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March 23, 2022

2022 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019, 2021)./+Some notes on the current make-up Division I men’s ice hockey.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 11:41 am

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2022_16-teams_location-map_w-all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_e_.gif
2022 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019, 2021)



By Bill Turianski on the 23rd of March 2022; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (en.wikipedia.org).
-Division I in ice hockey (en.wikipedia.org).
-uscho.com.
-Schedule, scores, etc…collegehockeynews.com/schedules.

Tournament starts 12 noon ET on Thursday, March 24 (Minnesota State vs. Harvard). Four games Thursday & four games Friday (Semifinals); Regional Finals on Saturday & Sunday. Frozen Four on April 7 and 9. ESPN will cover the whole tournament. {2022 Frozen Four: NCAA men’s hockey tournament schedule/ Teams at a Glance.}

2022 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019, 2021)…
The map is a basic location-map, with conference-affiliations noted for each team. Reigning champions are Massachusetts (UMass), of Hockey East. The Minutemen won their first D-1 men’s hockey title last year, beating St. Cloud State 5-0 {see this, from the Berkshire Eagle}. UMass returns to the tournament this year, though they stumbled in the Hockey East tournament final, losing to Harvard.

The four #1 seeds:
Michigan Wolverines (1),
Minnesota State Mavericks (2),
Western Michigan Broncos (3),
Denver Pioneers (4).
{Bracket.}

Teams qualified – by conference – are listed at the top-right of the map-page. The breakdown by conference:
-5 teams from the NCHC (including two #1 seeds: Western Michigan, Denver).
-3 teams from the Big Ten (including one #1 seed: Michigan).
-3 teams from Hockey East. (including last year’s champions, UMass)
-2 teams from the CCHA (including one #1 seed: Minnesota State).
-2 teams from ECAC Hockey.
-1 team from Atlantic Hockey.

At the lower-right-hand side is the all-time list of D-1 men’s hockey titles & Frozen Four appearances. (From the tournament’s start in 1948, to 2019, and 2021 [following the cancellation of the 2020 edition due to the COVID pandemic].)
{Titles list, by team.}

A long, narrow side-bar at the right-hand-side of the map shows the 16 teams’ locations and their total Tournament appearances. To see a full, sortable list of all NCAA D-1 men’s hockey Tournament appearances, {click here}.

At the top of the map is a section showing alternate logos for the 16 teams, arranged alphabetically.



Some notes on the current make-up Division I men’s ice hockey…
For men’s ice hockey, the WCHA has been scrapped, and in its place is the CCHA (Central Collegiate Hockey Association). (The WCHA is now just for women’s ice hockey.) This happened after the 2020-21 season, when 7 of the 10 then-current men’s members of the WCHA left to form a revived CCHA. The word “central” in the CCHA name is crucial here. Because the 3 teams that made the men’s WCHA such a sprawling and unwieldy conference have been dropped…Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, and Alabama-Huntsville. The resultant savings in travel costs are quite considerable for the teams in the re-vamped CCHA. CCHA teams are located in the states of Michigan (4 teams, 3 of which are from the Upper Peninsula), Minnesota (3 teams), and Ohio (1 team). {List of teams & map, here}.

But that left those three excluded programs – two in Alaska and one in Alabama – out of any conference, and fundamentally weakened. Alabama-Huntsville have suspended operations, but hope to be revived in the future. Alaska-Anchorage have also suspended operations, but are expected to return for the 2022–23 season, as an Independent. Alaska-Fairbanks have not suspended operations, though, and played 2021-22 as an Independent. At this point in time, there are now 3 Independent teams in D-1 men’s hockey: Alaska-Fairbanks, Arizona State, and a new team, LIU (see 2 paragraphs below).

Meanwhile, another D-1 men’s hockey program has suspended operations: Robert Morris, of Greater Pittsburgh, PA. In December 2021 it was announced that Robert Morris would return to D-1 men’s hockey two years later in 2023-24 {see this}.

-And finally, in the last two seasons, two programs have made their D-1 men’s hockey debuts…
•In 2020-21, the LIU Sharks joined D-1 men’s hockey. (Long Island University of Brooklyn, NYC, NY & East Meadow, LI, NY.) Independent.
•In 2021-22, the St. Thomas Tommies joined D-1 men’s hockey. (University of St. Thomas of St. Paul, Minnesota.) Member of the CCHA.

At this point in time [end of 2021-22 season], D-1 men’s hockey has 59 teams, down from 61 teams previously.



___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-AMK1211, for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Fernando Martello, for the illustration of the Michigan road jersey logo, at File:Michigan wolverines hockey unif.png (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Eswany33, for illustration of Minnesota jersey logo, File:Gopher Hockey Uniforms 2020-21.svg.
-Vintage Minnesota Hockey site, for illustration of Minnesota State Mavericks home jersey (gold) script-logo, at history.vintagemnhockey.com.
-American International site for AIC logo, aicyellowjacketsstore.merchorders.com.
-UMass jersey from umassstore.com.
-Most logos from en.wikipedia and sportslogos.com/[American colleges].

March 25, 2021

2021 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list (1948-2019).

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 12:45 pm

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2021_16-teams_w-2019-20attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_c_.gif
2021 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With 2019-20 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list.





By Bill Turianski on the 25th of March 2021; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.
-USCHO.com.
-Schedule, scores, etc…collegehockeynews.com/schedules.

Please note: on the map-page, there is a schedule for the first round of the 2021 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament (at the upper right-hand corner). I put that there instead of the usual – which is current attendance data of the qualified teams. I scrapped that this year for obvious reasons. The other change to the template is that I added tiny conference-logos, beside each of the 16 qualified teams, on the map. And under the small chart showing qualified-teams-by-conference, I listed all 16 teams alphabetically. And in that alphabetic list I show each team’s total Tournament appearances. (Michigan and Minnesota have the most tournament appearances – 38 – followed by Boston University with 37, Boston College with 36, North Dakota with 33, and Denver with 30.)

Note on my site’s existence…I have had serious trouble with my website, and this might be the last post I can make here. If that happens, the plan is to scrap this site here, and start anew, on a new site I will be calling billsportsmaps.net. That’s the plan, anyway. You can keep up on this by checking in at my twitter feed, twitter.com/billsportsmaps.




___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for segments of jersey illustrations of some teams (Boston University, Minnesota-Duluth, Wisconsin).
-Thanks to Fernando Martello for the illustration of the Michigan road jersey logo, at File:Michigan wolverines hockey unif.png (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to BC Interruption for the photo of the Boston College jersey logo.
-Thanks to Eswany33 for illustration of Minnesota jersey logo, File:Gopher Hockey Uniforms 2020-21.svg.
-Thanks to Minnesota State Mavericks site for photo of home jersey (gold) script-logo, msumavericks.com/index.
-Thanks to Vintage Minnesota Hockey for the illustration of the Minnesota State away jersey (purple), history.vintagemnhockey.com/[Minnesota State Uniform Evolution].

April 9, 2020

NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: Map of All-time Frozen Four Appearances (40 teams) (1948 to 2019/72 seasons), with Titles listed./+ A timeline history of the D-1 hockey tournament, the Frozen Four, and D-1 hockey conferences.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 8:07 am

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_all-time_frozen-four-appearances_40-teams_1948-to-2019_72-seasons_post_e_.gif
NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: Map of All-time Frozen Four Appearances (40 teams) (1948 to 2019/72 seasons), with Titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 9 April 2020. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
Source: List of NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four appearances by team (en.wikipedia.org).

The NCAA Division I has 60 ice hockey teams. Those 60 D-1 men’s ice hockey teams are split into 6 Conferences (with 1 current Independent team [Arizona State]). Of those 60 D-1 men’s ice hockey teams, 40 teams have advanced into the the final four of the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Tournament (aka the Frozen Four). You can read a timeline history of the D-1 hockey tournament, the Frozen Four, and all the D-1 hockey conferences, further below.

The map here shows the 40 teams that have made it to a Frozen Four (72 Frozen Fours, from 1947-48 to 2018-19). The other 20 D-1 hockey teams, which have never advanced to a Frozen Four, are also shown on the map, albeit in smaller text-size and without colors or logos. On the map, each of the 40 teams’ Total-Frozen-Four-Appearances are shown in graphic form by a team-colors-circle that radiates out from the team’s location. The team-colors-circles are sized, with the larger the total Frozen 4 appearances, the larger the team-colors-circle. Alongside each team’s team-color-circle/location-dot/logo is their number of appearances +their Division I men’s hockey titles (21 teams have won a D-1 hockey title). Like the team-color-circles, the team’s logo and text are sized, gradually getting larger with more Frozen 4 appearances; plus I bumped up the text 1-point-size if the team has won a D-1 hockey title.

There are two charts at the right side of the map-page.
∙ The smaller chart closer to the map shows the 60-team NCAA D-1 hockey set-up, by the 6 Conferences: with each school’s hockey-venue-location noted, as well as the season the team joined D-1 hockey (or re-joined D-1 hockey). Total D-1 titles by team, and by conference, are also listed.
The chart at the far right-hand side show these things…
∙ School’s team, with the team’s D-1 hockey conference and their primary logo.
∙ Number of Frozen Four Appearances (with last appearance noted).
∙ Number of D-1 men’s hockey Titles (with last title noted).

- {From Wikipedia, here is a map of all 60 D-1 hockey teams, by conference.}

- {From 2016, here is a map of 2015-16 D-1 men’s ice hockey attendance, that I made.} {If you are curious about D-1 men’s ice hockey conferences, go to the right-hand sidebar on my homepage at “NCAA, ice-…”, to see my 2016 posts on the 6 NCAA D-1 men’s ice hockey conferences.}

    A timeline history of the D-1 hockey tournament, the Frozen Four, and D-1 hockey conferences

As mentioned, there are 60 Division I men’s hockey teams. But actually, 20 of those of those teams represent schools which are otherwise Division II or Division III schools. Here are those 20 schools with D-1 hockey teams, but whose athletics teams are otherwise part of D-II or D-III…
∙ 4 of the 11 teams from Atlantic Hockey: AIC, Bentley, Mercyhurst, RIT.
∙ None of the 7 teams from Big Ten Hockey.
∙ 4 of the 12 teams from ECAC Hockey: Clarkson, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union College.
∙ None of the 11 teams from Hockey East.
∙ 3 of the 8 teams from the NCHC: Colorado College, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State.
∙ 9 of the 10 teams from the WCHA [ie, all except Bowling Green]: Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, Bemidji State, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State-Mankato, Northern Michigan.

Of these 20 teams from otherwise D-II or D-II schools, seven have won D-1 hockey titles: Minnesota-Duluth (3 titles incl. 2019), Lake Superior State (3 titles), Michigan Tech (3 titles), Rensselaer (2 titles), Colorado College (2 titles), Union College (one title), Northern Michigan (one title).

The annual NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament began in 1947-48, when the NCAA selection committee chose four top D-1 hockey teams to compete in a single-elimination tournament. In the tournament’s first 29 years (1948-76), all the four teams that were selected for the tournament already comprised the Frozen Four. The first ten seasons of the tournament (1948-57) were held at Colorado Springs, CO. Since then, the tournament has been hosted by a different city each year. Michigan won the first D-1 tournament, as well as 6 of the first 10 tournaments; Michigan today has won a record 9 titles (though their last title was won 22 years ago in 1998). Since 2000, the most successful teams are: Boston College, with 4 titles in the last 20 tournaments (most recently in 2012), then Denver and Minnesota-Duluth, both of whom have won 3 titles in the last 20 tournaments, with Denver winning it in 2017, and Minnesota-Duluth winning it in 2018 and 2019.

So, from 1948 to 1976 (29 years), the D-1 hockey tournament comprised just 4 teams. Then, from 1977 to 1987, the tournament comprised 5 or 6 teams. In 1981, the D-1 hockey tournament became an 8-team competition. In 1988, the tournament became a 12-team competition. In 1999, the term Frozen Four was first used by the NCAA. In 2003, the present-day 16-team competition was instituted. The current 16-team tournament involves four city-venues for the Regionals (aka the first round) (in late March), and then another city-venue for the Frozen Four (in early April). Last year, the Frozen Four was held in Buffalo, NY, and the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs repeated as champions, defeating the Umass Minutemen 3-0. This season [2019-20], the tournament was cancelled on March 12, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Timeline of D-1 hockey conferences…

Prior to the the first D-1 hockey tournament in 1947-48, there was one “proto-conference”: the Quadrangular League/Pentagonal League. It was initially comprised of four Ivy League schools’ hockey teams: Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. The Quadrangular League allowed the four to stabilize schedules and to determine the best team of the 4, each season. Army joined in 1946, and it was re-named the Pentagonal League, a name which remained when Army left after the 1947-48 season. Army were replaced by another Ivy League team in 1948: Brown. The grouping continued on until 1954-55. But the Pentagonal League never had the clout to secure an automatic bid into the D-1 hockey tournament (once the tournament started up in 1947-48). This was exacerbated by the fact that the Ivy League never recognized hockey as a D-1 sport. So the Quadrangular League/Pentagonal League is considered an informal organization and is not recognized as an NCAA conference.

1947-48: Back when the D-1 hockey tournament started in 1947-48, D-1 hockey teams were Independent. There were 27 teams in NCAA D-1 hockey in that first season in which there was a trophy to play for {see this, en.wikipedia.org/[1947-48 D-1 hockey/Regular season]}. Of those 27 teams from 1947-48, 20 teams are still in Division I men’s hockey. Those 20 teams are: Army, Boston College, Boston U., Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, Colorado College, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan Tech, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Northeastern, Princeton, St. Lawrence, UMass, Yale.

This Independents-only set-up in D-1 hockey began to gradually change, with the belated creation of D-1 hockey conferences, first in 1950 with the now-defunct Tri-State League, then the following year of 1951 with the creation of what is now known as the WCHA…

1950: the Tri-State League begins play [conference is now defunct]. The first D-1 hockey conference was the Tri-State League (1950-72), a 3-to-6-team conference based in upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and Vermont, which featured small schools like Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Colgate, Williams (of Massachusetts), and Middlebury College (of Vermont). The Tri State League, despite only having a tiny number of teams (just four teams through most of the 1950s), annually received one of the two eastern bids to the NCAA tournament. The Tri-State League was able to place one team into each D-1 hockey tournament from 1952 to 1960. This accounts for the reason why both St. Lawrence and Clarkson have a considerable amount of Frozen Four appearances (9 and 7 appearances). And meanwhile, after 1951-52, the new MWCHL [WCHA], consisting initially of seven western schools (see next paragraph), was able to earn both western bids for the 4-team tournament each year. This situation, from 1950-51 up until 1959-60, left just one eastern bid available for more than two dozen eastern schools! That was unfair enough as it was, but it got worse in the 1960-61 D-1 season, with 25 Independent teams – all from the Northeast – effectively shut out of the post-season competition…because the 2 western bids for the tournament were sewn up by the WCHA, and the two eastern bids for the tournament went to St. Lawrence and Rensellaer, who were, astoundingly, two of only three teams which comprised the tiny but powerful 1960-61 Tri-State League {1961 D-1 tournament}. This made teams from the New England states feel that the Tri-State League was gaming the system. And, in fact, that is exactly why ECAC Hockey was formed later that year of 1961 (you can see more on that, two paragraphs below).

1951: the WCHA begins play. The second D-1 hockey conference was formed the following season of 1951-52: the still-active Midwest Collegiate Hockey League, or MCHL – which is now called the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, or WCHA. (The MCHL changed its name to the WCHA in 1959.) In 1951-52, there were seven teams that initially comprised the new conference: Colorado College, Denver, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Instantly, the MCHL had enough clout to secure two of the four D-1 hockey tournament bids. That began in the first season of the MCHL [WCHA] in 1951-52, and that situation of the conference owning half the bids to the D-1 hockey tournament lasted 25 seasons, up to 1976. When the tournament expanded to 5 or 6 teams (1977-80 tournaments), the WCHA still owned 2 bids; when the tournament expanded to 8 teams in 1981, the WCHA got 3 bids (while the ECAC got 4 bids and the relatively new conference the CCHA got 1 bid). In that era (the 1980s), the WCHA and ECAC Hockey were unquestionably the two dominant D-1 hockey conferences.

In the past, the WCHA had a whole lot of successful D-1 hockey programs in it, including Michigan, Denver, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan State, Colorado College, and Michigan Tech. Believe it or not, today, those seven teams account for 38 D-1 hockey titles – which is slightly more than half of the 72 D-1 hockey titles! But the profile of the WCHA has diminished considerably. Only one of those seven title-winning teams listed above still remains in the conference, and it is the smallest program of the seven: Michigan Tech, from the isolated Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The WCHA lost all of its big programs during the tumultuous 2010-14 NCAA realignment {see this: NCAA conference realignment/Hockey}. Basically, all the big programs fled from the WCHA, to either the new Big Ten Hockey Conference (Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota), or to the new NCHC (North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College). Today, the WCHA has, by far, the widest geographic range of D-1 hockey conferences. The 10 teams in the WCHA are spread all the way from Alaska (Alaska-Fairbanks and Alaska-Anchorage) to Alabama (Alabama-Hunstsville) to Minnesota (Bemidji State, Minnesota State at Mankato) to Michigan (all 3 Upper Peninsula D-1 teams [see two sentences below], plus Ferris State) to Ohio (Bowling Green). The conference is frankly too vast to be economically sustainable, and that has influenced the wish of 7 of its 10 members to break off, to re-form a different conference – the CCHA – in 2021-22 (see last paragraph further below). Of the ten teams in the WCHA, four of them have won D-1 hockey titles: Michigan Tech (3 titles), Lake Superior State (3 titles), Northern Michigan, and Bowling Green. That is a total of 8 D-1 hockey titles.

1961: ECAC Hockey begins play. In 1961, the third D-1 hockey conference was formed: the still-active ECAC Hockey. (ECAC stands for Eastern College Athletic Conference.) In 1961-62, ECAC Hockey was formed as a loose association of 28 college hockey teams in the Northeast (New England states plus New York and New Jersey). At the site called College Hockey Historical Archives, it is said…“ECAC Hockey, as it is known today, evolved slowly, starting from a dispute between the New England and New York schools. For the 1961 NCAA Tournament, the selection committee chose St. Lawrence and Rensselaer to represent the East, bypassing the Boston area schools. In the disputes that followed, it was decided to hold an eastern tournament the following season, with the tournament champion given an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.” {-excerpt from History of ECAC Hockey (augenblick.org).} The 3 New York teams that were getting into the tournament via the small Tri-States League all joined ECAC Hockey as founding members (Clarkson, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence), thus making the Tri-States League superfluous. In ECAC Hockey’s 4th season of 1964-65, the then-29-team ECAC Hockey split into Division I and Division II set-ups, with the creation of ECAC-2 (which is now defunct).

Throughout the 1961-62 to 1975-76 time period (15 seasons), ECAC Hockey and the WCHA were the only two conferences that got bids for the D-1 hockey tournament. That changed when the CCHA finally got an automatic bid in 1976-77 (see 2 paragraphs below). In the 1980-81 to 1983-84 time period, ECAC Hockey was at its most powerful, with control of 4 of the 8 bids to the tournament. But that changed when 5 ECAC Hockey teams left to form Hockey East in 1985 (see 3 paragraphs below).

The ECAC was the only D-1 hockey conference that was unchanged by the 2010-14 realignment. Today, the 12-team ECAC Hockey is a rather unusual college conference, as it includes within it all six of the D-1 Ivy League hockey teams (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale [Penn and Columbia do not field D-1 hockey teams]). ECAC Hockey has teams spread through 6 states in the Northeast and in New England. Six teams are from New York: Clarkson (Potsdam, NY), Colgate (Hamilton, NY), Cornell (Ithaca, NY), Rensselaer (Troy, NY), St. Lawrence (Canton, NY), Union College (Schenectady, NY). Two teams are from Connecticut: Quinnipiac (Hamden, Greater New Haven, CT) and Yale (New Haven, NY). One team is from Massachusetts: Harvard (Cambridge, MA). One team is from Rhode Island: Brown (Providence, RI). One team is from New Hampshire: Dartmouth (Hanover, NH). And one team is from New Jersey: Princeton (Princeton, NJ). Of the 12 teams in ECAC Hockey, five of them have won D-1 hockey titles: Cornell (2 titles), Rensellaer (2 titles), Harvard, Union College, Yale. That is a total of 7 D-1 hockey titles.

1971: the CCHA begins play [the conference is now defunct, but set to be revived in 2021]. The CCHA had less than half-a-dozen members for its first few seasons, including Bowling Green, Ohio State, Lake Superior State, and Western Michigan. The CCHA was initially full of small programs, and did not get an automatic bid into the D-1 hockey tournament until its sixth season, in 1976-77. The teams in the old CCHA were primarily from Michigan and Ohio. In 1981, the CCHA got much more respectable, with the addition of 3 title-winning programs from the state of Michigan: Michigan, Michigan State, and Michigan Tech. But 3 decades later, the D-1 conference realignment of 2010-14 decimated the CCHA. The CCHA disbanded after the 2012-13 season. However, plans are now set to revive the CCHA in 2021 {see last paragraph, further below}.

1984: Hockey East begins play. Hockey East was formed in 1984-85, by five former ECAC teams: Boston College, Boston University, New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Providence. These 5 decided to create their own league, because of scheduling concerns (they feared that the Ivy League teams in the ECAC would form their own conference, but that never came about). It also cannot be denied that the Hockey East set-up has decreased travel costs among its member-teams (seeing as it is a New-England-only-based conference). The 11-team Hockey East conference has teams spread throughout all of the 6 New England states, including 5 teams from Greater Boston. Hockey East teams are: Boston College, Boston University, and Northeastern from Boston, MA; and two more teams from the Greater Boston region: Merrimack (North Andover, MA) and UMass-Lowell (Lowell, MA); UMass (Amherst, MA), Maine (Orono, ME), New Hampshire (Durham, NH), Providence (Providence, RI), UConn (located in Storrs, CT but the hockey team plays 25 miles west in Hartford, CT), and Vermont (Burlington, VT). D-1 hockey title-winning teams from Hockey East are: Boston College (5 titles), Boston University (5 titles), Maine (2 titles), Providence. That is a total of 13 D-1 hockey titles.

1998: Atlantic Hockey begins play (as the MAAC). The 1998-99 season saw the creation of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). In June 2003, MAAC Hockey broke off from the rest of the MAAC, and reorganized as Atlantic Hockey. In 2004, the Atlantic Hockey conference was granted an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Atlantic Hockey is comprised of small D-1 programs, 10 of 11 of which are in the Northeast (except for Air Force Academy, who play in Colorado Springs, CO). Here are the 11 teams in the Atlantic League: Air Force; American International College [AIC] (Springfield, MA); Army (West Point, NY); Bentley (Waltham, MA); Canisius (Buffalo, NY); Holy Cross (Worcester, MA); Mercyhurst (Erie, PA); Niagara (Lewiston, NY); Robert Morris (Moon Township, Greater Pittsburgh, PA), Rochester Institute of Technology [RIT] (Henrietta, Greater Rochester, NY), Sacred Heart (located in Fairfield, CT but the hockey team plays 6 miles east in Bridgeport, CT). None of the eleven teams in Atlantic Hockey have won the D-1 hockey title. In fact, in the 16 seasons that Atlantic Hockey has had an automatic bid into the D-1 hockey tournament, only one team in the Atlantic Hockey conference has ever advanced to the Frozen Four…that was RIT, in 2010.

March 2011: the creation of the Big Ten Hockey Conference is announced. The Big Ten Hockey Conference would begin play two-and-a-half years later in 2013-14. That announcement started up the whole, sordid conference realignment in D-1 hockey. The roots of this was the inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team (Penn State debuted as an Independent in D-1 hockey in 2012-13). The shakeup in D-1 hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D-1 football and in NCAA D-1 basketball. After the dust had settled in D-1 hockey, there were 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition [CCHA](/see 3 paragraphs above; also see 2 paragraphs below). The Big Ten D-1 Hockey Conference was instituted in the 2013–14 season, combining Penn State with Michigan State, Michigan, and Ohio State from the defunct CCHA, plus Minnesota and Wisconsin from the severely-weakened WCHA. That formed a six-member Big Ten Hockey Conference. Four seasons later, Notre Dame joined Big Ten hockey in 2017-18, to make it a 7-team conference. Here are the locations of the 7 teams in Big Ten Hockey: Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI); Michigan State (East Lansing, MI); Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN); Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Greater West Bend, IN); Ohio State (Columbus, OH); Penn State (State College, PA); Wisconsin (Madison, WI). Four of the seven teams in the Big Ten Hockey Conference have won D-1 hockey titles: Michigan (with a record 9 titles), Wisconsin (6 titles), Minnesota (5 titles), Michigan State (3 titles). That is a total of 23 D-1 hockey titles, which is the most of any D-1 hockey conference, despite its small membership-size.

July 2011: the creation of the NCHC is announced. The NCHC was formed as a reaction to the establishment of the Big Ten Hockey Conference. Basically, the 8 future NCHC teams fled two conferences (the WCHA and the CCHA) which had a majority of small-program-teams. Those 8 teams did this in order to consolidate in a conference with other medium- or large-sized D-1 hockey programs. This, in order to not be overshadowed by the new 800-pound gorilla in the room, the Big Ten Hockey Conference. So four months after Big Ten Hockey was announced, 6 schools from the the WCHA announced their intention of leaving the WCHA, to form a new D-1 hockey conference, to be called the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, or NCHC. Those schools were Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO); Denver (Denver, CO); Miami (of Ohio) (Oxford, OH); Minnesota-Duluth (Duluth, MN); North [Dakota (Grand Forks, ND); and Omaha (Omaha, NE). A few months later, those six were joined by two more: St. Cloud State (St. Cloud, MN) [also formerly of the WCHA]; and Western Michigan (Kalamazoo, MI) [who would be leaving the soon-to-be-defunct CCHA]. The 8-team NCHC has four teams that have won D-1 hockey titles: North Dakota (with 8 titles), Denver (also with 8 titles), Minnesota-Duluth (3 titles including 2019), Colorado College (2 titles). That is a total of 21 D-1 hockey titles [2nd-most].

February 2020: the revival of the CCHA is announced. (The CCHA originally existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1971 to 2013.) The CCHA will be re-formed, starting in 2021-22. Seven schools, which comprise 70% of the WCHA, announced their intention to start a new D-1 hockey conference, adopting the name of the old CCHA. The 7 teams: Bowling Green (Bowling Green, Greater Toledo, OH); Ferris State (Big Rapids, MI); Lake Superior State (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Peninsula, MI); and Northern Michigan (Marquette, Upper Peninsula, MI) (all of whom were previously members of the old CCHA when it disbanded in 2013); Michigan Tech (Houghton, Upper Peninsula, MI) (who were in the original CCHA three seasons, from 1981-84), plus Bemidji State (Bemidji, MN) and Minnesota State (Mankato, MN). Now, in their announcement of the conference-shift, there is only talk of “improving geographical alignment” {see this, from USCHO.com}. But what it all really boils down to is this…because of travel costs, those 7 Upper Midwest teams want to break away from three remote teams: the two D-1 hockey teams from Alaska (Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks), and the D-1 team from northern Alabama (Alabama-Huntsville). As Adam Wodon said at College Hockey News.com…“the three “leftovers” here: Alaska, Alaska-Anchorage and Alabama-Huntsville. I think there’s a pretty clear consensus that everyone feels badly for those programs, and no one wants D-1 to lose teams, but that the other seven schools had to do what they had to do. The path of least resistance for shedding those three schools, was to leave and form a new conference. It was far easier than just kicking them out of the existing WCHA. So now those three will be left on their own, basically nomads. The WCHA could exist in name only, but it wouldn’t matter. With only three teams it wouldn’t get an automatic NCAA bid. Those programs are in trouble, let’s face it.”…{-excerpt from Forget the Name, New-CCHA Will Grapple With Bigger Issues, on Feb. 19 2020, at collegehockeynews.com.}
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to contributors at en.wikipedia.org/List of NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four appearances by team; en.wikipedia.org/List of NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey champions.

March 27, 2019

2019 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: map of the 16 teams that qualified. With 2018-19 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list./+Update: illustrations for the 2019 Frozen Four: UMass Minutemen, Denver Pioneers, Providence Friars, Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 12:21 pm

/ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2019_16-teams_w-2018-19attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_e_.gif
2019 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2017-18 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list



By Bill Turianski on 27 March 2019. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Live scores (collegehockeynews.com).
-2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (en.wikipedia.org).
-2018-19 attendance [#1 North Dakota 11.3 K; #2 Wisconsin 10.0 K; #3 Minnesota 7.9 K; #4 Ohio State 6.4] (uscho.com).

-St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State land No. 1 NCAA hockey seeds (by Randy Johnson at startribune.com).

-NCAA men’s hockey tournament: Tiering all 16 teams, Frozen Four picks (by Chris Peters at espn.com).

    Update: illustrations for the 2019 Frozen Four: UMass Minutemen, Denver Pioneers, Providence Friars, Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Teams below shown in the order of their qualifying…

2019 Frozen Four – UMass Minutemen. Their 1st Frozen Four appearance.

umass-minutemen_2019-frozen-four_h_.gif
Photo and Image credits above –
Filip Lindbergh makes a save, photo by Charle Krupa via gazettenet.com. Players celebrate 1st goal, photo by Charle Krupa via gazettenet.com. John Leonard makes it 2-0, photo by Charles Krupa via bostonglobe.com/sports. Screenshot of Cale Makar slap shot goal, image from video at ncaa.com/video. Cale Makar celebrating after goal, photo by Melissa Wade at uscho.com/photo-gallery-umass. Players file onto ice to celebrate, photo by Charles Krupa via bostonherald.com. Players celebrate, photo from umassathletics.com/news. umasshoops.com/newboard/[logos 7 wordmarks, 2016].

2019 Frozen Four – Denver Pioneers. Their 16th Frozen Four appearance (and first since their 2017 D-1 Tournament title).

denver-pioneers_2019-frozen-four_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Screenshot from @DU_Hockey via denverpost.com. Photo and Image credits above – Colin Staub celebrates goal, photo by Michael Vosburg via duluthnewstribune.com/sports. Screenshot of Liam Finley scoring, from video at ncaa.com/video. Filip Larsson makes a save, photo by Michael Vosburg via therinklive.com. Denver players celebrate, photo by Michael Vosburg via therinklive.com.

2019 Frozen Four – Providence Friars. Their 5th Frozen Four appearance (and first since their 2015 D-1 Tournament title).

providence-friars_2019-frozen-four_b_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Greg Printz scores, photo by Kris Craig at providencejournal.com/sports. Josh Wilkins scores, photo by Melissa Wade at uscho.com. Scott Conway celebrates after scoring, photo by Kris Craig at providencejournal.com/sports. Goalie Hayden Hawkey, photo by Eldon Lindsay/Cornell Athletics via cornellsun.com. Players celebrate win, image from abc6.com.

2019 Frozen Four – Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Their 7th Frozen Four appearance (and the 3rd straight Frozen 4 appearance for the 2018 D-1 Tournament champions).

minnesota-duluth-bulldogs_2019-frozen-four_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -
Screenshot of Peter Krieger about to score, from video at ncaa.com/video. Peter Krieger celebrates scoring, photo by Omar Phillips at uscho.com/gallery. Screenshot of Kobe Roth about to score, from video at ncaa.com/video. Roth and teammates celebrate goal, photo unattributed at duluthnewstribune.com/sports. Jersey logo, photo by totalhockey.com/product/Minnesota-Duluth_Bulldogs_Jersey. Jersey shoulder-patch-logo (Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge shoulder patch), image from theumdstatesman.com/blog.

    2019 D-1 hockey tournament: 15 teams from 6 conferences + 1 Independent.

The #1-seeds. St. Cloud  State (1) [NCHC], Minnesota Duluth [NCHC], Minnesota State [WCHA], Massachusetts (UMass) [Hockey East].

Many of the big college hockey teams have been shut out of the 2019 D-1 NCAA tournament. Failing to make it were…Michigan (with a record 9 titles and 25 Frozen Four appearances); the 2016 champions North Dakota (the highest-drawing D-1 team, with 8 titles and 16 Frozen Fours); Wisconsin (the 2nd-best-drawing D-1 team, with 6 titles and 11 Frozen Fours); Boston College (with 5 titles, and a joint-best 25 Frozen Four appearances); Minnesota (5 titles, 21 Frozen Fours); and Boston University (5 titles, 22 Frozen Fours).

Minnesota Duluth, the reigning champions, return. The Bulldogs have now made it to 5 consecutive D-1 tournaments (since 2015). Minnesota Duluth draw 5th-best in D-1 hockey, at 6.0 K in their 6.7-K-capacity arena. Minnesota Duluth won their first title in 2011, and have made 6 Frozen Four appearances.

Only one hockey power with more than a couple titles to their name has made it to the 2019 tournament…the Denver Pioneers. Denver won the title two years ago (2017), and Denver have won a joint-second-best 8 titles (plus 15 Frozen Fours). The burgundy-and-gold-clad Pioneers have now made it to an impressive 12 straight D-1 tournaments (since 2008). The Denver Pioneers, who have to compete with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche for the local puck-fan-dollar, draw a solid 5.5 K in their 6.0-K arena (9th-best attendance in D-1 hockey).

And speaking of college hockey teams located in NHL towns, it bears mentioning Ohio State. The Buckeyes, who share their city with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, have now made it to the D-1 tournament for a third straight year, following their 2018 Frozen Four appearance. And then in 2018-19, the Buckeyes saw a big attendance increase: they drew over a thousand more per game (going from 5.3 K in 2017-18, to 6.4 K in 2018-19).

Massachusetts (UMass) is another team that made the 2019 tournament after seeing a big attendance increase: up 1.8 K per game. The Minutemen, of Amherst, MA, were drawing 2.5 K four years ago; last season they drew 3.0 K; and then this season they drew 4.8 K (which was 12th-best in D-1). And the Minutemen were selected as one of the #1-seeds. UMass has only ever made one other D-1 tournament appearance (in 2007). This is yet another example of the competitiveness in D-1 hockey these days.

Returning teams (10 teams). Here are the 10 teams that qualified for the tournament in 2018, and have qualified again in 2019…
[∙#-of-consecutive-appearances, Name. Conference. Location(s).]
∙2x, Clarkson Golden Knights. ECAC Hockey. Potsdam, NY.
∙3x, Cornell Big Red. ECAC Hockey. Ithaca, NY.
∙12x, Denver Pioneers. NCHC. Denver, CO.
∙5x, Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs. NCHC. Duluth, MN.
∙2x, Minnesota State Mavericks. WCHA. Mankato, MN.
∙2x, Northeastern Huskies. Hockey East. Boston, MA.
∙4x, Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Big Ten. Notre Dame, IN].
∙3x, Ohio State Buckeyes. Big Ten. Columbus, OH.
∙6x, Providence Friars. Hockey East. Providence, RI.
∙2x, St. Cloud State Huskies. NCHC. St. Cloud, MN.

Debut teams (2 teams). Here are the 2 teams that have qualified for the D-1 tournament for the first time…
-American International Yellow Jackets. Atlantic Hockey. Springfield, MA.
-Arizona State Sun Devils. Independent. Tempe, AZ/Glendale, AZ.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of some teams (Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State, UMass), such as at File:CCHA-Uniform-OSU.png.
-Thanks to contributors at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_Men%27s_Frozen_Four_appearances_by_team; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_men%27s_ice_hockey_champions#Team_titles.

-Thanks to Cornell store, for photo of jersey-script-logo, cornellstore.com/Hockey-Jersey-Red.
-Thanks to Game Worn Auctions for photo of UMass jersey-script-logo, gamewornauctions.net.
-Thanks to Quinnipiac bookstore for Q-logo photo, bkstr.com/.
-Thanks to Northeastern Huskies on twitter, for new logos, twitter.com/[@gonuathletics].
-Thanks to Minnesota State Mavericks site for photo of gold jersey script-logo, msumavericks.com/index.
-Thanks to WCHA online shop, for photo of Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks banner logo, unrl.co/collections/mankato/products/mavericks-hockey-basefit-hat-white.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2018-2019 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to CollegeHockeyNews.com, for articles, info & live scores.
-Thanks to eliteprospects.com for stats (eliteprospects.com/league/ncaa).

March 21, 2018

2018 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2017-18 attendance data, and all-time Titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances list./ +Update: the teams that qualified for the 2018 Frozen Four: Notre Dame, Minnesota-Duluth, Michigan, Ohio State.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 12:46 pm

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2018_16-teams_w-2017-18-attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_b_.gif
2018 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2017-18 attendance data. + All-time D1 Titles-and-Frozen-Four list



By Bill Turianski on 21 March 2018. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament (en.wikipedia.org).
-Here is the bracket with game times (uscho.com).
-Live scores…ncaa.com/scoreboard/icehockey-men/d1 .
-USCHO.com.
-D1 Hockey attendance [2017-18 regular season/all 60 teams] (uscho.com).
-Top ten Frozen Four moments from the past 25 years {twitter.com/NCAAIceHockey/status/978270577860411393}.

    Update: the teams that qualified for the 2018 Frozen Four (shown alphabetically)…
    Michigan, Minnesota-Duluth, Notre Dame, Ohio State

Michigan Wolverines (their 25th Frozen Four appearance [all-time most]) (and first since 2011)…
michigan-wolverines_2018-frozen-four_d_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Michigan players celebrate first goal of the game (5 minutes in), photo by Michael Dwyer/AP via mlive.com/wolverines. Brendan Warren celebrates after scoring, photo by Associated Press via toledoblade.com. Michigan players celebrate the victory, photo by Michael Dwyer/AP via freep.com. Michigan Flying-wing hockey helmet, image by billsportsmaps via photo of Bauer helmet at hockeyworld.com.

Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (back-to-back Frozen Four appearances)…
minnesota-duluth-bulldogs_2018-frozen-four_c_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Freshman Joey Anderson celebrates with teammates after opening the scoring against Air Force (1st Period/9:03), photo unattributed at twincities.com. Defenseman Nick Wolff scores with wrist-shot from top of left face-off circle, screenshot from video at ncaa.com/video. Players celebrating with traveling fans after victory, photo by Jim Rosvold at uscho.com. Jersey logo, photo by totalhockey.com/product/Minnesota-Duluth_Bulldogs_Jersey. Jersey shoulder-patch-logo (Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge shoulder patch.), image from theumdstatesman.com/blog.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (back-to-back Frozen Four appearances)…
notre-dame-fighting-irish_2018-frozen-four_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Andrew Ogelvie celebrates ND’s equalizing 1st goal with teammates, photo by Matt Dewkett at uscho.com. Dylan Malmquist scores winning goal with 0:27 left in game, photo by Jessica Hill/AP via ndinsider.com/hockey. Notre Dame Main Building’s golden dome, which is symbolized by the blank-gold Notre Dame Fighting Irish football helmet [and the blank-gold Notre Dame Fighting Irish ice hockey helmet], photo by Know1one1 at File:The Golden Dome.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org), via collegemagazine.com/cms-guide-university-notre-dame. Notre Dame shamrock-on-hockey-pants-logo (2017-18 gear), drawn from template at licensing.nd.edu. Notre Dame teams’ colors: drawn from template from licensing.nd.edu.

Ohio State Buckeyes (their 2nd Frozen Four appearance, and their first one in 20 years)…
ohio-state-buckeyes_2018-frozen-four_d_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Kevin Miller scoring the first of his two goals, photo by Rich Schultz/AP via denverpost.com. Goalie Sean Romeo made 30 saves for the Buckeyes, photo by Omar Phillips at uscho.com. Players celebrate win, photo unattributed at twitter.com/Bucknuts247. Buckeyes hockey helmet, photo from ohiostatebuckeyes.cbsi-auctions.com. 2017-18 jersey, photo from shop.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.

The map…The map page shows the 16 D1 hockey teams that qualified for the 2018 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament. Each team is placed on the map in their venue-location, with a circular device which shows the teams average attendance in graphic form (the larger the circle, the higher the attendance). Alongside the team’s school-name is their attendance-rank within the 60-team D1 level. The 16 teams’ 2017-18 attendance data (listed by attendance-rank), can be seen at the top-right of the map page. The attendance-data-list includes: average attendance, venue-capacity, percent-capacity, and numerical-change-in-average-attendance from the previous season. (The highest-drawing team in D1 hockey is North Dakota; you can see the whole attendance list at USCHO.com, here: Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2017-2018.) At the lower-left of the map page is the complete list of NCAA D1 hockey titles & Frozen Four appearances (1948-2017). And at the top-center of the map is a banner showing, in alphabetical order, alternate logos of the 16 teams. (Note: In case you’re wondering, I made that Michigan Wolverines hockey-helmet-logo. No one online, to my knowledge, has ever tried out that sort of an illustration for any of the D1 hockey teams that sport helmet-logos which are the same design as their schools’ football-helmet-logos [ie, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Penn State Nittany Lions]. Which is a mystery to me, because those schools’ hockey-helmet-logos are awesome, and deserve more recognition. Heck, for that matter, why don’t NHL teams sport football-helmet-style hockey-helmet-logos? Like this. I think it is a marketing opportunity that has gone wasted all these years. But I digress.)


The tournament…{Tournament Watch (collegehockeynews.com).} The first two rounds of the tournament will be played on the weekend of Fri-Sun March 23-25, in four locations (Sioux Falls, SD; Allentown, PA; Bridgeport, CT; Worcester, MA). The winners of each sub-bracket will comprise the Frozen Four, who will reconvene two weeks later on the weekend of Fri-Sun April 6-8, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, at the 17,950-capacity Xcel Energy Center (which is the home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild).

#1-seeds: St. Cloud State Huskies (1), Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2), Cornell Big Red (3), Ohio State Buckeyes (4).
There were a few unheralded teams winning the five conference tournaments, most notably the Princeton Tigers, who won the ECAC for only the 3rd time (in 67 seasons). Four of the six teams that won their conference tournaments were so low-ranked in the polls that, for the first time ever (since 1983), all four of the #4-seeds were conference-tournament champions (Princeton, Air Force, Michigan Tech, Boston U). Those four teams would not have qualified for the D1 tournament had they not won their conferences. {See this, 2018 NCAA Tournament: First Look (collegehockeynews.com).} So that threw a wrench into the post-season plans of some big programs, including Minnesota and Boston College, and, most notably, North Dakota…North Dakota were shut out of the D1 tournament for the first time in 15 years (North Dakota had qualified for the D1 tournament every season from 2003 to 2017).


In 2018, Big Ten-hockey has supplanted Hockey East, as the conference with the most teams into the D1 tournament…
Ever since the re-organization of D1 hockey of 2013/14, which saw the demise of the CCHA, and the creation of two new D1 conferences (the NCHC and the Big Ten D1-hockey-conference), the D1 conference with the most teams in the D1 tournament was Hockey East (in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017) as well as the relatively-brand-new NCHC (which also had 4 teams into the tournament in 2017). But this season, the 5-year-old Big Ten D1-hockey conference has the most qualified teams (four: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State). And two of them are #1-seeds (Notre Dame & Ohio State).

So the 7-team Big Ten D1 hockey conference has just placed more than half its members into the D1 hockey tournament…
-Notre Dame: who were in the CCHA, but then jumped that sinking ship with a temporary move over to Hockey East (for four seasons), and are now in their first season of Big Ten D1-hockey. [Notre Dame has won zero D1 hockey titles/3 Frozen Four appearances (last in 2017).]
-Ohio State: [Ohio State has won zero D1 hockey titles/1 Frozen Four appearance (in 1998).]
-Michigan: [Michigan are winners of the all-time-best 10 D1 hockey titles (last in 1998)/all-time-best 24 Frozen Four appearances (last in 2012).]
-Penn State: who are a long-time Big Ten school in other sports, and who are in only their 6th season of D1-hockey. [Zero D1 hockey titles/zero Frozen Four appearances.].

Here is the breakdown of the 16 teams that qualified for the 2018 D1 Hockey Tournament, by conference…
Big Ten – 4 teams…conference-winner (Notre Dame/#1-seed, + 3 at-large bids (Ohio State/#1-seed), (Michigan/#2-seed), (Penn State/#3-seed).
NCHC – 3 teams…conference-winner (Denver/#1-seed) + 2 at-large bids (St. Cloud State/#1-seed), (Western Michigan/#2-seed).
Hockey East – 3 teams…conference-winner (Boston University/#4-seed) + 2 at-large bids (Providence/#2-seed), (Northeastern/#3-seed).
ECAC – 3 teams…conference-winner (Princeton/#4-seed), + 2 at-large bids (Cornell/#1-seed, (Clarkson/#3-seed).
WCHA – 2 teams…conference-winner (Michigan Tech/#1-seed), + 1 at-large-bid (Minnesota State/#2-seed).
Atlantic – 1 team…conference-winner (Air Force/#4-seed).

___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of some teams (Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Boston U), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to hockeyworld.com, for image of hockey helmet used to make the Michigan Wolverines banner logo (of Michigan’s sublime flying-wing hockey helmet).
-Thanks to WCHA online shop, for photo of Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks banner logo, unrl.co/collections/mankato/products/mavericks-hockey-basefit-hat-white.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2016-2017 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to CollegeHockeyNews.com, for articles and info.

March 22, 2017

2017 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2016-17 attendance figures & percent-capacity figures. + All-time D1 Titles-&-Frozen-Four list./+ Update: the 2017 Frozen Four: Denver Pioneers, Harvard Crimson, Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey — admin @ 8:24 pm

ncaa_mens-ice-hockey_tournament_2017_16-teams_w-2016-17-attendance_all-time-D1-titles-and-frozen-four-list_post_b_.gif
2017 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament: the 16 teams that qualified. With 2016-17 attendance figures & percent-capacity figures. + All-time D1 Titles-&-Frozen-Four list
By Bill Turianski on 22 & 27 March, 2017. twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

-Here is the Bracket (en.wikipedia.org).

Update [Monday March 27 at 2:00pm ET]…

    The 2017 Frozen Four:
    Denver Pioneers, Harvard Crimson, Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Denver Pioneers…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Denver 5, Michigan Tech 2. 2R: Denver 6, Penn State 3.
Denver’s second-straight and 16th Frozen Four appearance.
denver-pioneers_2017-frozen-four_k_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Action shot, photo by Angelo Delfuso at facebook.com/DenverHockey/photos. On-ice celebration, photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post at bsndenver.com/denver-pioneers-beat-penn-state-6-3. Team-photo celebration, photo by Shawn Conkle at USCHO.com. Alternate script logo from shoppioneers.com.

Harvard Crimson…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Harvard 3, Providence 0. 2R: Harvard 3, Air Force 2.
Harvard’s 13th Frozen Four appearance (previously: 1994).
harvard-crimson_2017-frozen-four_i_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Shot of Harvard goalie Merrick Madsen (31) during the first period, photo by Stew Milne via denverpost.com. Shot of final-buzzer/on-ice-celebration, photo by Melissa Wade atuscho.com . Shot of team with H-crest-banner, photo by Thomas W. Franck at thecrimson.com. Shield-template to make Harvard VE-RI-TAS hockey jersey shoulder-patch-logo: at freepik.com.

……


Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Minnesota-Duluth 3, Ohio State 2 (OT). 2R: Minnesota-Duluth 3, Boston University 2 (OT).
Minnesota-Duluth’s 5th Frozen Four appearance (previously: 2011).
minnesota-duluth-bulldogs_2017-frozen-four_n_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Adam Johnson OT winning goal celebration, screenshot of image from video at ESPN.com. 1st photo by Carlos Osorio/AP via timesunion.com/sports. 2nd photo by Jim Rosvold at uscho.com. Jersey logo and jersey-shoulder=patch-logo, photos by totalhockey.com/product/Minnesota-Duluth_Bulldogs_Jersey.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish…
Path to 2017 Frozen Four – 1R: Notre Dame 3, Providence 2. 2R: Notre Dame 3, UMass-Lowell 2 (OT).
Notre Dame’s 3rd Frozen Four appearance (previously: 2011).
notre-dame-fighting-irish_2017-frozen-four_s_.gif
Photo and Image credits above -Andrew Oglevie after scoring, photo by Richard T. Gagnon/Getty Images via sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-hockey-notre-dame-denver-grab-final-two-frozen-four-spots. 2 shots of OT celebration, photos by Elizabeth Frantz/Concord Monitor at concordmonitor.com. Shot of celebratory pile-on, photo by Richard T. Gagnon at uscho.com. Clover pants-logo (2016-17 gear), drawn from template at licensing.nd.edu. Colors: image from licensing.nd.edu.

#1-seeds: Denver (1), Minnesota-Duluth (2), Harvard (3), Minnesota (4).

Here is the breakdown of the 16 teams, by conference…
NCHC – 4 teams…conference-winner (Minnesota-Duluth/#1-seed) + 3 at-large bids (Denver/#1-seed), (Western Michigan/#2-seed), (North Dakota/#3-seed).
Hockey East – 4 teams…conference-winner (UMass-Lowell/#2-seed) + 3 at-large bids (Boston University/#2-seed), (Notre Dame/#4-seed), (Providence/#4-seed).
ECAC – 3 teams…conference-winner (Harvard/#1-seed), + 2 at-large bids (Union College/#2-seed), (Cornell/#3-seed).
Big Ten – 3 teams…conference-winner (Penn State/#3-seed), + 2 at-large bids (Minnesota/#1-seed), (Ohio State/#4-seed).
WCHA – 1 team…conference-winner (Michigan Tech/#4-seed).
Atlantic – 1 team…conference-winner (Air Force/#3-seed).

I will have an update for this post on Monday the 27th, with small illustrations featuring the 4 teams that have made it to the 2017 Frozen Four (like I have been doing for the past 5 years/ here is last year’s Frozen Four (Boston College, Denver, North Dakota, Quinnipiac). I will also update the Frozen Four list on the map page.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2016-2017 (uscho.com).

December 30, 2016

NCAA Division I Hockey: Hockey East conference: attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities & NCAA D1-hockey titles listed.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey,NCAA, ice- Hockey East — admin @ 3:46 pm

ncaa_ice-hockey_hockey-east-conference_attendance-map_2015-16_12-teams_post_c_.gif
NCAA Division I Hockey: Hockey East conference: attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities & NCAA D1-hockey titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 30 December 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-Conferences…Division I in ice hockey.
-Teams in Hockey East, etc…Hockey East (en.wikipedia.org).
-My recent post of D1-hockey (map with all 60 teams & 2015-16 attendance.

Conference-maps for NCAA Division I (aka D1) men’s ice hockey
(Note: already-posted D1-hockey conference maps are linked-to, below.)
I have made a location-map for each of the 6 D1-hockey conferences, which are…
Atlantic Hockey Association (11 teams/est. 1998-99/ zero titles).
Big Ten Conference hockey (6 teams [7-teams in 2017-18]/est. 2013-14/ 23 titles won amongst its six teams).
ECAC Hockey (12 teams/est. 1961-62/ 7 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
∙Hockey East Association (12 teams [11 teams in 2017-18]/est. 1984-85/ 13 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
National Collegiate Hockey Conference (aka NCHC) (8 teams/est. 2013-14/ 18 titles won amongst its eight teams).
Western Collegiate Hockey Association (aka WCHA) (10 teams/est. 1951-52/ 8 titles won amongst its ten teams).


The location-map here shows the 12-team Hockey East conference.
The Hockey East conference has teams spread throughout the 6 New England states, plus Notre Dame in Indiana – but Notre Dame will be leaving the Hockey East conference after the 2016-17 season, to join Big Ten Conference hockey {for that, see my post on Big Ten conference hockey}.

Once Notre Dame leaves (after 2016-17), Hockey East will once again be based entirely in the New England states…
Hockey East has 6 teams from Massachusetts. One is based in the central region of the state: UMass (of Amherst, MA/which is 75 miles west of Boston). 5 teams are based in the College-hockey-Mecca of Greater Boston…with Boston University and Northeastern in Boston, proper; and 3 teams in Greater Boston…Boston College (of Chestnut Hill, MA/6 miles west of downtown Boston), UMass-Lowell (of Lowell, MA/23 miles north), and Merrimack College [of North Andover/33 miles north of the Hub]). One team is located in Vermont (Vermont [of Burlington, VT, which is on the eastern side of Lake Champlain]). One team is located in New Hampshire (UNH or New Hampshire [of Durham, NH, which is just east of Manchester, NH and is a few miles inland from Portsmouth, NH, and is 54 miles north of Boston]). One team is located in Maine (Maine [of Orono, ME, which is 115 miles north-east and inland from Portland, ME]). One team is located in Rhode Island (Providence [of Providence, RI, which is 41 miles south of Boston]). And one team is located in Connecticut (UConn – aka Connecticut [of Storrs, CT, with the team playing home games 26 miles west in Hartford, CT]).

The map
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The 12 Hockey East teams’ crests, colors and locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the Hockey East teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in Hockey East). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams).

Hockey East was established in 1984-85…
Hockey East was formed in 1984-85, by five former ECAC teams: the Boston College Eagles, the Boston University Terriers, the New Hampshire Wildcats, the Northeastern Huskies, and the Providence Friars. These 5 decided to create their own league, because of scheduling concerns (they feared that the Ivy League teams in the ECAC would form their own conference, but that never came about). It also cannot be denied that the Hockey East set-up has decreased travel costs among its member-teams (seeing as it is basically a New-England-only-based conference). Before Hockey East’s inaugural season started in the fall of 1984, two more teams joined the new conference: the Maine Black Bears and the UMass-Lowell River Hawks. The Merrimack Warriors joined Hockey East in 1989-90. The UMass Minutemen joined Hockey East in 1994-95. The Vermont Catamounts joined Hockey East in 2005-06. And the UConn Huskies joined in 2014-15.

Of the top 20-drawing D1-hockey teams, 7 are from Hockey East.
#8-best-drawing UMass-Lowell River Hawks draw in the mid-5-K-range (5,592 per game and at a solid 93.2 percent-capacity in their 6-K-capacity arena). UConn draws 5.1K, Boston College draws 4.9 K, New Hampshire draws 4.8 K, Boston University draws 4.3 K, and Maine (the 20th-highest drawing D1-hockey team), draws 3.9 K. (Note: soon-to-be-departed-for-the-Big-Ten Notre Dame also draws in the top 20, at 4.9 K in their 5.0-K-capacity arena, for a very good 94.6 percent-capacity.) One other note: Providence and Vermont both play to some of the best percent-capacities in D1-hockey…2015 champs Providence basically play to sold-out crowds these days, drawing 2.9 K in their 3.0-K-capacity arena at 98.3 percent-capacity; while Vermont is 21st-highest-drawing D1-hockey team at 3.8 K in their 4.0-K-capacity arena, for an outstanding 95.7 percent-capacity.

In the 32 seasons since Hockey East was formed, there have been 9 D1-hockey titles won by Hockey East teams.
Those 9 titles have been won by 4 teams…the Boston College Eagles, with 4 [of their 5] D1 titles won as a Hockey East team (in 2001, 2008, 2012, and 2014); the Maine Black Bears, with both of their D1 titles won as a Hockey East team (in 1993 and 1999), the Boston University Terriers, with 2 [of their 5] D1 titles won as a Hockey East team (in 1995 and 2009); and the Providence Friars, who won their first D1-hockey title two seasons ago in 2015. So, that means Hockey East has won 28 percent of the last 32 D1-hockey titles, since its inception. That shows you that Hockey East is one of the elite D1-hockey conferences.

Hockey East has also produced 14 other D1-championship-game-finalists. As far as Final Four appearances go, 9 of the 12 Hockey East teams have made it to the Final Four at least once, with Boston College having made the most Final Four appearances of all the D1-hockey teams: 25 times, including last year (2016). Boston University also has a large number of Final Four appearances: 22 (last in 2015). To round out the rest…Maine has made 11 Final Four appearances (last in 2007). New Hampshire has made 7 Final Four appearances (last in 2003). Providence has made 4 Final Four appearances (last in 2015). Vermont has made 2 Final Four appearances (last in 2009). U-Mass Lowell made a Final Four appearance in 2014. And Northeastern made a Final Four appearance in 1982. (Notre Dame has made 2 Frozen Four appearances (last in 2011).)
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

December 26, 2016

NCAA Division I Hockey: Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA): attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities & D1-hockey titles listed.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey,NCAA, ice- Western (WCHA) — admin @ 9:53 pm

ncaa_ice-hockey_wchc-conference_attendance-map_2015-16_16-teams_post_b_.gif

NCAA Division I Hockey: Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA): attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities & D1-hockey titles listed




By Bill Turianski on 26 December 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
Conferences…Division I in ice hockey.
WCHA teams, etc…Western Collegiate Hockey Association (en.wikipedia.org).

Conference-maps for NCAA Division I (aka D1) men’s ice hockey
(Note: already-posted D1-hockey conference maps are linked-to, below.)
I am making a location-map for each of the 6 D1-hockey conferences, which are…
Atlantic Hockey Association (11 teams/est. 1998-99/ zero titles).
Big Ten Conference hockey (6 teams [7-teams in 2017-18]/est. 2013-14/ 23 titles won amongst its six teams).
ECAC Hockey (12 teams/est. 1961-62/ 7 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
∙Hockey East Association (12 teams [11 teams in 2017-18]/est. 1984-85/ 13 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
National Collegiate Hockey Conference (aka NCHC) (8 teams/est. 2013-14/ 18 titles won amongst its eight teams).
∙Western Collegiate Hockey Association (aka WCHA) (10 teams/est. 1951-52/ 8 titles won amongst its ten teams).

The location-map here shows the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA).
The WCHA has teams spread through 5 states, some of which are extremely far apart: 4 teams from Michigan (Ferris State, and 3 teams from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, and Northern Michigan), 2 teams from Minnesota (Minnesota State [Mankato] and Bemidji State), 2 teams from Alaska (Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks), 1 team from Ohio (Bowling Green), and 1 team from Alabama (Alabama-Huntsville).

The map
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The WCHA hockey teams’ crests, colors and arena-locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1-hockey is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the WCHA teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in the WCHA). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams). (Michigan has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a D1-hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998); meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season (2015-16), they have moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Boston College Eagles, with 25.)

Division I NCAA hockey was instituted in 1948.
(Division I NCAA hockey titles, 1948 to 2015-16/ 69 titles.)

    The D1-hockey realignment saw the WCHA turn from a major conference into a mid-minor…

The WCHA is extremely different from what it was before 2013 – the WCHA now has a vast (and frankly unwieldy) spread of teams: in Alaska, Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio {see WCHA former-members and WCHA timeline}. The WCHA was once one of the most elite D1-hockey conferences. That can be seen simply by the fact that the WCHA owns the record for the most D1-hockey titles…36 D1-hockey titles have been won by WCHA teams. But the vast majority of those titles – 27 D1-hockey titles – were won by four of the biggest D1-hockey teams, all of whom opted to leave the WCHA in 2013…Denver (with 7 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member), North Dakota (also with 7 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member), Wisconsin (with 6 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member), and Minnesota (with 5 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member). Also leaving the WCHA in 2013 were every other team that had fanbases sizable enough to draw above 4-K-per-game (Duluth, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, St. Cloud). Leaving all the small schools left in the conference (Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, Northern Michigan). Then 5 schools, four of them refugees from the implosion of the CCHA, all ended up in the re-vamped and gutted new WCHA. All were from schools whose D1-hockey teams had fanbases which did not have the ability to draw above 3-K-per-game. (Alaska-Fairbanks, Alabama-Huntsville, Bowling Green [Ohio], Ferris State [Michigan], and Lake Superior State [Upper Peninsula of Michigan].) So the once-powerhouse WCHA was turned into a completely-small-school conference, and travel costs were guaranteed to go up, because of the unwieldy spread of the teams now in the conference.

If you want to know how that all happened, well, blame mid-major-program paranoia spiced with a dose of greed (shown by the schools that bolted to the new NCHC), combined with Penn State’s general bull-in-china-shop behavior, and Minnesota’s D1-hockey front office (who ignored the fans’ wishes to keep local rivalries) and ditto Wisconsin…in other words blame the Big East. As it says in the following article, Big Ten shaking up college hockey, just not on the ice, “The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is a shell of its former self and bleeding money since Minnesota and Wisconsin left. Six other former WCHA schools — including 2015 Frozen Four participants North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha — left to start the National Collegiate Hockey Conference because of concerns that they would be overshadowed by the Big Ten if they stayed.” (quote from article by Eric Olson at Detroit Free Prees/ freep.com on Feb. 26 2016).

Many puck fans in the Twin Cities feel this way, as the following two articles suggest…
-Big Ten hockey is a buzzkill for fans in Minnesota – Plenty of fans aren’t buying what new hockey league is selling (by Rachel Blount at startribune.com on Feb. 26 2016).
-Breaking Up the WCHA: the NCAA’s Worst Mistake Yet (by Alexandra Werner at freshu.io on Nov. 24 2015).

The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013; five teams left the CCHA to join the WCHA in 2013-14: Northern Michigan, Alaska Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State). And another conference was, for all intents and purposes, asset-stripped: the WCHA.

The conference that ended up most diminished in stature, after the D1-hockey realignment, was the WCHA.
The WCHA ended up losing 8 teams in 2013…Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Omaha, St. Cloud State, and Wisconsin. Basically all the teams that left the WCHA in 2013 were the big-title-winning teams-and-/-or-the-higher-drawing-teams…those aforementioned big-drawing/title-winning teams (Denver, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin); an up-and-coming D1-hockey team: Minnesota-Duluth (who were D1-hockey champions in 2011, and were the 5th-highest-drawing D1-hockey team in 2015-16); and another high-drawing (though relatively new and title-less) team, Nebraska-Omaha, who are the fourth-highest-drawing team these days in D1-hockey. The sad fact of the matter is that none of the teams now in the WCHA draw higher than 3.7-K-per-game. And no current WCHA team has won the D1-hockey title in more than two decades. The most-recent D1-hockey title-winner from the present-day WCHA was Lake Superior State 22 years ago, in 1994.

And no WCHA team has made it to the Frozen Four since the 2013 realignment that gutted the WCHA. The most-recent Frozen Four team from the WCHA was the St. Cloud Huskies in 2013 (but St. Cloud is also now in the NCHC). I don’t know how you can see it otherwise: the practical upshot of the 2013 realignment is this… the big boys (Big Ten and Minnesota and Wisconsin and Penn State), got to dictate terms, and the result was that all the biggest teams bolted from two conferences (the now-defunct CCHA and the now-asset-stripped WCHA). And just left many of the small-school D1-hockey teams to twist in the wind. In a conference which makes no geographical sense, amid a realignment that makes no sense except for the big boys. A realignment that has confused the whole D1-hockey world with unanswered questions. Like, for starters, why is Air Force Academy – of Colorado Springs, CO – still in the Atlantic conference and not in the NCHC or the WCHA? Or why, exactly, should the 5 D1-hockey teams from the state of Minnesota be in THREE different conferences? Or why, exactly, should the 7 D1-hockey teams from the state of Michigan also be in THREE different conferences? Or why would you throw away a great rivalry like North Dakota versus Minnesota? I thought the whole concept of realignment meant to consolidate, not to Balkanize.

And meanwhile, Big Ten hockey teams are underperforming since the realignment.
I find it interesting that since the realignment, no Big Ten D1-hockey teams have made it to the Frozen Four (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16: 3-seasons/16-spots, and zero Big Ten teams in the Frozen Four). Meanwhile, by its very far-flung and patched-together and decidedly-small-school nature, the WCHA has now become doomed to near-total obscurity. And travel costs have gone up around 40% per team in the WCHA since realignment {again, see this article, Big Ten shaking up college hockey, just not on the ice}. The WCHA used to make a healthy profit for its schools; now it is deep in the red, with announced losses of over a million dollars last season {see last link}. And so many great Upper Midwest D1-hockey rivalries were abandoned. For example, most-if-not-all Minnesota hockey fans would rather see their Golden Gophers versus North Dakota or Wisconsin or Duluth (or Bemidji or St. Cloud), not versus friggin’ Penn State or Ohio State. Penn State has been a big success in D1-hockey, but do you really think that would be the case without their sugar daddy (Pegula) ?. And besides, Penn State is in an entirely different region to Minnesota, with very little cultural overlap. And the embarrassing attendances for Big Ten D1-hockey conference finals bear this out – thanks to the fact that the University of Minnesota crammed the Big Ten D1-hockey concept down the throats of lifelong and multi-generational Minnesota-college-hockey-fans, who just want to see the Gophers play their real rivals, all of whom are within an easy road-trip away. Not in Pennsyl-tucky or in the part of Ohio that only cares about college football and basketball. Don’t get me started on the viability of Ohio State as a D1-hockey power…because the vast majority of people in central and south-central Ohio do not care about hockey. At all.

Post-realignment, there has been no real practical advantage gained for the teams outside the NCHC and the Big Ten.
Sure the NCHC teams are doing OK, but that is because they all ABANDONED THE SMALL SCHOOLS. And there’s no extra television revenue or exposure for any other D1-hockey teams outside the Big Ten, because D1-hockey has no significant television footprint, while the Big Ten has its own regional, and powerful, television network. The Big Ten network has no interest in promoting D1-hockey – it only has an interest in promoting Big Ten teams. D1-hockey is a niche sport. D1-hockey is extremely tied to ticket-paying support, not to television exposure. Local rivalries are the lifeblood of niche-sports, like D1-hockey, which depends heavily on ticket-paying support. Minnesota Golden Gophers fans’ displeasure can be seen in this quote from the first article I linked to, “The actual number of tickets scanned per game also has fallen since the Gophers left the WCHA, from 8,162 in 2012-13 to 7,604 last year. Scalpers outside Mariucci [Arena] say they are getting $15 for tickets with a face value of $45, and many go unsold even at that price. The Big Ten tournament has been a disappointment, too, with attendance a fraction of the 87,295 that packed Xcel Energy Center [in St. Paul, MN] for the last WCHA tournament in 2013.” (quote from Big Ten hockey is a buzzkill for fans in Minnesota – Plenty of fans aren’t buying what new hockey league is selling – (by Rachel Blount at startribune.com on Feb. 26 2016).

So, 3 years into the realignment, because of very poor ticket sales, especially in D1-hockey conference finals these past few years, now here’s three D1-hockey conference presidents acknowledging as much: WCHA pushing to to team with Big Ten, NCHC in conference finals (by David McCoy at minnesota.cbslocal.com on March 20 2016).

How long until people start talking about the realignments that need to be made in D1-hockey to correct the Balkanized realignment of 2013?
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

December 21, 2016

NCAA Division I Hockey: ECAC Hockey: attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities & NCAA D1-hockey titles listed.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey,NCAA, ice- ECAC — admin @ 8:42 pm

ncaa_ice-hockey_ecac-conference_attendance-map_2015-16_12-teams_post_f_.gif
NCAA Division I Hockey: ECAC Hockey: attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities & NCAA D1-hockey titles listed



By Bill Turianski on 21 December 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-Teams in ECAC, etc…ECAC Hockey (en.wikipedia.org).
-Official site…ecachockey.com/men/index.
-Conferences…Division I in ice hockey.
-USCHO page for ECAC Hockey…uscho.com/conference/ecac.

Conference-maps for NCAA Division I (aka D1) men’s ice hockey
(Note: already-posted D1-hockey conference maps are linked-to, below.)
I am making a location-map for each of the 6 D1-hockey conferences, which are…
Atlantic Hockey Association (11 teams/est. 1998-99/ zero titles).
Big Ten Conference hockey (6 teams [7-teams in 2017-18]/est. 2013-14/ 23 titles won amongst its six teams).
∙ECAC Hockey (12 teams/est. 1961-62/ 7 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
∙Hockey East Association (12 teams [11 teams in 2017-18]/est. 1984-85/ 13 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
National Collegiate Hockey Conference (aka NCHC) (8 teams/est. 2013-14/ 18 titles won amongst its eight teams).
Western Collegiate Hockey Association (aka WCHA) (10 teams/est. 1951-52/ 8 titles won amongst its ten teams).

Division I NCAA hockey was instituted in 1948.
(Division I NCAA hockey titles, 1948 to 2015-16/ 69 titles.)
The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013; the two teams which left the CCHA to join the brand-new NCHC are listed two paragraphs below.) (Note: there is one Independent D1-hockey team, Arizona State.)

Since 2013-14, there are two new conferences in D1-hockey:
Big Ten Conference hockey,
National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).

The location-map here shows the twelve-team ECAC hockey conference…
Formed in 1961-62, the ECAC D1-hockey conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relationship ended in 2004; however, the ECAC abbreviation was retained in the name of the hockey conference. The ECAC was the only D1 men’s hockey conference that remained unchanged during the major conference realignment in 2011 and 2012.

The ECAC has teams spread through 6 states in the Northeast and in New England…6 teams from New York (Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union College), 2 teams from Connecticut (Quinnipiac and Yale), 1 team from Massachusetts (Harvard), 1 team from Rhode Island (Brown), 1 team from New Hampshire (Dartmouth), and 1 team from New Jersey (Princeton). (There are 6 Ivy League teams in the ECAC: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale. The Ivy League does not have a D1-hockey conference, but each season the best-finisher of the 6 wins the Ivy League D1-hockey title.)

There are 5 distinct two-team clusters in the ECAC. Two teams are located in Central New York, situated 55 miles apart: Colgate (of Hamilton, NY) and Cornell (of Ithaca , NY). Two teams are located in the St. Lawrence Seaway area of Northern New York, situated 10 miles apart: Clarkson (of Potsdam, NY) and St. Lawrence (of Canton, NY). Two teams are located in the Capital/Tri-Cities region of New York, situated 14 miles apart: Rensselaer (of Troy, NY) and Union College (of Schenectady, NY). Two teams are located in south-eastern New England, situated 41 miles apart: Brown (of Providence, RI) and Harvard (of Cambridge, MA). And two teams are located in south-central Connecticut, situated just 5 miles apart: Quinnipiac (of Hamden, CT) and Yale (of New Haven, CT).

The map
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The 12 ECAC teams’ crests, colors and locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the 12 ECAC teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in the ECAC). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams). (Michigan has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998); meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season (2015-16), they have moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Boston College Eagles, with 25.)

Five ECAC teams have won D1-hockey titles.
The Rensselaer Engineers of Troy, NY were champions in 1954, and then three decades later, in 1985, RPI won their second title. The Cornell Big Red, of Ithaca, NY, won two D1-hockey titles in a four-year span, in 1967 and in 1970. The Harvard Crimson, of Cambridge, MA, won the 1989 D1-hockey title. And the Yale Bulldogs, of New Haven, CT, were recently D1-hockey champions, in 2013. The 2013 D1-hockey final was contested between two ECAC teams, with Yale defeating nearby rivals Quinnipiac 4-0. And then the following year (2014), the tiny Union College Dutchmen (with about 2,100 undergraduates), won the D1-hockey title…without even having one scholarship player. That, to me, sums up the beauty of D1-hockey. Where minnows can run rampant.

The most recent Frozen Four appearance by an ECAC team was by Quinnipiac in 2016. Overall, Harvard boasts the most Frozen Four appearances by an ECAC team, with 12 (but none since 1994). 11 of the 12 ECAC teams have made it to a Frozen Four, with the exception being Princeton. Last season three ECAC teams qualified for the 16-team D1-hockey tournament – Quinnipiac, Yale, and Harvard.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to Distance From To site.
-Thanks to FreePik.com (free photo vectors) at freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/shield, for shield-template to make Harvard VE-RI-TAS hockey jersey shoulder-patch-logo.

December 11, 2016

NCAA Division I Hockey: the Atlantic Hockey Conference (AHC): attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities.

Filed under: Hockey,NCAA, ice hockey,NCAA, ice- Atlantic Conf — admin @ 7:00 pm

ncaa_ice-hockey_atlantic-hockey-conference_attendance-map_2015-16_11-teams_post_d_.gif
NCAA Division I Hockey: the Atlantic Hockey Conference (AHC): attendance map (2015-16 regular season), with arena capacities, percent-capacities



By Bill Turianski on 11 December 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
Conferences…Division I in ice hockey.
Teams in Atlantic Hockey, etc…Atlantic Hockey (en.wikipedia.org).
-USCHO.com Atlantic Hockey blog (uscho.com).

Conference-maps for NCAA Division I (aka D1) men’s ice hockey
(Note: already-posted D1-hockey conference maps are linked-to, below.)
I am making a location-map for each of the 6 D1-hockey conferences, which are…
Atlantic Hockey Association (11 teams/est. 1998-99/ zero titles).
Big Ten Conference hockey (6 teams [7-teams in 2017-18]/est. 2013-14/ 23 titles won amongst its six teams).
∙ECAC Hockey (12 teams/est. 1961-62/ 7 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
∙Hockey East Association (12 teams [11 teams in 2017-18]/est. 1984-85/ 13 titles won amongst its twelve teams).
National Collegiate Hockey Conference (aka NCHC) (8 teams/est. 2013-14/ 18 titles won amongst its eight teams).
Western Collegiate Hockey Association (aka WCHA) (10 teams/est. 1951-52/ 8 titles won amongst its ten teams).

The location-map here shows the eleven-team Atlantic Hockey Conference (AHC).
The AHC has teams spread through four Northeastern states, plus Colorado. There are 4 teams from New York (Canisius College, Niagara, Rochester Institute of Technology [RIT], US Military Academy [Army]), 3 teams from Massachusetts (American International University [AIC], Bentley, Holy Cross), 2 teams from Pennsylvania (Mercyhurst and Robert Morris), 1 team from Connecticut (Sacred Heart), and 1 team from Colorado (US Air Force Academy).

The map
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The Atlantic Hockey teams’ crests, colors and arena-locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the 11 Atlantic hockey teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. At the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams).

Of the eleven Atlantic Hockey teams, eight of them are in the bottom ten of D1-hockey attendance…
Not only is Atlantic Hockey full of teams that are decidedly small-program, there are no D1-hockey titles won among its eleven teams. But there are four teams in Atlantic Hockey which are filling their small arenas pretty well. The Mercyhurst Lakers (of Erie, PA) are playing to sell-out crowds most games (they drew 1.2 K in their 1.3-K-capacity arena last season). And the Air Force Falcons, the RIT Tigers, and the Holy Cross Crusaders are all drawing above 75 percent-capacity.

I suspect most teams in Atlantic Hockey do not benefit from much local newspaper coverage or from local television-sports-news coverage, and this contributes to low attendance. Here is an article from the Buffalo News from March 2015, which discusses this, BNRinkside: College hockey attendance analytics (by Amy Moritz at buffalonews.com). In that article it is said that “Atlantic Hockey could do better to promote itself, not just nationally but in its own markets.” But how? If the local media aren’t covering Atlantic Hockey teams because they draw so low, how do you get people to know you even exist? It is a Catch-22-situation that ends up dooming low-drawing Atlantic Hockey teams to small crowds, thanks to a non-existent media footprint. In other words, they don’t get any local news coverage because they draw so poorly, and they draw so poorly because they don’t get any local news coverage.

That being said, there are a few teams in Atlantic Hockey that enjoy decent coverage in their local newspaper, like my hometown’s team, the RIT Tigers (see 2 paragraphs below). And like the Holy Cross Crusaders (of Worcester, MA), as this write-up of a recent game shows. And like Air Force (of Colorado Springs, CO)/see this. And like the two Greater Buffalo-based teams (Canisius College and Niagara)/see this.

But many teams in Atlantic Hockey, like the Robert Morris Patriots (of Moon Township, Greater Pittsburgh, PA), get very spotty coverage (like a report on a game a week ago, but no report on the Robert Morris game versus Bentley on Dec. 10th). Or gets none at all (note how at that link there is a section for the minor-league soccer team [Pittsburgh Riverhounds], but no section at all for any Robert Morris sports teams). And the same can be said – for a complete lack of media coverage – of the two Atlantic Hockey teams within the Greater New York City area: the Sacred Heart Pioneers (of Fairfield, CT) and the Army Black Knights (of West Point, NY). Ditto for the Bentley Falcons (of Waltham, MA), in Boston. I could not find any coverage of the AIC Yellow Jackets in the Springfield, Massachusetts television and print media. And it looks like the Mercyhurst Lakers get less coverage than local high school hockey and the Erie Otters (who play in the Ontario Hockey League and draw 4 times what Mercyhurts draws/see this recent OHL map I made).

In my hometown – Rochester, NY – that is actually not the case, and the RIT Tigers hockey team gets pretty solid coverage in the local newspaper, and from the local cable 24-hour news channel, as well as the local network-television stations (like this: RIT hockey toger toss and this: RIT Hockey Loses Series Against Providence). But that is because my hometown is a real anomaly. Rochester has a population of around 1.1 million in its metro-area (making it the 54th largest city in the USA/see this). Despite that, Rochester is one of the two largest city/metro-areas in the USA without even a D1-college basketball team, let alone any major league teams, or a D1-football team. (The only other city of equal-or-greater-size with that same situation is Grand Rapids, MI [52nd-largest-city in the USA], which also has no major league teams, or D1-football teams, or D1-basketball teams.)

So when the RIT Tigers hockey team made the leap up, from Division III to Division I in 2005, it was relatively big news in my sleepy town, because Rochester finally had a D1 team, albeit only in hockey. But Rochester is a hockey town (the Rochester Amerks are the second-oldest team in the AHL and are the nearby Buffalo Sabres’ top farm team). Now in a new, on-campus 4.3-K-capacity arena, the RIT Tigers lead Atlantic Hockey in attendance, drawing 3.3 K. And the RIT Tigers made it to a Frozen Four (in 2010), which is the only time any Atlantic Hockey team has ever done so.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

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