March 21, 2011

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 18 comments

Heh, Ron Tugnutt.

posted by NoMich at 09:20 AM on March 21, 2011

Dear Mario,
You are so right. The NHL needs to do something to protect the integrity of the game and the safety of the players.

Love,

Me

posted by NoMich at 11:38 AM on March 21, 2011

Heh, Ron Tugnutt.

I wonder how sore Tugnutt and Bourque's arms were after that game.

posted by grum@work at 12:23 PM on March 21, 2011

Jury selection starts today for the Feds' case against Barry Bonds.

posted by NoMich at 12:36 PM on March 21, 2011

If Kansas continues on to the Final Four, they will have defeated a 16 (Boston), a 9 (Illinois), a 12 (Richmond), and a 10 (Florida State) or 11 (Virginia Commonwealth) along the way. Has a team ever won it's region without defeating a single team from the top half (by seed) of said region?

posted by bender at 01:32 PM on March 21, 2011

Matt Cooke actually suspended for a while.

posted by yerfatma at 06:46 PM on March 21, 2011

Good.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:51 PM on March 21, 2011

Matt Cooke actually suspended for a while.

Glad to see the league finally punish intent rather than result, and come down hard on a repeat offender. I'd liked to have been a fly on the wall of Mario's office when he was given this news...

posted by MeatSaber at 08:12 PM on March 21, 2011

I'd liked to have been a fly on the wall of Mario's office when he was given this news.

Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma have both come out and said they agree with him getting suspended, but Mario's nowhere to be found and it's making him look like more of a hypocrite every day he doesn't address employing the league's biggest headshot artist.

posted by dflemingecon at 08:40 PM on March 21, 2011

If you think the fact that there's 12 teams in the Big 10 is stupid, you'll really hate this scenario...

posted by MeatSaber at 10:22 PM on March 21, 2011

The name, "Big 10" is just as much a brand as it is a name of an athletic conference. If you change the name of the conference, you just lost one of the biggest brands in college sports.

posted by NoMich at 07:16 AM on March 22, 2011

I remember discussing the idea of a Big Ten hockey conference some years back with someone more college hockey savvy than myself and was told that Minnesota and Wisconsin would never leave the WCHA. I don't recall, however, if the Big Ten Network existed at the time, and if not, that could certainly be the game changer.

posted by bender at 08:13 AM on March 22, 2011

Any chance Notre Dame would join Big 10 hockey as a hockey only member? Would anyone care now that Nebraska is on board?

posted by Aardhart at 09:49 AM on March 22, 2011

The name, "Big 10" is just as much a brand as it is a name of an athletic conference. If you change the name of the conference, you just lost one of the biggest brands in college sports.

I know, and I'm cool with it, but there's a decent sized group of people that don't understand why there's 12 teams in "the Big 10," and I doubt they'll like a conference with 6 teams with the same name...

posted by MeatSaber at 12:53 PM on March 22, 2011

Maybe only ten of them are big, and maybe none of them want to make an issue out of it because they're secretly scared that they're one of the two small ones.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:01 PM on March 22, 2011

Any chance Notre Dame would join Big 10 hockey as a hockey only member? Would anyone care now that Nebraska is on board?

I looked at this when Penn State first announced they would enter D1 in ice hockey, and I concluded that sooner or later there would be a Big Ten league. Whether that league counted its standings separately while playing in the CCHA/WCHA, or the Big Ten teams withdrew from their present leagues, was unknown at that time. Now it appears there will be a separate 6-team league, which I think will be too small. In the absence of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the WCHA will still have 10 teams. This is plenty and is the same number as Hockey East, thus the WCHA should have no problem. The CCHA will become an 8-team league upon the withdrawal of Ohio State and the two large Michigan institutions. To remove Notre Dame from the mix would just about kill the CCHA.

The Big Ten Conferences rules concerning athletics are somewhat restrictive, and I believe they would prohibit a school from joining for one sport only, although I am not certain of this. I would think that the best option for expanding the Big Ten hockey group to 8 teams would be for 2 more schools to adopt ice hockey. Illinois and Indiana currently play in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League, which is an American Collegiate Hockey Association D1 league. Perhaps those 2 would be willing to upgrade their programs and play a Big Ten schedule. That would bring the Big Ten group to 8, and make for a nicely competitive group. This Nittany Lion fan would love to see it happen.

posted by Howard_T at 03:37 PM on March 22, 2011

On further research, the American Collegiate Hockey Association appears to be a club level group that includes 7 different leagues plus independents. The link is to the 2010-2011 records for all teams.

posted by Howard_T at 03:58 PM on March 22, 2011

Never would have thought Davenport University to be a hockey juggernaut.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 10:11 PM on March 22, 2011

You're not logged in. Please log in or register.