NCHC.TV Revisited: What Are We Going to Get When the Entire NCHC Playoffs Are on Campus?

Today, I read a comment from a reader that inspired me to post. It read like this: 

St. Cloud TV graphic people were terrible. They showed a graphic listing Blake as from NDSU and another spelling Persson's last name as Pehrson, as like our defenseman by that spelling. Rough.

This is a fear that I have when the NCHC playoffs go entirely to home sites. It's no mystery not every team has the infrastructure that UND has. I get it; we're lucky to have the media partners that we have. I also think the conference needs to find a way to hold on to CBS Sports Network. Their broadcasts are very professional and done the right way. 

Great game at Robson last night! A really enjoyable crew to work alongside at the rink in Colorado and in the control room in Connecticut. Thanks to everyone with @CCTigerHKY and @MiamiOH_Hockey for their help this week! Two college hockey programs moving in the right direction. pic.twitter.com/petcGQkZ3u

— Alex Heinert - Midco Sports (@AlexHeinert) January 20, 2024

On this subject, I am broken record, but Midco Sports outshines every other school's webcasts. It's not even close. The video feed for Saint Cloud State's webcasts is good, but their play-by-play team could be better. Frankly, last night, they were atrocious. 

The broadcast team (Fox 9 and or Huskies Productions) needed help identifying the right North Dakota school their favorite team was playing. NDSU doesn't have college hockey; from what I hear, they don't plan on having a hockey team. Ever. Do your prep; it's goalie Ludvig Persson and defenseman Keaton Pehrson. 

Jim Rich has been doing this for a long time, you'd think he'd be able to read a pronunciation guide and be able to pronounce Jake Livanavage's name. It's harder to spell it than it is to say it. The color guy, Geno Parrish, was an absolute cheerleader. It was hard to listen to these two call the game. Is it okay to be homers in the booth? Probably, but there's taking it too far. 

I've already discussed this in NCHC TV: The Conference Can Do Better. I've had people ask me if the conference going to push for a higher standard or if we are going to be stuck with good enough is good enough. How do we hold the other schools accountable? I am sure we will hear some excuse about how they can't afford to up their game and we are just lucky to have the games webcast. 

It's all about the Benjamins. The conference is making money off NCHC.TV, regardless of whether they hold the schools with the substandard webcasts accountable. My question to fans is, is the product we have seen this season worth paying $115 a year? I don't think so.   

Super League rumblings

There is a lot of stuff coming out about the new "Super League" and we will try to keep up with all of the news that comes out. I am sure that more stuff will come out as we get closer to the Wednesday press conference. Some of this stuff makes your head spin and your chest hurt.

Some interesting things to come out in the last 24-48 hours... While the president of SCSU Dr. Earl Potter has been saying, “We expected to be in conversations about being in a new league,” Potter said today “But as we looked at it ... we intended to say ‘no.’ ” That statement seemed kind of odd to me when I first read it. I am not sure why the president of SCSU to make this comment because it appears more like sour grapes from the SCSU end and it would also burn bridges in case the "Super League" did come back and ask SCSU to join.

Well now! Further investigation revealed that SCSU is talking out of both sides of it's mouth, it has become public that SCSU was in fact trying to get in to the proposed "Super League" and they were turned down. So after SCSU is rejected they decided to bad mouth the new Super League. Compare and contrast, WMU is also trying to get in the the new "Super League" while not yet a member, is going about it in a lot different manner and holding comments for now, which appears to be a good idea. I also imagine that maybe WMU and Notre Dame might be part of a proposed package deal and we're waiting for Notre Dame to make a decision.

Matt Wellens; The Daily News ---- Multiple sources who would only speak on the condition of anonymity at Northern Michigan University, a CCHA member, have confirmed the formation of the new six-school league and next week's pending announcement, though those sources say Western Michigan is on the outside looking in despite a recent trip by WMU officials to North Dakota.

St. Cloud State of the WCHA is also pressing to get into the league, but it is unlikely the Huskies will be included, one source said.

This revelation proves that the new Super League is not messing around and wants to be a serious counter weight to the BTHC. Hat tip to Matt Wellens of the Daily News.

Invitations were also extended to Boston College and Boston University to join what has been dubbed the "Super League," but both schools turned down the offer to leave Hockey East.

One thing that has been a head scratcher is the fact some people in the WCHA have said that they didn't see this Super League coming. How did they not see this coming down the pike? The reason that I am surprised is that there were all kinds of rumors about the formation of the Super League floating out there since the Frozen Four. My next question is do these schools not communicate with each other? If I was an AD at one of the schools not rumored to be in the Super League mix I would have picked up the phone and started asking questions. You have to be proactive and not reactive.

Beth Bragg; ADN.COM --- The teams are North Dakota, Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha. A sixth team, Miami of Ohio, would come from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Cobb said.

"I don't think anybody saw this coming," he said.

A call to WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod was not immediately returned Thursday. Cobb said that at the annual WCHA meeting in April, there wasn't a hint that any school was thinking about leaving the league.

"At our meeting in April we voted to extend an invitation to Miami and Notre Dame," Cobb said, referring to a pair of CCHA teams. "That passed with 100 percent of the vote. Nobody said they were unhappy. We left the April meeting and basically some of them contacted Notre Dame and Miami and said, 'Don't take the WCHA invitation, we're going to invite you to join our super league.'

"I blame everybody for being less than honest with their own league members. It's a really sneaky back-door deal."

I believe there are going to be some hard feelings when this is all said and done. I just hope that the schools leaving the WCHA will try and schedule the teams in the WCHA and CCHA. I also hope that there will some how be a way to smooth over some of these hard feelings or it could be a contentious times for the next two seasons remaining in the WCHA.

We don't have a choice

We keep hearing from the Big Ten Hockey Conference fans that we don't have a choice on conference affiliation, well to be honest with you, either do the fans of the five WCHA teams; UND, DU, UMD, UNO, C.C. fans... can we can not play that game as well? You, me and other fans of the five WCHA teams in question have no say in the matter. In the whole grand scheme of things it's really the decision of our programs athletic departments and the fans, bloggers and media members don't have a say one bit, we are a long for the ride.

Related articles

• College Hockey's New 'Super Conferences': Are They Good Or Bad For The Game? (sbnation.com)
• Big Ten may mean big issues for hockey... (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

A couple of things

This is the shot that everyone is talking about; Sioux Falls Stampede defenseman Andrew Prochnoas shots the puck "so hard" and it breaks when it hits the pipe... I like the question so if half of the puck went into the net does it count? I have never seen something like that before.

The Saint Cloud Times has "finally" released a story telling us saying that Tony Mosey has been kicked off the SCSU Huskies... Really? You're kidding right? Never saw that one coming. Say it isn't so? As one SCSU fan said in the article comments section, "How come I find out more about SCSU hockey from competitors blog than the beat writer???" I have to agree, that was something I said this week as well, what is the SCSU hockey team hiding? There's not a lot of transparency there... Not sure what the SCSU Husky hockey is trying to hide? I think the SCSU hockey team looks worse for trying to keep all of this quite instead just coming out and saying, 'hey our players screwed up.' I just think it makes the SCSU hockey team looks worse by trying to be all mum on it.

ScTimes.com ---- St. Cloud State men’s hockey player Tony Mosey has been dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules, Huskies head coach Bob Motzko. said.

Mosey, a senior forward from Prior Lake, played his last game for the Huskies on Dec. 29 against Cornell at the Florida College Classic in Estero, Fla. He was not in the lineup on Dec. 30 when the team played Miami (Ohio) in the tournament.

“Any time that you’re in a situation where you’re going to lose one of your players and teammates, it’s very difficult,” Motzko said. “We’ve crossed the midway point of our season, and we want to build on what we accomplished in Florida.

“We wish Tony the best. We’re going to help him in any way we can toward graduation.”

Motzko declined to state what rule was violated.