Big Ten Expansion -- Is Hockey a consideration?

I don’t see why adding BC, Rutgers and 523,127,423 other schools to create whatever super-uber “conference” that keeps getting talked about, helps ND with their independence issue. I have a hard time believing that ND is waiting for another school of the cloth to join up with. The barrier is the whole independence issue.

As far as a B10 hockey conference, ND joining would increase the possibility of that happening from about 1.8% to 2.4%, at least in the foreseeable future.

There are not presently enough teams for the B10 to create their own conference. There are 6 teams including ND. The colossal upheaval that will be unleashed if/when the B10 hockey comes about is too dangerous to the rest of college hockey to create a 6 team conference. It’s not worth the B10 looking like that big of a bully. That would essentially amount to taking Florida and Alabama out of the SEC, osu, mich, PSU and ND out of the Big 10 and forcing the rest of the former conference teams to fend for themselves. Again, it’s not worth the B10 looking like that big of a bully.

The B10 can do their best to jockey with other conferences for things like bowl tie ins and TV contracts because there are other conferences that can compete (SEC, PAC-10) In college hockey there would be no other conference in the same tier as the B10 hockey conference would be.

Now, in the future it may not be so risky for the whole of college hockey for the B10 to form their own conference. Next season the WCHA will add 2 teams from another conference that has imploded. That’s right entire college hockey conferences can and have imploded. The addition of these two teams into an already strong conference will cushion the WCHA against the flight of Wisconsin and Minnesota should there be a B10 conference eventually. The conference would loose revenue, but it would survive. I am not so sure about the CCHA who would loose Mich, OSU and Mich state. Those might be harder to recover from.

I have a hard time believing Rutgers and BC are going to make NY and NE care about college sports.

…before all of this expansion business began.
Madison.com Article

Maybe good for academics, I’m not sure. I don’t think it would be bad.

For the other three questions I’m just going to lump them all into one answer beacuse they all have the same dynamic. No! 14 teams is not a conference, its a mini league with two mini conferences. 12 teams already makes it too easy to think of the conference as halves, think B12 North vs B12 South. If a student does not see every team in their schools “conference” play in their own stadium that is a shame.

Why not? Because 6 current Big Ten members don’t even field teams (please hold comments regarding the ‘Icers’). Even if the league were to add 3 schools with teams, we’re still talking about a sport that would not be played on the NCAA level by just under half of the league’s schools. Baseball is a Big Ten backwater and yet only Wisconsin doesn’t field a squad. Hockey has a rabid following at 4 of the 5 BT schools that do have NCAA teams, but it’s not going to factor into such a monumental decision.

but maybe you’re crazy like a fox.

College hockey is far from being put on espn outside of the frozen four, but there is a lot to like about the sport, and the folks in Michigan and Minny love it. I think it would be a big adddition to the regular programming on the btn.

If ND joins, there is a chance to make a play for the NY/NE markets…This is a rational idea, and just as far-fetched as adding TX…

Illinois and Penn State have club teams.

Rutgers also has an off-campus club as well as other expansion candidates Pitt, Maryland, and Syracuse.