When the whispers of a Big Ten men's hockey conference first started circulating after Penn State officially announced plans to enter Division I men's and women's hockey back in December, the general consensus among fans, myself among them, was negative.
As a fervent follower of the Wisconsin men's hockey program I wasn't too pleased about the possibility of the Badgers leaving the WCHA for a Big Ten hockey conference. The WCHA is widely regarded as the best conference in college hockey, a highly competitive conference that is home to some of the nation's premier programs. WCHA games are always entertaining, and the rivalries are some of the best in college hockey.
My knee-jerk reaction was that a move out of a conference like the WCHA would be an awful one for the Wisconsin men's hockey program. Not only would it be downgrading in terms of competition, but the Badgers would also lose rivalry games with North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth and Denver, something that makes a move to the Big Ten seem very unappealing at first glance.
As time passed and a Big Ten men's hockey conference became an inevitable fact, culminating Monday with the announcement that the six-team conference will begin play in the 2013-'14 season, I began to see the positives of such a move and have come to the conclusion that seeing the Badgers in the Big Ten won't be so bad after all and may benefit the program in the long term.
The five current Big Ten men's hockey programs—Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State—didn't have the best seasons this year, as only the Wolverines advanced past the first round of their conference tournament this year. So the idea of those teams plus Penn State, which for an intents and purposes will be an expansion team, isn't the prettiest picture in the world. But these six programs are sure to get a huge boost from joining the Big Ten hockey conference in a few years.
One of the perks of joining the new conference would be the television deal with the Big Ten Network that will come with it.
The BTN is an absolute cash cow. Each member institution gets millions of dollars every year from the network's revenue. Adding hockey to the programming docket on a regular basis will increase the amount that each school gets every year, money that the schools can use to help build their hockey programs.
Potential recruiting problems have also been discussed in regards to a Big Ten hockey conference. How will a new conference manage to lure top players away from more established and respected conferences such as the WCHA? Well, a television deal with the Big Ten Network should help with that.
You can count on one hand the number of college hockey programs that can promise consistent television coverage of their games but the teams in the Big Ten would be able to promise air time for most, if not all, games. Tell me that won't be attractive to recruits. They will be able to showcase themselves to the entire country on a regular basis. This will help weaker teams like Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State start luring better recruits to their programs, which over the long term will help turn the Big Ten into one of the nation's premier hockey conferences.
One of my biggest concerns with a Big Ten hockey conference was the loss of classic rivalries. But, with the six teams will playing a 20 game conference schedule, that leaves around 16 games per year for non-conference scheduling. With that extra room in the schedule the Big Ten has said that it is pursuing scheduling agreements with the WCHA ensuring that the Badgers will still have teams like North Dakota, Denver and Duluth on the calendar each year. Such an agreement will also maintain a high strength of schedule, which always looks good on an NCAA tournament résumé.
It seems that the misgivings I had about a Big Ten hockey conference won't be problems after all and will only make it stronger. The way things look right now the Big Ten could be setting itself up to become the nation's premier men's college hockey conference.
What are your opinions on the Big Ten hockey conference? E-mail Ryan at rmevans2@dailycardinal.com
