This article was in the Omaha.com newspaper on Friday. Its the same stuff again, we (Big Ten) are trying to do what's best for college hockey, we are trying to be sensitive. Which is basically a load of crap, B1G is just trying to maximize their profits with their television network and they could care less about the have-nots of college hockey, BGSU, FSU, LSSU, NMU and WMU of college hockey. Personally, I think the WCHA and the CCHA should tell the Big Ten, good luck and don't let the door hit you in the @$$ on the way out. Pardon me if I am not enthusiastic about the Big Ten Hockey Conference. You can call me a hater, whatever, I don't care...
Omaha.com --- Prompted by Penn State's decision to launch a program, the move was long rumored, but that didn't make it any more popular in some hockey hotbeds around the Midwest.
UNO coach Dean Blais voiced his opposition, saying the move could potentially ruin college hockey, dismantling old rivalries and hurting low-budget programs. What's Jim Delany's response?
Jim Delany: “I don't think anybody has been more sensitive or hands-off on college hockey than the athletic directors and coaches at Big Ten universities for the last 20 years. We had five institutions that played. They did everything they could to help hockey maintain itself. It's not a sport that's widely sponsored outside of certain regions of the country. And every time the issue came up, they said we need to do what's in the best long-term interest for hockey.
“Before Penn State announced its (hockey) membership, it really talked to the conference athletic directors and presidents about forming a hockey league if we got to the minimum of six institutions. We had a good discussion about that and decided that if we had six members, we would want a Big Ten hockey league, as we do in every sport that has six members. There were things about that that would be good for Big Ten hockey and there would be things that would help grow hockey. We may ultimately end up with more than six members doing hockey.
“But before we announced it, at least a year ago, we went to the commissioners of both hockey leagues (WCHA and CCHA). We told them we wanted to be thorough, respectful and we wanted to communicate with all the hockey schools. In fact, we spent a lot of time talking with the two commissioners about how we could put our schedules together in a way that served other hockey-member-playing institutions. We wanted to commit to them those nonconference games ... They continued to say, ‘You need to let us know what you're going to do, so we can make plans. We then said, ‘Well, give us numbers of every athletic director in every hockey school in your conference.' We wanted to communicate directly with them to see how best we could serve. They preferred that we not. I don't know why. But we had offered to do that, to work with them, to sync up schedules.
