BLOG: The "Growing the Game" Paradox

Three pieces of news happened in the past week. All involve college hockey programs in the southern United States.

One was about Tennessee State reportedly conducting a feasibility study to determine how viable it is to start a Division 1 men's hockey program. TSU, based in Nashville, would be the first team from the country's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Another, from College Hockey News, features Lindenwood's quest to be the next Division 1 men's hockey team. The Lions, who already have a Division 1 women's hockey team, would play out of the St. Louis Blues' practice facility. According to the article, LU hopes to "secure a few lead gifts" in time to announce publicly its intentions this summer.

The third comes from Alabama Huntsville, the only D1 men's hockey team currently in the southern United States. For the third time in a decade and second in as many years, the Chargers will be suspending operations.

This news arrives as Alabama Huntsville is unable to find a conference to call home. The CCHA, where seven of the 10 WCHA schools are departing to form next season, denied the Chargers. Another potential fit, Atlantic Hockey, is doing the business version of ghosting someone.

It's very college hockey to see pure excitement of two possible potential programs contrast with an existing program needing to shut down due to no one wanting them. 

As much as the words "grow the game" get thrown around time after time, it comes with a NIMBY-sized asterisk. It is a platitude. Everyone wants to see more teams and more players get opportunities...at least it until it affects them.

No program understands this better than Alabama Huntsville. 

In the past 12 months, the Chargers have been the subject of a successful GoFundMe to keep the program alive. Fans, alums, and the college hockey world as a whole came together to raise enough money to keep the program going. It's not the lack of support and financial help that doomed Alabama Huntsville. Given the choice, the University decided to shut down and wait for a conference home rather than go as an independent.

(Coincidentally, another bit of news from last week was GoFundMe highlighting the Chargers' success.)

Sadly, this isn't new. Go back further and time repeats itself. In two separate iterations, for two similar yet separate reasons, over a decade apart, the CCHA denying UAH's application is the catalyst to the program shutting down. 

Right now schools find it easier to undertake feasibility studies and find ways to start men's hockey programs that even 3-4 years ago were missing. Look at the names who are starting and looking into joining during this time. This is not just a run of Power 5 schools as feared.

The sport comes out of a pandemic healthy with several new teams (and several more rumored) and yet remains as tough for those new and far-away teams to find a spot as it was 15-20 years ago when Atlantic Hockey, CCHA, and WCHA in various ways all danced around the issue of the former CHA teams. Even Bemidji State took some prodding.

Atlantic Hockey had a scheduling agreement with LIU this season, but the Sharks remain independent of the 11 team conference. The same goes with Arizona State and the Big Ten. After taking off last season, Alaska is hanging about as an independent while UAA is in the same situation as UAH. There are a few other programs on the horizon as no one looks to expand a decade after realignment gave conferences room to do exactly that after being stuffed to the 12-team brim with nowhere to add.

When all is said and done, nearly 10% of the sport - and all the geographic outliers - is on the outside.

Unfortunately for Alabama Huntsville, and any future southern teams, growing the game finds itself in a paradox. The most like-minded conferences for them are those who want to be regionally based. However, there aren't enough nearby teams to create regionally based conferences. 

The paradox gives advantages to bigger schools that can withlast being independent and those in the regional footprint, which makes it makes it more necessary for these schools to be regionally based and further drives the cycle. 

In this case, the CCHA denied UAH because it is eight teams of similar size joining together for geographic reasons that don't fit outliers. AHA is in a similar spot (and there are nearby like-minded teams).

College hockey needs more western/southern teams. It needs more teams, in general, to cut down on extreme geography. Outside of several joining at once, or enough teams lasting as independents where it makes sense to split into further conferences, it will be tough to achieve despite the interest last week showed from Tennessee State and Lindenwood. 

If the two take advantage of the growing number of high-end players and join, where would they play? Even Lindenwood acknowledged it likely would start as an independent in the CHN article.

In a more perfect world, there would be enough teams to space the gap and make it easier for geographic outliers, to fully turn a regional sport national. College hockey vastly outgrew the big school/small school regional alliance of the 2000s. Still, teams and conferences do not know what to do when it comes to further growth just as much now. It remains a sport of 60+ fiefdoms.

Reaction to the three pieces of news - excitement for TSU and Lindenwood possibly joining mixed with the reality of UAH's situation possibly ending...again - perfectly sums it up.

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Which teams enter 2019-20 with the biggest chips on their shoulders?

'Tis the season, so let's talk rankings.

Rankings: They're fun, highly debatable, and in college hockey, they don't actually matter. Only a math equation does. That doesn't stop us from analyzing every single ranking. We can't get enough.

Around this time year, it would be easy to make preseason rankings. That's not what I'm going to do, though. Instead, these are rankings where Minnesota Duluth doesn't automatically get placed first.

These are rankings for which teams can claim the biggest chips on their shoulders.

Playing the "proving them wrong" song can be a lifeline in sports, even if it ends up sometimes ringing hollow. College hockey is no exception. Let's be clear. All 60 teams would like to use the Rodney Dangerfield card. No respect!

Several players come to mind as those who used "us versus the world" and a chip on their shoulder as a motivation tactic. Both Denver and St. Cloud State got far with it last season after losing players early and head coaches to the NHL and Minnesota, respectively.

Without further adieu, here are the top 20 college hockey teams with the biggest chips on their shoulders. It's a ranking fitting for a year where the Frozen Four takes place in a city where "Detroit versus Everybody" exists as a mantra and lifestyle.

60 Days. 60 Teams. 600 Words (or Less): Alabama Huntsville

Alabama Huntsville

2018-19 Record: 8-28-2 (8-20-2, 8th in WCHA)
Head Coach: Mike Corbett, 7th Year
Top returning scorers: Bauer Neudecker and Jack Jeffers (7G-7A 14 points)
Top returning goaltender: Mark Sinclair (Jr.)

Unlike the other two WCHA teams being previewed this week, the school from the Rocket City saw playoff hockey in 2018-19. Alabama Huntsville took the final spot, going on the road away from Waffle House country to Mankato for a pair of games.

Still, the Chargers find itself being previewed in week one after finishing non-conference play 0-8-0 and outscored 36-6. Every other school had at least one non-conference tie. (AIC did go 0-6-0 during the regular season, but beat St. Cloud State in the NCAA Tournament.) Sophomore defenseman Bailey Newton had the most penalties of anyone returning to college hockey.

Going winless in non-conference play was one reason UAH, who defeated NCAA Tournament team Bowling Green, dropped from 12 wins in 2017-18 to eight last season. It's not the only one. It's tough to consistently win without the puck. Like St. Lawrence, the Chargers were heavily outshot. Alabama Huntsville gave up on average 14.24 more shots per game and scored one goal or less 23 times. When the team did score, the goals came in bunches. UAH scored four or more goals six times.

What's New: Honestly, this section would be more fitting for a reality TV show character than an NCAA team. In the real world of college hockey, no school has faced an offseason challenge quite like UAH. The Chargers overcame obstacles, nearly forced to fold the program. Six years later, Alabama Huntsville has turned a corner while being a fish out of water in a conference full of Midwest teams. The school made the playoffs two straight seasons, bringing in brand name opponents for future home games and talk growing of an on-campus arena to transform the program.

Just when it seemed that the lone southern team had made friends and were understood by the rest of the sport, reality hit. Almost the entire WCHA, in a blindsided move any reality TV producer would be proud, voted UAH out of its alliance.

2019-20 marks the first of two seasons Alabama Huntsville plays against those teams who backstabbed the Chargers.

Closing Thoughts: Both on and off the ice, things have been looking up before being dashed. Alabama Huntsville loses its top goal scorer in Hans Gorowsky and turns to a younger team. From a freshman standpoint, UAH brings in a massive goalie in 6'6", 240 lbs Daniel David Fessenden along with South African Daneel Lategan.

Mark Sinclair returns after grabbing the reins in goal from Northeastern grad transfer Jake Theut. Sophomores Bauer Neudecker and Jack Jeffers each had seven goals, but none came on the power play. UAH is going to need more on special teams as 11 of the 18 PP goals graduated.

Regardless, it should be a fun year to watch Alabama Huntsville as a neutral fan. Things are set up to be a year where the WCHA games beyond Bemidji State should be a playoff-like atmosphere. Nothing starts a rivalry like letting someone know you were never friends and don't care what happens.

The Chargers found out what happens when the rest of the WCHA stops being polite and start getting real.

Recent 60 Days. 60 Teams. 600 Words (or Less) Features
St. Lawrence
Alaska Anchorage
Intro

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BLOG: Welcome to the Next Chapter of Conference Realignment

Turns out the next chapter of college hockey realignment began, not with a shot across the bow, but with a Friday afternoon news dump.

There was no massive declaration. Instead, it took a six-paragraph press release put out at the latest possible time to watch the whole idea of western conference stability disappear.

Seven like-minded WCHA teams - Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and Northern Michigan - are exploring forming a new men's hockey conference beginning in 2021-22.

Each would be leaving at the expense of the conference's two Alaska schools and Alabama Huntsville, all of whom were surprised to find out they were not on the Midwest cool list despite years hanging out together. So was longtime parent WCHA. All four have been left with questions of their future.

Honestly, the same can be said about the departing group of 7. With this newest realignment saga, all is new and up in the air. Yet it feels like history has repeated itself. Schools not happy with the direction of the conference leaving the WCHA to form an elite hockey conference, letting the smaller ones fend for themselves.