money by splitting off some sports but bundled them together to increase access to TV across the board.
Ice Hockey is just in an odd spot where it’s not particularly attractive to host a regional since you can’t be sure how many teams attending will be from the Northeast or from the Midwest, and most fans aren’t going to travel across the country for a regional.
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Thanks for the info. The NCAA Hockey games ARE on ESPN channels,
so point well taken.
Rumors are that the NCAA Hockey Championship format will be reviewed for 2025. Site selections,venues,who plays close to home or even at home.etc…
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Western blows 4-2 lead and lost to MichiState 5-4 in OT. Wisconsin also lost in OT, so at least a B10 team out there.
NCHC goes 1-3 in the first round, with UND and <–M both losing late leads.
The Greenhawks flew south early,
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The nchc went 0-3 vs the big 10
Anything can happen in single elimination hockey. Chance for redemption today in the Denver-Gopher game.
Pretty sure Denver plays Cornell tonight
You’re right. My mistake. We’ll get another chance at a NCHC-B1G victory in the next round maybe.
My son had 6U tryouts this morning at FivePoint Arena in Irvine. (His regular hockey lessons are on another sheet at the same facility, FivePoint is the actual competition ice they use for stuff.) It seats 2,500 people just like this barn they’re having UM-MSU in. And it looked…well, obviously far from full, but also far from cavernous, with just 20 five- and six-year-old kids’ families in there. Who thought hosting a regional in such a place was workable?