For those who traveled to MN

DKmathteacher Wrote:

What's so special about an all-Minnesotan team? Unless you have something against the concept of diversity... [/Q]
If you're a state school & you can fill all your recruiting needs with in-state players, plus a Vanek & Kessel here and there, why wouldn't you?
[/q]

Let's take a trip to Utopia for a second. An intercollegiate athletic team, in its purest form should be made up of students enrolled at a college or university that happen to want to play that sport. They would hold tryouts on campus, select a Varsity squad, and pit that school's best vs. the Varsity squads of other institutions for the sake of competition, activity, recreation, and amusement.

We all know that isn't true anymore. There are recruiting, money, admissions, and corruption issues abound, especially in the big-time sports of basketball and football. The concept of the "student-athlete" is ficticious at many universities. Every school competing at the D-1 level has hockey players who would not be attending that institution if it weren't for the hockey team...Cornell, Harvard, and Minnesota included. In today's world, it's a reality that schools have to actively recruit far and wide just to remain competetive. But at the very least, there is a perception that my utopia is still attainable for that rare student-athlete who values the opportunity to get a first-rate education in addition to competing at the highest level. Not to mention that with some of the minor, "non-money" sports it still holds.

It makes sense that Minnesota's rosters are made up of a large number of Minnesotans. You expect a large state school to draw mostly from in-state. However, I take issue with making a rule that the team MUST be made up entirely of Minnesotans, as Coach Woog did. What if there's a blue-chipper from Boston who decided to enroll at the U. to be near some close relatives? He has no chance at making the squad. What about the kid from South Dakota who came to study in a very specific educational program? "Sorry chester, we don't allow people from the other side of that line over there to play with our team." It's an exclusive, elitist policy and IMO, mean and wrong. Thankfully, having 100% MN rosters is no longer a rule.

Cornell and other large universities are international in scope, so why shouldn't all students be eligible for participation in campus activities? True that we recruit specifically for our hockey team, and a large number of our recruits are Canadian. But to answer your question with another question...if there are non-Minnesotans willing to attend Minnesota to get a great education and are good enough hockey players to make the team and contribute, why wouldn't you let them?