Bob Herpen: Changes in Division I hockey lead to narrowing of TV reach This season, NBCSN and Hockey East have joined together to predominantly feature a single program: Notre Dame. The trend of one network broadcasting one Division-I conference at a time has led to greater exposure for the college game, but to less desirable overall matchups on the national stage.

Sounds to me like NBCSN is cutting its losses. They locked themselves into an expensive contract (production wise, at least), and now they're focusing on Hockey East where the viewership apparently lies so that revenues can at least somewhat cover their costs. The exposure of watching all sorts of games is great, but if the product is hemorrhaging money, it makes no sense to the network to keep going if only a select niche is watching.

NCAA is a hot mess and should effectively be eliminated or boycotted. Bunch of boobs running that show.

NCAA is a hot mess and should effectively be eliminated or boycotted. Bunch of boobs running that show.
- MnGump

What channel is that show on??

What channel is that show on??
- eichiefs9

Reddit and 4chan from what I understand.

Reddit and 4chan from what I understand.
- Kineada

What channel is that show on??
- eichiefs9

I hate the new divsion one realignments. Bad for the game.

Really good read and dead on. Quinnipiac/Yale should be on at least once...toughest ticket to get in Connecticut for a sporting event. seats go for $200 plus.

college hockey is an underrated experience. It truly is the best atmosphere in sports, but people just don't know about it. But you know, watching only one team should really help that.

It's alarming how quickly the transition's occurring. Hockey's being dragged into the same business model that turned college football and basketball into monoliths.

What I expect in the future is expansion -- of teams, and conferences and the tournament, to try and further shoehorn D-I into the March Madness/College Playoff mold. I would not be surprised if more schools heavily involved in football and/or basketball get the backing and funding from their respective administrations to create/resurrect programs.

It's alarming how quickly the transition's occurring. Hockey's being dragged into the same business model that turned college football and basketball into monoliths.

What I expect in the future is expansion -- of teams, and conferences and the tournament, to try and further shoehorn D-I into the March Madness/College Playoff mold. I would not be surprised if more schools heavily involved in football and/or basketball get the backing and funding from their respective administrations to create/resurrect programs.
- Bob.Herpen

If the universities/conferences put the resources into it correctly, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It sounds like the NCAA is trying to get more players to play NCAA hockey as opposed to Junior hockey up in Canada or overseas. With the inevitability of college athletes getting stipends (and you know once they're established in men's basketball and football, the other sports are going to say "why not us?"), the NCAA is going to look more popular next to the Junior leagues than it did. And depending on what kind of money these schools/conferences are willing to put in, they might even be able to attract some of the top Junior coaches as well.

We all talk about how we want to "grow the game" in the US. Like it or not, this is the way to do it. The perks have just as much to do with the game itself. Unfortunately, that's just the reality of the situation.

Arizona State is "reportedly" looking at bumping up to D-I and there are about three dozen other universities with football/basketball presence which have decent backing with their club teams.

Here in Philly, the City 6 all have successful, long running club hockey squads. Penn fielded a team in the ECAC along with the rest of the Ivies until 1978.

All that's needed is a spark to get the whole thing ignited. Individual donors and school administrations will quickly change tunes.

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