I hate the Big Ten.

They were the forerunner of a lot of the crap that has made college sports more mercenary and a whole lot less like something even resembling "amateur." I can't stand them for their attitude towards Notre Dame over the decades. The one team I have any affinity for there is Michigan State (multiple siblings are Spartans and the enemy of my enemy is SOMETIMES my friend). But MSU ripped our hearts out by winning their first ever Big Ten playoff series on CFIA ice, and I still hate Tim Kennedy even more than Tyler Barabonoff.

Of course even feeling that, Notre Dame's hockey team is best suited to be part of the Big Ten. Our hockey fans want to see them playing teams like Michigan, Michigand State and Minnesota. As much as some of us could appreciate the history of programs like Boston U, Boston College or Maine in Hockey East, or teams like Denver or Minnesota Duluth in the NCHC (we were originally slated to join that conference 10 seasons ago but they objected to our NBC Sports TV deal), our fans really like seeing those name-brand teams, and teams that have top-notch football programs. Hate it though I do, hockey ain't football, you have to be in a conference, and that conference as things are currently constituted really should be the one we are in.

There will be least two Big Ten teams assured of being in the Frozen Four. I think there is a real chance there will be three (like in 2018 but one of them was us). I hate Michigan with the fury of a million Suns. It is an all-consuming hatred that I am sure has taken 5 years off my life. Ohio State has an even more cult-like fandom than Michigan (of course their fans don't even know they have a hockey team for most of the year) and I live in Ohio. People know what kind of feelings I have for Notre Dame and their hockey program. I will never hear the end of it if OSU is holding a trophy in Tampa. And Penn State is a pedophile protecting hell hole that should have had their athletic department eviscerated years ago in the Paterno/Sandusky scandal. It should have rendered their teams impotent and left them all an afterthought. The only thing that gives me comfort is I believe in Hell, and hope Joe Paterno is there, stopping, dropping and rolling, trying to extinguish an eternity of flame. Rooting for any of those three teams is clearly a moral failing on the part of the rooter.

Minnesota doesn't evoke any of those kinds of emotions in me, but who wants to see Minnesota win a hockey title? It's cliche. I will also be buring a little inside if yet another team wins their first title before the Irish do, or if the first Big Ten conference champion is someone other than Notre Dame. But to me it seems inevitible that one or both of those things will be coming true in two weeks. I have never bought into that crap about rooting for your confernce anyway. Screw the SEC. I won't root for BU out of respect for Mr. Wednesday. He's far too intelligent to be wrong about them. So I guess it is go Quinnipiac. Who would be ANOTHER first time winner.....