B10 OOC Record
by ndmd99 (2024-01-16 16:46:08)
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CHN has inter-conference records going back to 2005-06. A conference has had an inter-conference record over 0.700 twice. B10 in 22-23 (0.715) and B10 this season (0.750). 21-22 B10 was 0.696. I'm still at a loss trying to figure out why B10 is looking like it might only get 3 teams in the tourney.

HE (0.683) and NCHC (0.694) are darn close to 0.700 this season as well which are their best marks by a decent margin. It looks like the 3 conferences are further separating themselves from the competition.

It'll be interesting to see if B10 does anything to address tourney bids for future seasons.

Buccigross is calling to expand the tourney to 24 teams (w/ on-campus venues). At this point, I think it might gain some traction (for sure from B10 & ESPN but also probably HE and NCHC).

The number of elite NHL prospects choosing the USHL/NCAA development path is increasing. Historically, NCAA has a ton of local/regional fanbases. There's momentum to broaden that audience. ESPN with a big chunk of the NHL broadcast rights for sure would love anything that drives national interest in the sport. And NCAA would be wise to feed off the cross-promotion ESPN can provide with NHL viewers.

ESPN certainly doesn't want a repeat of the same nightmare 1st round from last year (with only 1 game decided by less than 4 goals). And ESPN wants as many name-brand, 1st round, blue chip prospects in the tourney. Which makes UM (with McGroarty/Brindley/Casey/Nazar/etc) as a bubble team a very bad problem this year. Which 1st round tourney matchup does the audience want with the current PWR standings? BC vs RIT? Or BC vs UM?

I don't see the automatic qualifier getting pulled from lesser conferences. Expansion to 20-24 teams (with essentially a play-in round for the #3/#4 regional seeds) seems like a possible solution.

Attached a CHN article about B10 hockey. And one of the take-home messages is B10 is the only power-5 hockey conference and it may start being less "deferential" to the other conferences' interests. Given how the PWR is playing out this year, I think there will be a push from B10 for something to change.

Somewhat related, I think it was also a mistake for ND to keep hockey in the NBC contract. It was probably done out of convenience. But we probably have one of the larger national fanbases . . . but virtually no national network presence for hockey. NBC only has streaming for our home games. BTN has pretty much given us the middle finger for most away broadcasts (esp the higher profile games vs the UMs). ESPN would be the ideal partner. ESPN+ has the NHL contract rights already (so a ton of hockey fans) and some of our games would likely be attractive content for a national broadcast on ESPNU. I wonder if it was ever explored.

JJ should probably talk to Corrigan about the exposure benefits of ND lacrosse on ESPNU/ESPN+.



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