By far the most popular Club Sports on Campus making them well deserving of their own home. Bring your Hockey Club discussion here. All D1, D2 and D3 Men's and Women's team will find a home here.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

#551738
The home schedule was announced a few days ago:

https://www.liberty.edu/campusrec/clubs ... 494&TeamID

One particular game is the season opener against Penn State, who is a NCAA Division 1 team. Is this a game that would cast an eye at LU as a possible team to go under a feasible study for the NCAA? At the moment there have been 2/5 schools that have been through the process (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Oakland University. At the moment, UI do not have the funds to go D1 in the NCAA, but they’re hoping to gain the money by 2019-2020(start as an independent) and transition into BIG 10 by the 2020-2021 season. Oakland finished their study as well and would like to transition although they do not have the money. Fortunately Liberty has the funds and facility to pass the study and the program is near a NHL Franchise who is in the Stanley Cup Finals(Washington Capitals). That can help promote hockey in the area and region. Any thoughts?
#551739
With the added scholarships in football to be FBS I would imagine any talk of making a Men’s Sport anything but Club or where it’s currently at is DOA
#551742
Purple Haize wrote:With the added scholarships in football to be FBS I would imagine any talk of making a Men’s Sport anything but Club or where it’s currently at is DOA

You could be right, however this study would include the women’s team as well. There is an open spot for both men and women in the Hockey East conference and Liberty would be a good fit for it. With all the transitions and developments that is going on, I wouldn’t say that the idea is not discussed. I talked to the Video coach from the D1 team and the talks are still alive and possibly can Come into fruition sooner than we believe ( just like most believe that LU becoming FBS would’ve taken 2-3 more decades). Furthermore, it could work with the title IX procedures as the university could possibly expand in population. The motto is to expand our brand and with our AD having connections in the north east (UMASS), that could help enormously as well.
#551743
cruzan_flame13 wrote:
Purple Haize wrote:With the added scholarships in football to be FBS I would imagine any talk of making a Men’s Sport anything but Club or where it’s currently at is DOA

You could be right, however this study would include the women’s team as well. There is an open spot for both men and women in the Hockey East conference and Liberty would be a good fit for it. With all the transitions and developments that is going on, I wouldn’t say that the idea is not discussed. I talked to the Video coach from the D1 team and the talks are still alive and possibly can Come into fruition sooner than we believe ( just like most believe that LU becoming FBS would’ve taken 2-3 more decades). Furthermore, it could work with the title IX procedures as the university could possibly expand in population. The motto is to expand our brand and with our AD having connections in the north east (UMASS), that could help enormously as well.
Yeah, moving both Men’s and Women’s Out Of Club level would maybe cancel each other out on the Title IX front. But it would also be a large financial commitment that I’m not sure the Administration would want to undertake
#551757
Jonathan Carone wrote:I’m not so sure the video coach for a club sport is the most reliable source for the inner workings of Division I athletics.
His ‘Sources’ seem to be on par with ballcoach
#551758
Jonathan Carone wrote:I’m not so sure the video coach for a club sport is the most reliable source for the inner workings of Division I athletics.
I never said it will happen 100%. He has stated that the talk of transition is alive and could be possible to happen based the growth of the program(he was a former player). It wasn’t a source to prove anything but just found it interesting that people are still discussing about it. No he is not getting any information from the folks at the top of the department. Calling it a source is not what I intended it to be, but it was cool to know that someone on the roster is interested about the idea as well. Still, it’s not as bad to point out things that seem connected to the idea. For instance, McCaw has been the AD for UMASS( who has a team in the Hockey East) and is from Canada. I wonder if the thought ever came to his mind to consider transitioning LU hockey into that level of competition?
#551760
The people associated with the team will always say the talks are still alive. People associated with the football team said FBS talks were alive all the way back to Karcher’s first years. He even had a transition plan in place.

Moral of the story: just because people associated with a program say talks are alive doesn’t mean they’re anywhere close to happening.
#551762
Jonathan Carone wrote:The people associated with the team will always say the talks are still alive. People associated with the football team said FBS talks were alive all the way back to Karcher’s first years. He even had a transition plan in place.

Moral of the story: just because people associated with a program say talks are alive doesn’t mean they’re anywhere close to happening.
I wouldn’t compare those times to modern day based on the resources that we have now and key personnel in athletic positions, but that’s just me I suppose. Also, one has to consider that these are two different sports, so transitioning will be diffferent. Since the NHL is connected with college hockey, these assiciations are desperate to spread the sport in the south and the west. Basically what I’m saying is that money talks, and they definitely need the money and interest of others (students/student athletes/ others) compared to college football.
#551815
BuryYourDuke wrote:Every year or so this topic sort of comes around, so I figure now is as good of a time to touch on it as any (it is the end of May after all). I like to think I know a little bit about this, and I’m pretty darn close to the program. So, take this how you like...

1) We are opening at home against Penn State’s ACHA team, not its NCAA program. With that said, Liberty beat Penn State during their transition season, with a team full of scholarship NCAA players. So I don’t think we would be totally demolished, but let’s not pretend we are at that level, because we aren’t.

2) A great talent comparison in the rapidly growing and improving ACHA D1 is NCAA D3. The top 15 ACHA teams would do VERY well in NCAA D3, and some would likely be national champions on a given year. More and more, talented players are choosing to go to bigger universities with more academic choices, higher name recognition, better weather, and just more to offer. That means a ton, and I mean a ton, of guys are choosing ACHA over the small private schools in the northeast that offer NCAA hockey at the D3 level. The facilities, amenities, travel, coaching, media coverage, and competition have all improved so much in the past decade, it is honestly a more exciting experience for the most part. While a handful NCAA D2 schools have hockey, there hasn’t been a D2 national championship in a long time, with no plans to reinstate it. Most D2’s are in the process of transitioning either up or down.

3) There was a time a few years back when a move for Liberty was looked at. Eventually the view became that at LU, we could do more by making it one of the premier ACHA programs in the country, with one of the top 3 facilities, than by moving to a much more heavily regulated and expensive NCAA brand. And frankly, they were correct IMO. ACHA is growing so quickly, and the quality is improving so rapidly.

4) We would definitely need to move both the men and women for Title IX reasons. So you are more than doubling the expense there, for what is already the second most expensive NCAA sport. Our travel expenses would be VERY high. We could afford it, but getting schools to come to us would be more difficult (not saying it can’t be done).

5) Conference affiliation would be an issue. Mostly because of travel. We would be a geographic outlier, by a lot, no matter where we tried to go. Hockey East is an absolute pipe dream. That would be like a new D1 school going to the SEC. Not going to happen. Definitely not going to happen for a private school in Virginia. Alabama Huntsville has NCAA hockey, and so does Arizona State. There are other geographic oddballs, but we would be one of the 5 worst in the nation.

Honestly, it’s just not feasible in the current climate of NCAA hockey. Things could change a lot, especially if the SEC and PAC get involved, which is at least mentioned as a long term possibility on occasion. However, the change and momentum really seems to be that ACHA hockey is going to keep pulling stronger players to bigger schools, especially in the warmer climate south and west. Heck, ACHA programs are already sending guys into professional hockey left and right (including Ours). It is unlikely to be an NHL pipeline in the near future, but with a very feasible and moderate increase in support from schools on facilities and budget, the product will be just as attractive as NCAA D1 is on campuses throughout the Northeast and upper Midwest.

It’s going to be a great season guys. Big time games at home, and the team is going to be awesome. Also, it is worth noting that Coach Handy is committed to putting young men on the ice that we ALL can be truly proud of, on and off the ice. The spiritual growth of the team is his main priority, and it is fantastic to see. These are true student athletes, and the type of young me. doc envisioned putting on a Liberty University uniform. Please support them.
So our D1 team will play their D2 team? Penn State does not have a D1 team in the ACHA:

http://sites.psu.edu/clubsports/clubs/ice-hockey-men/
Dondi Costin - LU President

The recent statements by Costin on moving away […]

There’s a cerebral side to the game. And it&[…]

NCAA Realignment Megathread

Duke Gonzaga B12? https://larrybrownsports.com/co[…]

FlameFans Fantasy Baseball

We are on!!! Hope to see everyone tonight at 9:30[…]