It is incredible to see Penn State Ice Hockey ranked #1 in the country. They literally only started their program a couple of years ago. Unreal.
B1G 1ce Hockey
- Thread starter CoralSpringsCat
- Start date
Have a buddy who played in the new england prep league and was gonna go to Wisco for hockey until a bad car accident tore apart his leg and he says if NU had a hockey team they'd be dominant. Forget why, and he's a friend who roots against NU just to see me squirm, so take it FWIW
Looks like a scoring machine. My nephew plays for the No. 2 team, Denver.
Elgato -- As DU is my "other" alma mater and college sports rooting interest, may I ask who your nephew is? It's almost always been an admirably achieving program.
If you prefer not to disclose his identity, that's of course OK.
Elgato -- As DU is my "other" alma mater and college sports rooting interest, may I ask who your nephew is? It's almost always been an admirably achieving program.
If you prefer not to disclose his identity, that's of course OK.
Thanks, ElGato. Like a surprising number of college athletes, he appears to be a classy young man.
Thanks, and yes he is. Academic all-conference and team community service award winner.
Yeah, Ev keeps it tight when talking about teammates. HB's stats look really nice, but he looked raw when I saw him; that could have been due to some line shakeups that night, though. Troy Terry, though--holy cow, what hands.
There are a lot of sports NU could excel at-hockey ,men's lacrosse etc but I just do not see the desire to have a more diverse athletic structure. Stanford has done a great job but Title IX and money probably precludes NU expanding their sports program
The facilities already exist for lacrosse and 12.6 scholarships is not a great deal of "real" money considering adding a chair to a classroom is pretty cheap. The fixed cost of a team is pretty inexpensive but the "imaginary" cost of 12.6 x 60,000 is daunting
The facilities already exist for lacrosse and 12.6 scholarships is not a great deal of "real" money considering adding a chair to a classroom is pretty cheap. The fixed cost of a team is pretty inexpensive but the "imaginary" cost of 12.6 x 60,000 is daunting
PSU hockey is now only ranked 11th.
But their men's lax team is ranked #1 and their women's lax team # 6.
While can see the reasoning behind the admin not wanting to add more sports until they have gotten the 2 revenue sports in good order (up to date facilities, etc.), think they would be short-sighted if they didn't add men's lax and women's crew (which would also help the men's club program) down the road.
The B1G is not only a power in women's lax, it has now become a power in men's lax (5 teams ranked in the Top 15 with Michigan, a 5 yr old program, also getting votes).
Lax has been a popular sport at the prep schools and top public high schools in the NE (the greatest concentration of top students), but now is expanding quickly across the nation.
NU has only 19 varsity sports compared to -
Stanford - 37 (crazy)
Duke - 26
Think NU would be able to handle the financial aspect of having 21 varsity sports.
While having varsity hockey would be great, would need deep pocket alums to finance a hockey arena (like what happened for PSU), not that there's any room on campus.
Adding lax makes more sense as NU already has a beautiful facility.
But probably not going to see this any time soon, if it ever happens.
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Hearing that the University of Illinois is considering the feasibility of adding men's ice hockey.
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Coral, here's a question that maybe nobody has asked. Is the new W-R being built to host events on ice? That could be telling if they're holding out any hope of that ever happening.
No. The stands extend right up to the basketball court, not nearly enough space for hockey.
Barring a donor stepping up (ala PSU) not sure I see it happening considering state finances.
What's the upside of adding a sport?
My simplistic view is that no matter how strong a theoretical lacrosse program were to become, it couldn't actually grow the profile of the school. It seems it's just an expense. But, again, I'm simple.
There are about 17 sports @ NU that do not raise the profile of the school-you could probably argue that NU sports have traditionally embarrassed the school
I guess the argument - not a bad one, I'd add - is "better use of resources than [insert other sport here]". I guess those "other sports" are tennis and wrestling, but I don't have a strong opinion.
Just an update:
I think it’s likely to happen. Also, the DIA is privately funded and separate from the state funded part of the university, I think.
Every so often, Pennsylvania comes up with a great hockey team (e.g. Flyers)--although it seems incongruous. Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the more northern Ivy League schools should should be the best, but with more indoor ice, that has changed.
The days of playing pickup hockey, on a frozen pond, (or for most other sports for that matter) are pretty much over. Youth sports is big business, and is geographically-independent.
Title 9 has a lot to do with that. Have to have a female scholarship for every male one so if you add a men's sport you either have to get rid of one or add female sports. We cannot fully use scholarships available for men's sports How do you add additional sports? Hard to do when school is small as NU
How does Stanford do it? They are smaller than NU (~7,000 undergrads) yet have 36 varsity sports programs, versus just 19 for NU.....
A strong men's lax program would raise the profile of NU among student in the all-important NE corridor where the elite boarding/private schools and top performing public schools pretty much all have lax teams.
With all the concerns about head injuries (on top of other injuries), more and more of the top athletes at these schools end up playing lax in lieu of football.
During the period of applying and getting accepted into colleges/universities - tons of talk about who got in where, etc.
If the star lax player ends up choosing NU, that's going to generate talk.
I make a rink in my back yard; needless to say, I’m a big believer in climate change,
If you add hockey wouldn’t you just do both men’s and women’s? Seems like the rink is the big expense, and who else will use it other than the House teams, might as well get the most bang for your buck.
I don't think that's a terrible idea. Run it as sort of a low budget varsity sport (like Georgetown does for Football).
I don't think that's a terrible idea. Run it as sort of a low budget varsity sport (like Georgetown does for Football).
Except for other Big 10 schools that have quite competitive hockey programs (several for men, at least 1-2 for women). Once NU would get into it on anything less than a committed basis, the Cats would become perennial cellar-dwellers and the grumbling would be seen on this board.
Except for other Big 10 schools that have quite competitive hockey programs (several for men, at least 1-2 for women). Once NU would get into it on anything less than a committed basis, the Cats would become perennial cellar-dwellers and the grumbling would be seen on this board.
I won’t argue that point. I just think it’s likely the only way we would actually see a team happen. The admin isn’t going to throw tons of $ at a hockey team. Only if they viewed it as a minimal expense would they consider it. Then they would leave it up to the Coach to figure out a way to win without all the bells and whistles.
That experiment is being run in baseball and it wasn't pretty this year......
Sun-Times reporting that could become a reality. They have the $$$ pledged for a Downtown Champaign Arena. Whitman is gung-ho on Hockey!!! Wish we would have Hockey, though I know that won't happen
