although you get a BE basketball problem, where you have so many teams it’s hard to play everyone enough and keep OOC schedules. I definitely like the “East” division a lot.

I grew up in SE PA and hockey was huge. GO FLYERS!! I know that Pittsburgh people are equally passionate about the Pens. And I definitely remember during my years at Penn State how many students watched NHL, wore NHL gear, etc.
I think big league hockey at Penn State would reeally take off.

Unlike basketball with a random game on Tuesday or Thursday nights, they’re always Friday and Saturday nights. That’s a much easier trip to make for two games than a one game weeknight jaunt.

Getting the new arena will be huge, and not even in terms of just seating. The building of a new facility of this magnitude will definitely grab the attention of everyone. Just like everyone knows where the BJC is, even if most people don’t realize that the basketball teams actually play there.

Right now, the vast majority don’t know where the Ice Pavilion is, let alone know that we actually have an ice rink on campus. A new arena will create that excitement and at the very least an awareness that it actually exists.

From there, it won’t take much to create a regular excitement towards the hockey team.

Nothing says you HAVE to add womens sports to equal things out. Title IX is just a guideline put out by the Nixon administration that says “No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

It wasn’t long until people started suing for sexual discrimination in regard to scholastic activities, but the courts had a difficult time applying this standard on a consistent bases. So the Carter administration put out a three prong test as a guideline.

Prong one – Providing athletic opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment, OR
Prong two – Demonstrate a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex, OR
Prong three – Full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of underrepresented sex.

All Penn State would have to do is demonstrate compliance with one of these three prongs to avoid losing a lawsuit. Most schools seem to stick to prong one since it is the easiest to comply with and prove in court. You lay out your student enrollment figures, then you lay out your scholarship allocations and if the two are reasonably close you’re fine. Prong two and three are a bit harder to prove compliance, but it can be done.

Obviously, if nobody is complaining about a lack of a female curling team, then there is no issue with prong three. To comply with prong two all you have to do is demonstrate willingness to meet the needs of the oppressed sex.

In all honesty, after typing this the solution hit me. Just give scholarships to the women’s hockey team.

I too have no clue where they practice but I’ve seen the T-Shirts so they must exist.

A.) Plans have been created, even if just rough(er) sketches. I am still fairly close to the organization and people within the organization – I have confirmation that they have seen them and do exist. (Again, I have yet to see them, but that may do more with the fact that I only travel to State College on random weekends.)

B.) We do have a donor in line. Not sure who it is, but there is a group out there. That, too, has been confirmed by a few people around the organization.

C.) You’re not going to get in contact with Coach Balboni now – he’s in China as an assistant coach for team USA in that whole World University Games. Plus, he’s horrible at answering email from time to time.

D.) Ditto for JoeBa. His role as Director of the Nittany Lion Club makes him hard to get a hold of. Unless, of course, you’re willing to donate large sums of money. But then again, who isn’t busy for that phone cal?

I’m not saying to bank on it, but the fact that some guy calling/emailing around can’t get all the answers – yeah, I’m less than impressed. I’m not saying that everything is a done deal either – which might be part of the reason he’s not getting full answers either. But there’s a lot more in place than he’s trying to dispel.