Syracuse U. to "investigate" hockey at Lynah

As reported in the Syracuse Post-Standard:

[www.syracuse.com]

Gross has instructed staff to investigate adding ice hockey as a varsity sport at SU. While it's widely assumed the Orange is interested in adding it for women as part of gender equity opportunities, Gross said he's just as interested in the sport for men.

Gross said if anyone was to evaluate Syracuse and list sports the school should be good at, he said basketball, football and lacrosse are givens. After that? Hockey, Gross says, is a logical conclusion.

The university has an ice rink on South campus that could be used for practice and some games. However, Gross thinks that the men's side could be a revenue producer and believes the Onondaga War Memorial would be available for games.

Gross has on his to-do list a trip to Cornell to watch a game at raucous Lynah Rink.

Should the Orange skate down that path, it could mean the loss of a non-revenue sport.

Also reported by CHN:
[www.collegehockeynews.com]

And yesterday I emailed him inviting him to come down to a game with me. I'd love it if they would start a program. Maybe in ECAC with RIT or Niagara?

Jim Hyla
And yesterday I emailed him inviting him to come down to a game with me. I'd love it if they would start a program. Maybe in ECAC with RIT or Niagara?

I'd love to see them start a program, but no ECAC unless the Ivy penalty is ended.

I wonder if SU and RIT could be a package deal to an expanded Hockey East? I can almost smell the smoke...SU has Providence going to bat for it, offers a nice suite of future basketball games to everyone but Merrimack and Lowell, and will consider pushing for UMass in the Big East should they take their football program D1A. BC is furious because of their ugly break from the Big East, but the thought of an annual trip to Rochester guarantees all future Reasoners, Giontas, and Collinses (well, almost all) will continue to leave the Flower City for Chestnut Hill. RIT further guarantees they will not recruit any bluechip Rochester players for the next 10 years to seal the deal.

Syracuse has pretty nice name recognition. I can see AD Gross figuring out a way to get an ice rink inside the Carrier Dome and getting 25,000 for a Cornell-Syracuse game. Let the games begin...

ithacat
I wonder if SU and RIT could be a package deal to an expanded Hockey East?

My proposal: Drop-kick Union. RIT joins the ECAC (RIT-Cornell and Colgate-RPI travel partnerships), and send UConn and Syracuse into a 12-team Hockey East. This maintains the academic/athletic priorities of each league, expands Hockey East's marketing power into another region, and makes for some pretty nifty geographic cross-league rivalries as well.

In addition, you could reorganize CHA and Atlantic Hockey into something that makes more sense and secures their NCAA tournament eligibility legitimately. Send Army, Air Force, Mercyhurst, and Canisius to CHA, and put Union in Atlantic Hockey. It'd be nice to spin Merrimack there as well, but I can't think of a HEA replacement, unless URI or another UMass school wants to go D-1.

This appears to be moving rapidly.

[www.collegehockeynews.com]

Could this be the nudge that gets the Ivies 5 more games?

ithacat
This appears to be moving rapidly.

[www.collegehockeynews.com]

Could this be the nudge that gets the Ivies 5 more games?

Wouldn't it be more likely to split into two divisions of 7? Home & home in your division, only one game against the others. That's 21 games, so we'd even get an extra OOC game.

DeltaOne81

ithacat
This appears to be moving rapidly.

[www.collegehockeynews.com]

Could this be the nudge that gets the Ivies 5 more games?

Wouldn't it be more likely to split into two divisions of 7? Home & home in your division, only one game against the others. That's 21 games, so we'd even get an extra OOC game.

Are you talking about 14 teams in the ECACHL? Wouldn't that be 19 games? Two each times the SIX other teams in your division (12) plus seven against the other division.

Plus unless one division has the six Ivy schools (to maintain playing home and away every year) how do you award an Ivy title?

nyc94
Are you talking about 14 teams in the ECACHL? Wouldn't that be 19 games? Two each times the SIX other teams in your division (12) plus seven against the other division.

Yeah, I guess 19. A bit too few, I guess.

Plus unless one division has the six Ivy schools (to maintain playing home and away every year) how do you award an Ivy title?

Hmmm, maybe we could combine these problems and fix them post. 3 Ivies East (H, D, B), 3 Ivies West (C, Y, P).

Add 3 'rivalry' games against the other division. Ivies can play each other, and reinstate a balanced Ivy titles. other schools do it differently. That's back to 22 games. No change, no unbalanced Ivy competition.

Not that I'm necessarily thrilled with the idea of 'Cuse in the ECACHL. But if it happened, that'd be one way to work it.

One question — would the Syracuse community, known for playing huge schools in football and basketball, embrace a team that plays the likes of Cornell, Colgate and Clarkson?

"We play Colgate in basketball. I believe our Olympic sports play the Colgates of the world," Wildhack said. "Because of the unique nature of where those schools are in basketball and football, it would have little bearing on a hockey rivalry on a Division I level.

Umm... Cornell plays S.U. in squeekball and lacrosse, too.

DeltaOne81

ithacat
This appears to be moving rapidly.

[www.collegehockeynews.com]

Could this be the nudge that gets the Ivies 5 more games?

Wouldn't it be more likely to split into two divisions of 7? Home & home in your division, only one game against the others. That's 21 games, so we'd even get an extra OOC game.

The ECAC has been down that road before. I'd rather not do so again (or any other scheme that points to the Ivies as a separate league or unit).

Would hockey at the Carrier Dome set records for indoor hockey? For college? I guess during the FF college teams play in Pro arenas, but very few (none?) NHL arenas can fit 25k....

Who doubts that we could fill the dome once a year?
This sounds like a lot of fun. I hope I'm still around in school to see it.

BMac
Would hockey at the Carrier Dome set records for indoor hockey? For college? I guess during the FF college teams play in Pro arenas, but very few (none?) NHL arenas can fit 25k....

Who doubts that we could fill the dome once a year?
This sounds like a lot of fun. I hope I'm still around in school to see it.

They'd play at the War Memorial (where the Crunch play) not the Dome.

BMac
Would hockey at the Carrier Dome set records for indoor hockey? For college? I guess during the FF college teams play in Pro arenas, but very few (none?) NHL arenas can fit 25k....

Who doubts that we could fill the dome once a year?
This sounds like a lot of fun. I hope I'm still around in school to see it.

They would not play in the Carrier Dome. They have enough trouble during the overlapping seasons now that they are building a new fieldhouse with Turf grass. No way I'd see B'ball sharing the Dome with hockey.


Maybe practice facility on campus, and they are talking about games at the War Memorial. The county has just agreed to an overhall of that for the Syr. Crunch.

redhair34
They'd play at the War Memorial (where the Crunch play) not the Dome.

Also the site of the dead and not mourned Syracuse Hockey Invitational Tournament. The S.H.I.T. was the most poorly-run of all the holiday tourneys, and the War Memorial... well, it was an appropriate location.

All good proposals of ECAC shuffling begin with getting rid of Union. I would be happiest with the parsimonious approach -- swap UC for Syracuse straight up and keep a 12-team conference.

The Ivies won't ever budge from their limit, it's too ingrained in HYP's Holier Than Thou posturing (see also athletic scholarships) and CDB's pathetic "monkey see, monkey do" aping of the Alzheimers Three.

Jim Hyla

BMac
Would hockey at the Carrier Dome set records for indoor hockey? For college? I guess during the FF college teams play in Pro arenas, but very few (none?) NHL arenas can fit 25k....

Who doubts that we could fill the dome once a year?
This sounds like a lot of fun. I hope I'm still around in school to see it.

They would not play in the Carrier Dome. They have enough trouble during the overlapping seasons now that they are building a new fieldhouse with Turf grass. No way I'd see B'ball sharing the Dome with hockey.


Maybe practice facility on campus, and they are talking about games at the War Memorial. The county has just agreed to an overhall of that for the Syr. Crunch.

Dr. Gross would probably want to play a game or two in the Dome, as long as it wouldn't damage the field turf. I suspect he'd want to set an on-campus (indoor) attendance record, and also test the feasiblilty of hosting Regionals and Frozen Fours. I could see a nice double-header with SU, Cornell (obvious reasons), BC (SU fans love to hate BC like no one else, nasty ACC/Big East breakup), and Notre Dame (ok, maybe they like hating these guys more).

BMac
Would hockey at the Carrier Dome set records for indoor hockey? For college? I guess during the FF college teams play in Pro arenas, but very few (none?) NHL arenas can fit 25k....

Who doubts that we could fill the dome once a year?
This sounds like a lot of fun. I hope I'm still around in school to see it.

I doubt that we could fill the dome. We can hardly fill Lynah this year!