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| Frustrations have mounted since the Gophers loss to Union (7-4) in the National Championship game |
Let's start with the obvious, the should be conference power houses(Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan) are sitting at the bottom of the league, with the exception of Michigan who is the conference leader. Between Wisconsin and Minnesota (last and 4th respectively) their combined inter conference record is 3-8-5, with all the victories belonging to Minnesota, and two of which came against Wisconsin.
Their conference non-conference record is nothing to write home about either. In fact, it is one of the worst in all of NCAA hockey. The overall record is 38-43-7, very detrimental to their conference hopes in the Pairwise rankings when it comes time to make the NCAA tournament brackets. So basically if you want to make the NCAA tournament out of the Big 10, you have to win the Big 10 tournament. The only team within the top 16 in Pairwise right now is Michigan, but at 14 they are on the bubble, especially with the 16 seed probably going to the Atlantic Hockey auto bid.
Looking at the overall records, you have one team below 500 tied for second in the conference, Michigan State (10-11-2), at 16 points with Penn State. Yes that's right Penn State. Between them and Michigan, they are really the only good things the conference has going for them right now.
The Big 10 should have kept their noses out of college hockey, yes I know it will lead to more expansion in the coming years, but right now the lack of competition is frustrating fans to the point where it is getting tough for conference teams to get people to their arenas to watch them play. If things do not change soon, they will be the cellar conference behind Atlantic Hockey.
I'd say you're trying to draw conclusions from too small of a sample size. It's just one season. Minnesota was in the final last year, Michigan in 2011, Wisconsin was in the Frozen Four in 2010. Showing that this season is a rough one for the B1G doesn't mean you can thus conclude that it never should've happened.
ReplyDeleteIt's only the second year of the Big 10 hockey conference. I agree that's too short of time to make a definitive statement I don't think anyone could say it's going well.
DeleteLast year Minnesota was the only good team in the conference. This year there are zero.
Michigan (9) , Minnesota (5) , Wisconsin (6) and (Michigan State (3) combine for 26 national championships. I don't think they should be very happy.
Big Ten haters better enjoy this while it lasts because, mark my words, the Big Ten will be the premier conference in college hockey more seasons than not for the duration of our lifetime and beyond. As for the ludicrous suggestion that the Big ten should have "kept their noses out of hockey", I find it laughable beyond belief. It just so happens that Minnesota and Wisconsin both happen to be having down years at the same time. These rare down years happened once in a while when they were in the WCHA too, so don't be so quick to think that the Big Ten conference is the reason why those two schools are not as good this year as they usually are.
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