It's official

[melissa \'01]

Well just thought I'd wish everyone a happy friday. Hope that I'm not the only one who is having the reality of the season ending kick in as it is Friday and I have no place I albsolutely HAVE to rush off to (and get there by 6:30 nonetheless). :`( After 5 months it just feels weird. Oh well ....

[jtwcornell91]

Of course, even if we had beat UNH, we'd be going stir-crazy in this pre-Frozen-Four[TM] week off.  But it is a lot harder to bear knowing that the only teams we'll get to see in the next 6+ months are Maine, UNH, Minnesota and Michigan. ::twitch::

[ugarte]

And I would have been going completely crazy, ranting at the wind over the NCAA's inexplicable decision to play the first semifinal at 1:30 on a THURSDAY.  Even though Cornell lost I am still infuriated at that decision.

[Beeeej]

Since when is the first semi not at 12:30pm?

Beeeej

[jtwcornell91]

Well, it's hardly news; the NCAAs have been played Thursday-Saturday for a number of years now.  I assume it was originally to avoid conflicts with squeakball (the final used to be Saturday morning for this reason) but it's not clear what the motivation is now.  I guess they want to leave the extra day for the Hobey presentation?

[jtwcornell91]

13:30 Eastern, 12:30 Central.

[cbuckser]

JTW's simultaneous post was a little faster than mine.  Sorry.

[Al DeFlorio]

They're trying to avoid having one semifinal played the night before the championship game, as was done in the early '70s--while still having a separate admission for each semifinal.  Way back when, the winner of the Thursday night semifinal got a day of rest while the Friday winner got to play again the next night.

Ergo, Thursday afternoon and evening semifinals.  So Friday becomes Hobey day to fill the time.

[jtwcornell91]

Presumably, they also want to avoid having the semis and finals on consecutive days, lest the winner of the late semi be at a disadvantage.  Otherwise they could play the semis Saturday and the finals Sunday or some such.

[Josh '99]

If the tickets are sold as a championship package (correct me if I'm wrong about this), what's the point of having separate admission to the two semifinals?

[RichS]

This IS the NCAA....

Its about $$$$$$$$$ !!!!!! :-D

[jtwcornell91]

They sell the three games as a package, but they give you three tickets with individual prices printed on them.  Not sure how they make extra money on that, but it does let people re-sell them piecemeal if they like.

[Al DeFlorio]

It avoids the appearance of charging $90 for the semifinal games.

John's point about reselling tickets for the "other" semi is a good one, also.  With one admission and no pass-outs (like at the regionals), the arena might be half-filled for each semi, a la Worcester last Saturday.

[ugarte]

If they are worried about that, they should do what basketball does - Saturday semis and a Monday night final.

[gwm3]

What's keeping them from doing a 5PM/8PM doubleheader or something like that?   12:30 local time (1:30 our time) seems rather inconvenient from a spectator's point of view.