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College Hockey Expansion Pt. 2

There was a lot of interesting discussion about the college hockey expansion post I had yesterday. Of course, the overwhelming opinion, and probably sad reality, is that we're a long, long way from any of that ever happening. It doesn't mean we can't dream though.

We'll start with my suggestion of Nebraska-Lincoln starting a hockey program. Husker Mike thinks it's not a bad idea. One of the big sticking points is that of a rink. There's been some discussion of building a new arena similar to Omaha's Qwest Center, which would work. MavRick also had some thoughts on Nebraska starting a hockey program, but apparently some of his comments hit a little too close to home for some Husker fans.

In Iowa, someone pointed out that Iowa City probably wouldn't be the best place for college hockey to start up, and thinking about it, I agree. You might have better success at a place like Northern Iowa.

RWD gives more confirmation to what I said about no hockey at Illinois. Or I guess it's the other way around since RWD's post was first.

Commenters did express qualms about the Wisconsin D3ers moving up because their athletic departments are all D3, and there's problems with them moving up. I'd like to think that if they ever decided to explore a move up, the NCAA would help clear some of that red tape to help them move up, since it would seem to be in everyone's best interest. There's also that those schools would need new rinks. Eau Claire(1100), Stout(800), and Steven's Point(1800) would all need new, bigger arenas. UW-Superior has a 3000 seat arena, which they could probably get away with. I'm sure you could get commnuties to come up with the money for a community arena if they had the promise of Division I hockey.

People seemed lukewarm on the idea of college hockey in California and other non-traditional college hockey areas. I think looking at the NAHL is a good model. If we can find a way to get 17 and 18 year olds playing hockey in places like Texas and Montana and Santa Fe, why can't we find a way to get 20 and 21 year olds playing in places like that too?