Tripp Takes Over Radio Play-by-Play Duties

During an interview of Guy Gadowsky on "Sports Talk with Steve Jones and Brian Tripp" on ESPN Radio 1450 in State College Wednesday afternoon, it was revealed that the show's producer and co-host, Brian Tripp, will be the new radio voice of Penn State men's hockey in 2013-2014.

The news, as tends to happen, spread and was confirmed on Twitter, including by the subject himself.

Tripp represents a sharp departure from the man he is replacing, eleven-year Icers and Nittany Lions vet Steve Penstone. While Penstone took on broadcasting as a second career, was largely self-made, a bit unpolished and primarily concerned with hockey, Tripp is a young jack of all trades who trained for broadcasting from day one - and in fact, was calling games for some of PSU's most-regarded teams (women's volleyball, to name one) as an undergrad. Here's Tripp's bio from ESPN Radio 1450:

Brian joined State College's ESPN Radio 1450 in February 2012, serving as the producer for Sports Talk with Steve Jones. In addition to working on the station's afternoon talk show, his responsibilities include producing daily news and sports updates and hosting sports talk programming on a fill-in basis. Brian also serves as a broadcaster with the Penn State Sports Network and Penn State Athletics. He just completed his third full season as the play-by-play voice of the Penn State women's volleyball team and serves as an analyst for Lady Lion basketball and Penn State baseball broadcasts. He is a native of Nazareth, Pa and a 2011 graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

For those unfamiliar with his style and eager to get a sneak preview, Tripp maintains a personal website including clips of his work on volleyball, basketball, wrestling... and even THON. While a fair criticism would be his inexperience with hockey (or even worse, with some people, his lack of "hockey guy" status), Tripp's resume to this point and his proven versatility seem to indicate that he'll have no problem picking it up.

Oh, and there's this clip of him doing play-by-play of a Casey Bailey goal on February 1st against Ohio from his website:



Tripp will be joined in the booth by analyst Tim King, who debuted alongside Penstone in 2012-2013 and will reprise his role in the coming year. Further details on PSU's radio arrangement, including the stations carrying the games, are still being worked out.

Penstone Will Not Return as PSU PxP (Updated)

Long-time Penn State hockey play-by-play broadcaster Steve Penstone is moving on after 11 seasons, as disclosed by his Twitter account and confirmed through sources.

Beginning with the 2002-2003 season, Penstone's voice became synonymous with Penn State hockey. Through changes in platforms, coaches and partners - Fight On State to GoPSUSports All Access, audio to video, Joe Battista to Guy Gadowsky, John Mulhern to Tim King - Penstone was always there to tell us when someone went top shelf and disturbed grandma's peanut butter, and his sense for the flow of a game was unmatched. His run included the 2003 ACHA National Championship, which involved a Penn State shutout of host and archrival Ohio in the championship game, as well as PSU's first NCAA season, a happening once written off as impossible.

The former Toronto police officer and proud Canadian also provided Icers followers a mid-week inside look at the team through his popular View from the Booth blog usually including healthy doses of player and coach interviews. He often went the extra mile on his broadcasts, eschewing those old standbys of silence or music during intermissions for score updates, interviews and discussion. Thanks to both he and his wife Barb, the underappreciated "executive producer," Icers fans enjoyed an ability to follow the team superior to the offerings of any other ACHA program, and this blog written by an out-of-stater owes a debt to both of them, particularly during the first two pre-varsity seasons. An intermission interview back in 2011 at Ohio's Bird Arena gave TYT a nice bit of early exposure as well.

In a Pennsylvania Puck feature last year marking a decade of Penstone behind a blue and white mic, he said something that may have proven eerily prophetic:

For those such as Penstone who have been intimately involved with what he calls the “Icers family,” the arrival of D-I hockey summons mixed emotions.

"Because you lose that family atmosphere and all of a sudden it becomes a business,” Penstone said. “But, everybody’s wanted it, and now it’s here.

"The Icer family will still be here. It’ll just be a little different. Families always go through that type of change."

Broadcast details for the 2013-2014 season have not been released yet, but it's assumed that Big Ten Network will play a heavy role in showing Penn State games. Even when the Nittany Lions are not on television, most contests are expected to be carried on BTN's digital platform. It's unknown right now whether any shift in the nature of PSU's media arrangement led to Penstone's departure.

UPDATE 7/27, 3:30 P.M.: Penstone posted the following statement on Facebook late Friday night:

---

Dear Friends

It is with regret and sadness that I'm writing to let you know that I will not be returning to the Penn State hockey broadcast booth for the 2013-14 season.

Obviously, Barb and I are in shock right now, but we both know that the road ahead offers us new challenges and opportunities.

We would like to thank each and every one of you for your support, and most importantly your friendship, over the past eleven seasons. The bond that is the Icers family will never be broken.

No matter where the road ahead takes us, we will always look forward to seeing you and sharing a laugh at some point in the future.

We love you all.

Cheers

Steve

Three Stars: May 6-12

3. Sewickley coach named director at Pegula Ice Arena
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Some nice coverage of Ryan Patrick, the former Icer who was named the Pegula Ice Arena's hockey director a couple weeks ago, focusing largely on his brief tenure under some adverse circumstances as Sewickley Academy. But it still fit in this quote:

“There is a lot of excitement in the area,” Patrick said. “It should be like in Pittsburgh with the ‘Sidney Tsunami.' There was a spike in playing when Sidney Crosby came to Pittsburgh. That is what we are hoping for here with the new arena.”

Population limitations (especially relative to Pittsburgh, the other half of the comparison) will always have something to say about Central PA's production of players, but there's absolutely no reason that Jill Holdcroft has to stand alone as a great locally-produced player.

2. First B1G Season for PSU Hockey
(WTAJ)

It's nothing of any great substance, but here's some coverage of Guy Gadowsky's Coaches Caravan stop in DuBois Thursday morning. That was one of his two appearances, and I'd like to think I did an adequate job on the second, in Pittsburgh that evening. So there you go.

I'm just glad that I'm not one of the PSU football writers who had to cover Bill O'Brien saying the exact same thing 12 times over. That had to be brutal.

1. Jenna Welch Highlights - Penn State Hockey
Nicole Paniccia Highlights - Penn State Hockey
(YouTube)

There's no rule that says a first star has to be something of immediate concern. Random highlight videos of Jenna Welch and Nicole Paniccia that popped on the radar last week are certainly worthy, as they involve two of my favorite players. I just wish the Welch one had that elbow she laid on Erin Zach at RIT back in February. Frustration penalty or not, it was bad ass.

Best of the Rest

Penn State-Vermont to battle for second straight year
(flyers.com)

Why is the Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff being promoted by everyone except the two schools involved? Who knows. But Comcast and the Philadelphia Flyers would like you to know that tickets are on sale now.

Notably, puck drop for the October 26th game has been moved up two hours to 5:00 p.m., meaning that it will no longer overlap with the Penn State at Ohio State football game at 8:00 that night.

Your State’s Highest Paid Employee Likely an NCAA Coach
(Onward State)

Congratulations to New Hampshire's Dick Umile on being the only college hockey coach to double as his state's highest-paid employee. Get that paper. Since you're not getting the hardware, might as well.

Success With Hyperlinking: Brass Monkey Style
(Black Shoe Diaries)

Breaking my "newsworthy" requirement here, since this pissed me off...

PSU Hockey's conference schedule has been released. A brief internet search shows that three teams PSU plays (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan) were all ranked at the end of last season. Oh, and their last home game is against Ohio State. I don't even like hockey and I'm getting excited.

Know why people from the outside crack on Penn State's potential as a hockey school? It's because PSU blogs with 20 times (at least) more readership than TYT act like this towards the sport. Bill DiFilippo: still a joke, if you need him.

Big Ten Schools Announce Prime Time Football Games to Appear on BTN
(bigten.org)

BTN will air just one primetime football game this coming year - Wisconsin at Illinois on October 19th - after the beginning of hockey season. One has to think that bodes well for the possibility of at least some non-conference Big Ten hockey on the network (the league schedule doesn't begin until the last regular season weekend for football, another move likely made with BTN in mind).

Ice Man Cometh... to Pittsburgh and Boston

Guest Speaker - Joe Battista
(pittsburghsmeal.org)

@psuboston
(Twitter)

Joe Battista is making the off-season rounds, doing that thing he does where he talks and people are inspired. One stop will be in Pittsburgh on May 30th at the Allegheny HYP club (free for Pittsburgh Smeal Business Club members, $15 for non-members). On June 29th, he'll speak for the Boston chapter of the alumni association, although further details haven't been announced yet.

Gophers schedule for first year of Big Ten hockey
(Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

As you may have guessed, the Big Ten schedule release last week unloaded on my inbox. Most were just the usual fluff (in other words, people painfully trying to write out a schedule in sentences) but this one quoted Minnesota coach Don Lucia, who suggested some possible 6:30 start times for PSU:

"The reality is on Friday, there could be some 8 p.m. starts. There is talk of some doubleheaders on Friday, with 6:30 Eastern [5:30 Central] and 8 p.m. Central. You have four Big Ten teams in the East and two in the West, so it would be us or Wisconsin doing an 8 p.m. start on a Friday night. That’s fine. That’s not as big a deal for our fans because it’s Friday night. I don’t think we’ll run into that on Saturdays. Who’s to say ever, but the indications I hear is that … it’s not as big of a priority for a television date."

Startup League NAIH Closing Doors, CIHA to Form
(achatalk.com)

The NAIH, which launched with some promise (and was hailed as a possible competitor to the ACHA by a certain blog) back in 2011, is kaput after two seasons. Western Washington University will go down in history as the association's only Founders Cup champion after defeating Le Moyne College 2-1 in overtime back in March (the NAIH didn't hold a championship tournament in 2011-2012). Perhaps the most memorable thing about the NAIH was its ridiculous lack of professionalism, manifested in its numerous trolling posts on ACHA forum Hockey 101 as well as by the time they were hilariously smacked down by Kelly Pegula on Twitter:

Mourn not though, for the NAIH has apparently merged with something called the USCHA (the United States College Hockey Alliance, I assume, not the Upper St. Clair Hockey Association) to form the Collegiate Ice Hockey Association. The CIHA is already off to a very NAIH-like start, as two players have apparently been crushed to death by a falling logo.

Tom Anastos' vision, ingenuity clear
(Lansing State Journal)

You know who I like? Tom Anastos. Here's an intriguing look at part of his plan to turn Michigan State around by targeting younger, more elite players. Penn State hasn't really gone down that road too much (MSU has three committed 1998 birth years along with one from 1997, and PSU's youngest commit is late 1996er A.J. Greer) but it will be interesting to see if and how things evolve for the Nittany Lions over the next couple years.

Committee hears coaches’ ideas on regionals, NCAA selection, but consensus lacking
(USCHO)

Speaking of Anastos, he's quoted in this article about the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings at the beginning of the month. Long story short, nobody agrees on how the NCAA Tournament should look in light of the brutal attendance at the regional sites this year (and most years), but many seem to agree on the idea of rewarding teams in the NCAA selection process for non-conference road wins, something that was previously done from 2003 to 2007.

The AHCA discussions are always interesting and can inform policy changes, but the rubber doesn't really meet the road on these types of things until the NCAA committee meetings in June.

NAHL announces 2012-13 season awards
(nahl.com)

The first-year Johnstown Tomahawks, with an ownership group including Penn State football legends Shane Conlan and Jack Ham, were named the NAHL's organization of the year.

Johnstown is a hockey town, and the fans proved it once again by welcoming the NAHL’s Johnstown Tomahawks with enthusiasm as the team revitalized a community with a rich hockey tradition. The Tomahawks finished fifth in the NAHL in total and average attendance, which included 11 home games with 3,000 fans or more. That’s an impressive stat for a first-year team in a market that had never witnessed NAHL action. The team also made the playoffs in their first season in Johnstown and had three players make NCAA Division I commitments.

USHL's Chicago Steel draft paralyzed hockey player Jack Jablonski
(SB Nation)

Your feel-good story of the week: in the late stages of the USHL Draft on Tuesday (one that had already seen PSU commit Greer and Tommy Olczyk's brother Nick selected), the Chicago Steel selected Jack Jablonski out of Benilde-St. Margaret's School in Minnesota.

Jablonski, of course, was paralyzed during a BSM game back in December 2011, and his subsequent rehabilitation has captivated much of the hockey world. He's unlikely to ever walk, let alone skate, again, but he's still going to be a hockey player for a very classy USHL team.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl training in .... Lancaster County?
(Broad Street Hockey)

Three months before Jablonski's injury, the plane crash that killed all of KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was the dominant tragedy in the hockey headlines. Lokomotiv withdrew from the KHL for the rest of that 2011-2012 season and instead played in the VHL, a lower league, after pulling together an entirely new roster. They returned to the KHL this past season, going 34-18-0 and qualifying for the playoffs. Now, they're training in Manheim, PA of all places. Pretty cool.

Three Stars: April 29-May 5

Scott Wilson, a 2011 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick, may lead his River Hawks into the PIA in the fall

3. Ryan Patrick Named Pegula Ice Arena Hockey Director
(gopsusports.com)

Former Icer Ryan Patrick is the new Hockey Director for Pegula Ice Arena.

Patrick will oversee and implement all aspects of the community's youth, student and adult hockey programs. He will manage the facility's learn to skate and play hockey programs, the youth amateur hockey program and the student and adult hockey leagues. In addition, Patrick will coordinate and organize youth hockey tournaments and high-level independent travel teams.

Patrick, who graduated in 2003, is the son of long-time NHL executive and Miracle on Ice assistant coach Craig Patrick, the brother of former Icers captain and 1999 graduate C.J. Patrick and the cousin of Curtiss Patrick, class of 2004, another former Icer who enjoyed a five-season career in professional hockey. Carrying that family tree a little bit further, Ryan's great-grandfather was Lester Patrick, who has a major trophy named for him and formerly an NHL division as well. Craig, Lester, grandfather Lynn, and great great uncle Frank (Lester's brother) are all in the Hockey Hall of Fame, while those four in addition to great uncle Muzz Patrick (Lynn's brother) have all won the Stanley Cup in some capacity. That's... uhhh... quite a legacy.

That stuff aside, maybe the most striking element to this, at least for me, is how it drives home the idea that a Pegula Ice Arena story no longer automatically equates to a Penn State hockey story, something that initially crossed my mind when that Sara Evans skating show was announced (and the reason this news didn't get a stand-alone post). Basically, that just means that the building is closer than ever to opening.

2. Penn State Selects XOS Digital for Hockey Technology
(PRWeb)

Slow news week when the coaches' video system is your second star? Yeah, pretty much. Still, it's important, and sounds pretty damn cool to boot.

XOS Digital designed both the men’s and women’s hockey video rooms as a one-stop video production center. Once complete, the facility’s video rooms will be fully equipped with edit stations and remote control systems for capturing video directly from the camera systems installed throughout the arena. The control system enables staff to capture HD practice and game footage from these cameras directly into XOS Thunder HD editing system for in-depth analysis.

The XOS Thunder HD platform enables the Nittany Lions to access all game preparation, including video analysis, reports, diagrams and other player development applications from a single interface.

With full audiovisual integration, the Nittany Lions are able to utilize new technologies that provide workflow automation between video editing systems, content distribution and coaching tools. The entire coaching staff will now be able to easily acquire, manage, distribute and display content throughout the facility including the varsity locker rooms, conference rooms, recruiting lounge, team lounge and coaches offices.

“How well we perform is a direct correlation to how well we prepare,” said Head Coach [Guy] Gadowsky. “It’s important to have the right resources and technology to ensure our preparation is efficient and effective. Individual player development is also critical to the team’s success, and our student athletes will be able to utilize these systems to propel them toward their goal of playing in the NHL. We are excited to enlist XOS Digital’s expertise for this project.”

1. 2013 / 2014 PSU Hockey Schedule?
(Blue White Illustrated)

It's just a message board rumor right now, but if BWI poster VaNtyLion is to be believed, 2013 Hockey East Champion and Frozen Four participant UMass-Lowell will be visiting the Pegula Ice Arena this coming season - obviously an instant highlight of the schedule.

Assessing credibility... well, the guy does sound like he knows what he's talking about for the most part. At the very least, he pays close attention, as he is aware of the Three Rivers Classic, the Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff, RIT and Army. Issues? He has Air Force making a "return trip" to PSU when that series will be in Colorado Springs after the teams played at the Ice Pavilion back in November. Also, he states that Connecticut will be in town after January's series in Storrs, but tweets from Huskies hockey voice Will Moran laying out his team's non-conference schedule (1, 2) don't include PSU. It's entirely possible that UConn will visit PSU in 2014-2015 to reciprocate, though - one thing I've learned in doing this is that leaked information is never perfect. The only people who have every piece to the puzzle are the decision makers, and I'm pretty sure VaNtyLion isn't Billy Downey.

Verdict: Thumbs up, I buy it.

Speaking of scheduling things, Union beat writer Ken Schott "fully expects" the Dutchmen's already-known series at PSU to take place over Thanksgiving weekend. Makes sense I guess, since the 2012-2013 games at Union were also over Thanksgiving weekend.

Best of the Rest

Allie Rothman, Katie Vaughan, Carly Szyszko and Mary Kate Tonetti will lead the WIHC in 2013-14

2013-14 Executive Board Elected
(psuwihc.com)

Before parting ways for the summer, the Women's Ice Hockey Club elected its 2013-2014 officers, including Allie Rothman (president), Katie Vaughan (vice president), Carly Szyszko (treasurer) and Mary Kate Tonetti (secretary). Trust me when I say that no organization on campus has a better leadership group.

Wisconsin set for 10 home series during 2013-14 men's hockey campaign
(uwbadgers.com)

Want to know for sure who Wisconsin is playing? Here you go. No dates of course, as the Big Ten's entire schedule, when ready, will likely be released as one giant ball of... something. In other words, we're probably not going to know the dates of any of PSU's conference games before they're on GoPSUSports.com.

PSU looking to extend hockey fan base into area
(Williamsport Sun-Gazette)

This is a poorly written and researched (Penn State didn't play a single home game last year? Really?) article, but leave it to Joe Battista to say something to make me include it.

Aside from the monetary gift provided from the Pegulas, Battista said that they have raised an additional $10 million in private donations.

That's a new number, at least as far as I've seen, one that meets that "additional fundraising" goal set way back when the Pegula donation was first announced. Nice.

Former Penn State assistant athletic director Mark Sherburne hired by Lock Haven University
(PennLive)

It's really old news by now (I meant to throw it in last week and forgot), but long-time Penn State athletic department lieutenant Mark Sherburne has been hired as the new athletic director at Lock Haven. Sherburne, of course, spent ten days as PSU's acting AD during the initial fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal in November, 2011, after his former boss, Tim Curley, went on leave while under investigation for his role in the mess. He returned to his previous post as an assistant AD once the Board of Trustees decided that one of their own - Dave Joyner, who controversially moved directly from the board to the AD office - was better for the job, and was abruptly fired a few months later for withholding documents related to Curley.

And yes, that story is still bizarre, even more than one year later.

NCAA bans hashtagged fields, having solved all other problems
(SB Nation)

While my impression is that the vast majority of you are supportive of my covering the ACHA teams at some expense to the NCAA teams (because while it's not a pure zero sum game, it's close to one - any time I spend on the ACHA teams could be spent on the NCAA teams, hypothetically), I do get the sense that at least a few wonder why I bother. Well this, combined with things like that stinkbomb at North Carolina, offers at least a partial explanation, if you needed one. Really, NCAA? Hashtag legislation? Stick to exploiting student-athletes for billions of dollars, you're better at that.

Anyway, guess we won't be getting #OneTeam in Gretzky's Office at the PIA.

Vulcans hockey is back in good standing

Cal U will begin drug testing hockey players
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Cal (PA), after suspending their entire hockey program - including two men's teams and one women's team - over a massive pot bust involving two now-former players a couple weeks ago, has now restored everything back to normal, but with required drug testing for all players. Seems sensible to me.

The Vulcans' top men's team plays at the ACHA Division 3 level and in College Hockey East with Penn State-Altoona and Penn State-Behrend. The women's team, which competes in ACHA Division 2, was Penn State's first-ever opponent back in October and will join a new conference with the WIHC for next season. Both qualified for their respective ACHA national championship tournaments in 2012-2013.

Utah awarded 2015 ACHA National Championships
(universityofutahhockey.com)

At the ACHA annual meetings on Saturday in Naples, FL (which, as always, coincided with the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings), Utah was awarded the 2015 ACHA Division 2 national tournament, which will be played in Salt Lake City. Provided the Ice Lions don't win their first-ever national title this coming season, they'll win it there, book it.

The 2014 D2 tournament is likely headed to Ashburn, VA after the Northeast Region failed to produce a bid during its turn in the four-year cycle. That hasn't been officially announced, however, and is probably still subject to change.

The women's D2 tournament (as well as those for men's and women's D1) will be in Newark, DE this coming season.

News from 2013 ACHA Annual Meeting
(ouhockey.com)

Penn State is now out of the ACHA D1 game of course, but this can still be filed under "interesting to know:" the top men's division will no longer utilize the controversial coaches poll for rankings and will now rely on computers. Hooray for that.

Also, while the format of the national championships will remain the same, the scheduling will be different. The second round, which involves playing from 16 teams down to eight, will now be spread over two days, and the day off between the quarterfinals and semifinals has been eliminated. The end result is that the tournament (which will run from Thursday-Tuesday instead of Friday-Wednesday) will never have more than four games on any one day. That re-opens the possibility of hosting by facilities with only one sheet of ice, something that hadn't been possible since the tournament expanded from 12 teams to 16 in 2005.

Examining the Big Ten Network and College Hockey
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Possibly the biggest story of the last week was the report that each of the six Big Ten hockey schools will receive an extra $2 million per year from the Big Ten Network, in addition to the rather large annual haul all 12 (soon to be 14) member universities receive.

Undoubtedly, most who follow the Big Ten closely are aware of why BTN has been so profitable since its 2007 launch - its insistence on being carried on basic cable within the conference's footprint and the escalated subscriber rates in those states that make adding schools in large TV markets a smart idea. Still, this is a nice primer for those unfamiliar, and it takes things a step further by looking at the implications of the $2 million windfall (again, it should be said, if true) and even argues that we may be near the ceiling of all of this.

Time to drop college hockey's gentlemen's agreement?
(Bucky's 5th Quarter)

Should college hockey coaches back off of a potential recruit after he verbally commits elsewhere or continue to go full Urban Meyer on him? Here's one well-thought-out and discussion-provoking opinion.

Seriously, thanks again, UConn

Ex-Niagara coach MacKenzie to guide UConn women
(Buffalo News)

Chris MacKenzie will attempt to correct Connecticut's women's program after the ouster of Heather Linstad, as the Huskies have devolved into a dumpster fire over the last few years. One that proved quite beneficial for Penn State, in case you've never seen UConn transfers Nicole Paniccia, Taylor Gross and Jenna Welch play.

MacKenzie coached the women's team at Niagara, his alma mater, from 2009 until 2011. The Purple Eagles, of course, would have been one of the Nittany Lions' conference rivals in College Hockey America had NU not chopped the program in 2012.

USA Hockey takes preemptive strike at scandal
(UPI)

USA Hockey has a shiny new zero-tolerance program for abuse, called SafeSport. And Executive Director Dave Ogrean would like you to know that...

"The catalyst for it is absolutely and admittedly a byproduct of the horror of what took place at Penn State University with the football program and Jerry Sandusky."

Is that right? You sure it wasn't something strikingly similar to that, but slightly closer to home?

On Monday January 24th, 2011 USA Hockey's Executive Director Dave Ogrean received a very disturbing email from the parent of a member describing the extremely deviant sexual behavior of Massachusetts Maple Leafs coach Anthony DeSilva. Instead of following through and contacting local law enforcement authorities, Ogrean and USA Hockey allowed a sexual predator to fall through the cracks.

I realize that Penn State is going to be cited as an example of administrative failure by too many people to count for a very long time (in fact, I recently had to write a case study on the Sandusky reaction in one of my grad school classes, which was obviously rather difficult). I accept that much as the bed made on my behalf by others. What I do not accept is a hypocritical attempt to blame the Penn State bogeyman by someone who, when presented with nearly identical circumstances, apparently did little differently.

Basically, nice try, douchebag.

Hockey-Related Revenue Questions Answered?

Throughout TYT's existence, I've taken many positions on different issues. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm not, sometimes I change my mind. One position I've held fairly consistently is that the Big Ten Network's impact on hockey was being overhyped by school and conference officials. Given hockey's sad history on television generally, the thought that BTN is unlikely to add many new subscribers or advertisers solely because of the sport and the equal division of network revenue among conference members, I felt it was a reasonable opinion.

Today, I'm owning up: There's a pretty good chance I was wrong about that. According to Minnesota-based publication Let's Play Hockey...

It's just a tweet with no link and no named source (something that didn't go unnoticed by BTN personnel), so assign credibility as you generally would for something like this. For whatever it might be worth to you, I'll vouch for LPH on matters within the state of Minnesota - and clearly, this information could have come from a source at The U, as they call it up there - although they're hit and miss on many things beyond their home state's borders. One of the more famous misses came in 2011, when LPH advanced the rumor that Illinois was on the verge of adding NCAA hockey through a donation from Jimmy John's founder Jimmy John Liautaud.

For now though, we'll proceed as if the news is true. I just try to be as honest as I can about information, because I despise when people, like Let's Play Hockey right now for example, drop intel without giving audience members a chance to assess its credibility for themselves. Equally maddening is the tendency of LPH to drop a bomb and walk away, offering nothing in the way of follow-up or additional information. That's what happened with the Illinois story, and it's probably what will happen here as well.

Anyway... how much is $2 million annually in terms of college hockey? It's a lot. A ton, actually. It's more than many NCAA Division I schools spend in total. Precise bottom-line numbers aren't always easy to locate, but back in 2009 when Bowling Green's program was near death, it was reported that the Falcons' annual expenses were roughly $1 million, generally considered typical for a lower-middle class program. Even among Big Ten schools (again, in 2009), spending was minuscule compared with the much-more-publicized football numbers, ranging from $2,155,223 (Minnesota) to $4,002,512 (Wisconsin).

Just to touch on some more current data regarding components of a hockey program's budget, Penn State's highest possible undergraduate tuition in 2012-2013 (for an out-of-state, upperclass nursing student) was $32,992. Multiply that by 18 scholarships, and you get $593,896. According to Department of Education filings for the 2011-2012 academic year, Big Ten schools spent between $437,047 (Ohio State) and $933,506 (Wisconsin) on operating expenses for men's hockey.

There are, of course, many other pieces of the pie including things like coaching salaries and recruiting expenses. Still, I've hit two pretty big chunks, and it's safe to say that the checks from BTN, if they are in fact coming, will go a long way towards ensuring Penn State hockey operates in the black each year. That's true even when accounting for the women's program and for the fact that the Pegula Ice Arena will be operated as its own entity, much like the Bryce Jordan Center, and won't feed directly into the hockey programs.

It's fair to ask how BTN is able to commit $12 million to the hockey schools on top of the usual payouts ($284 million to the 12, soon to be 14, members at last check) before a single conference game is televised and particularly considering the factors noted at the top of the post. And really, your guess is as good as anyone's at this point. BTN is expected to broadcast 40 hockey games in 2013-2014, up from 15 this past season, which may have spurred a bump in ad revenue. It's entirely possible that the other shoe to drop will be a press release about how Ro-Tel has signed on as the title sponsor for all Big Ten hockey telecasts and the league tournament. Or maybe, as Western College Hockey Blog's Chris Dilks suggested, it's all just an accounting trick based on the windfall created by the admission of Rutgers and Maryland to the conference.

Are we one step closer to seeing the Blackshirts in Big Ten hockey?

The $2 million payout has obvious effects well beyond the present six conference members. It signals the introduction of real television money to college hockey (sorry North Dakota, your cute little broadcast network is no longer top-of-the-food-chain stuff), something that has big - and not necessarily in a positive way - implications for a lot of schools that are used to big-time status but might have to settle for a mid-major reality. Naturally, it's also quite a chalupa laying out there for any other Big Ten members considering adding hockey... like Nebraska.

If you assume that college hockey programs will break even with revenue approaching $3 million [note: a reasonable assumption, as indicated], then a $2 million television deal for Big Ten hockey programs should make hockey viable at any Big Ten school. Each campus is going to be different: is there a facility available to play hockey, and how much will it cost to operate? Are there any Title IX issues that are raised by starting a men's hockey team, and would you need to add another women's sport to compensate.

And that includes Nebraska. I've long felt that Husker hockey probably wasn't viable at Nebraska. Shawn Eichorst dismissed the idea of hockey in February on his statewide call in show, and should have known at that time that this type of revenue was being discussed. But these numbers are hard to ignore. If they are true, that is.

Okay, so it's not set in stone that the BTN money will lead to new programs. But let's circle back to Penn State for a moment before leaving this because the dollars and cents flowing through PSU hockey look pretty rosy even beyond BTN money.

According to the Nittany Lion Club's recently-issued annual report (not yet online, unfortunately), there are at least seven men's hockey scholarships endowed at the "highest and most fully funded levels in Intercollegiate Athletics." Four of the seven originated with the Pegula donation and are named after Terry's children (both with Kim and from his first marriage). The others are named after Joe and Heidi Battista, Ralph Kerr and the John Davis family. There is also one "fully funded" women's hockey scholarship named after Laura, another Pegula daughter. The list presented in the NLC report is identified as "a portion of" the scholarships across the athletic department, leaving open the possibility of more than the seven and one given being in place.

Beyond those, many smaller donations have been made towards the endowment, including five listed in the Spring NLC Newsletter alone.

Furthermore, ticket sales for the coming season have been brisk, with Battista telling the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Scott Brown that season ticket deposits are in for 3,000 of the 5,000 non-student seats in the PIA. While I continue to believe that consistently filling the place may become a concern down the road if the inevitable dissolution of its novelty isn't met with a lot of winning, in the short term, things look fantastic.

Fantasic on the ice, fantastic on the business end as well. Look out, college hockey.

Three Stars: April 22-28

The Women's Ice Hockey Club and head coach Patrick Fung pose in front of Kelly's Steakhouse in Boalsburg, the site of their postseason banquet, Saturday afternoon

3. Olczyk Carving Out a Bit of His Own History
(StateCollege.com)

On the occasion of Tommy Olczyk being elected captain once again for the 2013-2014 season, Ben Jones went one step beyond the usual "snip the press release" (guilty) with a quick feature. I'll always have room for that kind of initiative here.

2. Neshaminy senior earns scholarship from NHL
(philly.com)

A member of the ACHA Ice Lions on scholarship next season? Believe it.

Four years after skating for the first time, Neshaminy senior Ricky Lucas will be honored by the NHL Wednesday in Washington with a college scholarship.

Lucas, 18, is a goaltender on Neshaminy's ice hockey team. He said he would attend Penn State in the fall and plans to try out for the school's club hockey team.

Lucas got his start in hockey during his freshman year with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, which offers the opportunity to play hockey to underprivileged youths.

The NHL/Thurgood Marshall College Fund scholarships are given to two college-bound students from the NHL's Hockey Is for Everyone youth development program.

If you can stomach video of Gary Bettman, Lucas also got a mention on NHL.com, where he can be seen posing with the Stanley Cup.

1. Awards Presented at Team Banquet
WIHC Named Most Improved Club Sport
(psuwihc.com)

The Women's Ice Hockey Club officially wrapped up their inaugural season on Saturday with an end-of-season banquet, which saw team MVP, Rookie of the Year and Player's Player awards given to goaltender Katie Vaughan, forward Devon Fisk and forward Carly Szyszko, respectively.

Two days before that, at the annual Club Sports Honors Reception, the WIHC was named most improved club sport of PSU's 78 programs.

Hey, just because it was already the most successful team debut in the history of Penn State hockey (and probably across all sports, although I don't know enough to make that statement definitively) doesn't mean it can't be enhanced further.

Best of the Rest

Left to right: Steve Rohlik (Ohio State), Mike Eaves (Wisconsin), Don Lucia (Minnesota), Red Berenson (Michigan), Guy Gadowsky (Penn State), Tom Anastos (Michigan State)

@Billy_Downey
(Twitter)

All six Big Ten coaches and the league championship trophy... nice. Steve Rohlik still looks like he's kind of stunned to be included, while Red Berenson may be about to beat the crap out of someone off camera.

Busy days ahead for Mike Eaves
(Wisconsin State Journal)

The previous entry's photo came from the Big Ten meetings held last week at the conference headquarters in Chicago, where all sorts of things like scheduling, awards and overtime rules (5-on-5 or 4-on-4?) were discussed. Notably...

A source said the league expects to stage all its series between Friday and Sunday next season. There had been talk of some games being played on Thursday and/or Monday in order to accommodate TV, but that no longer appears to be the case, at least for 2013-14.

That move - if it comes to pass - is welcome news for fans who like going to Penn State games but live in, say, Ohio and can't really make it in during the week. Although it does leave the door open for the dreaded Friday-Sunday "work around basketball Saturday and make Kyle get an extra night in a hotel room" series.

The reason I said "basketball" but not "football" in the previous paragraph? According to the message boards on Minnesota site Gopher Puck Live, loosely citing head coach Don Lucia, no Big Ten conference games will take place before New Year's Day. While the idea seems a little crazy since there are 20 Big Ten games and 11 weekends between January 1, 2014 and March 20, 2014 when the Big Ten Tournament starts, it's certainly possible in a six-team league that won't start its playoffs until later than is customary.

Abby Miller for NHL commissioner

NHL Realignment
(Off the Crossbar)

Lady Icers alumna Abby Miller brought her blog out of hiatus to drop an opinion of and couter-proposal to the NHL's upcoming realignment. I have to admit, her idea makes a ton of sense in spite of the fact that my favorite team gets completely hosed by it (a fact that even draws an apology from Miller, which I appreciate).

The Frozen Four in Pittsburgh? You betcha!
(StateCollege.com)

Joe Battista's weekly column largely serves its usual purpose as a high-energy commercial for Pennsylvania and/or Penn State hockey - eight exclamation points and seven question marks this time around, not including the title - but as also tends to happen, there was some news buried in it:

We will also be working with the Big Ten to discuss hosting the new Big Ten Hockey conference’s playoffs in future years at Consol Energy Center.

Any hosting to be done by Pittsburgh's NHL arena won't take place for a while, as the conference has already committed to a St. Paul, MN/Detroit rotation through 2017.

Battista's column was also, apparently, a hit piece on (State of) Minnesota hockey, simply because he made the factual statement that the 2013 gold-medal-winning U.S. World Junior Championship team included more Pittsburgh natives than Minnesotans. Here are a couple replies I got on Twitter, first after shooting out the link to the column, then after tweeting Battista's GoPSUSports.com bio to show that he's not, in fact, a clown even if he's now hated in the Land of 10,000 lakes.

Someone's awfully sensitive about their state's declining market share in the hockey world. See, the problem for Minnesota Guy is that the more hockey grows, whether in the Sun Belt, Pennsylvania or anywhere else, the less his state matters in relative terms.

Requiem for a team
(The Daily Pennsylvanian)

Someone who doesn't think Battista is a clown? Allison Bart at UPenn's student newspaper, who quoted him extensively in an outstanding article detailing the hill the Quakers are to climb if NCAA hockey, abandoned in 1978, is to return to University City, Philadelphia.

Bart also wrote a companion piece offering further detail on the last days of Penn's varsity program, which was greatly appreciated by my history geek side.

ISU hockey coach named ACHA coach of the year
(videtteonline.com)

I suppose if you have to be knocked out of the ACHA National Tournament, you'd want it to be by the ACHA D2 coach of the year. For whatever little consolation that may offer, it's now true of the Ice Lions and Illinois State coach Brian Corley.

Not bad for being unsettled

Top 20 College Hockey Stories of the 2012-13: #11-15
(Western College Hockey Blog)

WCHB tabs Penn State's varsity entry as the number 12 college hockey story of the just-completed season with a write-up noting that blended with those wins over Wisconsin, Ohio State, Vermont and Michigan State were losses to DIII and ACHA programs Buffalo State, Arizona State and Neumann. Fair enough. Then again, maybe I'm falling into the DI snob trap - all that those "bad" losses proved to me is that there are tons of great hockey players and programs out there, and not all of them reside in NCAA DI. Speaking of the snob trap, the "establishment," in spite of everything, still continues to be somewhat dismissive of PSU's quick bounce to respectability (I mean, how dare a CLUB program be able to play REAL college hockey in its first year trying).

Overall, the Nittany Lions still have a long ways to go before their program is completely settled, but they showed that they should at least be competitive next year in the Big Ten. They'll likely end up losing more than they win next year, but it won't be much of a surprise if they see them win on any given night.

This year, Penn State had a winning record (3-2-0) against the Big Ten teams it played, including a win over Wisconsin during the Badgers' torrid close to the season. Going by the indicators typically utilized for amateur roster assessments, Penn State's talent level should be roughly on par with Ohio State and Michigan State next year. Penn State's coaching staff has more of a recent track record of success than either MSU and OSU. On those three things alone, I don't accept being labeled as some kind of scrappy, "tough to play against" upstart that might be able to win a game here or there against an unmotivated opponent in 2013-2014.

Am I predicting a conference championship, an NCAA tournament appearance or even a winning record? Of course not. I am, however, predicting that the Nittany Lions will have to pack white jerseys when heading to St. Paul at the end of the season because some less "settled" program will have finished lower in the standings.

Former players issue vote of no-confidence in UAA AD
(Anchorage Daily News)

Rough week for Alaska-Anchorage athletic director Steve Cobb, who received a vote of no confidence from the UAA hockey alumni last Tuesday, three days after the Alaska State Hockey Association similarly expressed its displeasure. The ASHA's complaints...

...cited the steady decline of UAA hockey and claimed repeated efforts to reach out to the university's athletic department and hockey coaches have been "systematically met with callous indifference."

The former players seem just as concerned... with their egos.

Things reached a tipping point, [alumni association president Mark] Filipenko said, when UAA went looking for a new hockey coach. Both resolutions criticize Cobb for not involving alumni or anyone from the hockey community in the search for a coach to replace Dave Shyiak, who was fired last month after going 80-177-33 in eight seasons.

Penn State, of course, has been the beneficiary of UAA's "steady decline" in the form of transfers Justin Kirchhevel and Eric Scheid.

Could be worse for Cobb, I guess:



Hockey East returns to Fenway Park in 2014 with Notre Dame-BC as the showcase game
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Everyone's sick of outdoor hockey... until it involves a team they care about.

PSU Gets Second BTN Game

Wisconsin's Kohl Center frequently delivers fans in large numbers.

In what qualifies as a surprise, at least to me, the men's team's season-closing game on February 25th (a Monday) at Wisconsin, will air on Big Ten Network. The game will now begin at 8:30 p.m. eastern, a change from the original 8:00 p.m. start.

The UW series, which will be played as a Sunday-Monday set, was moved from Friday-Saturday to accommodate the Wisconsin state high school wrestling tournament, which also takes place at the Badgers' home Kohl Center.

Sunday's game will be carried by Fox Sports Wisconsin at 8:00 p.m., which might also be helpful to know if you have a sports package that offers the regional Fox Sports networks, like those available on DirecTV and Dish Network. The men's schedule page will track broadcast information as is comes out.

This is, of course, the second announced BTN date for the new NCAA program - on Monday, it was learned that PSU's January 26th game at Michigan State would be carried on the network.

Wisconsin presents an interesting challenge, not just as a great program, but as one that may present the largest crowd ever faced by a Penn State hockey team. The Badgers led the nation in attendance last season by drawing 11,773 fans per game in a 15,325-seat venue - a mark only Nebraska-Omaha and Ohio State can even potentially touch, based on rink capacity.

The likely record going into the UW series will come from the expected sellout for the October 20th game against RIT at Rochester's Blue Cross Arena, capacity 11,200. The games at the Penguins' (the Steel City Classic, December 28th and 29th) and Flyers' (Vermont, January 19th) arenas could also set the bar, should they sell well. The Icers' (unofficial) record was 7,200 for a game at Arizona on January 8, 1994. Factor in the national television audience on a night with little sports competition, and it might now be fair to definitively call February 25th the largest stage of the season.

That's not meant to take away from the opponent, which will be a typically formidable Badgers team. The 2006 national champs, who went an atypical 17-18-2 last season, recharge with a class placed into a three-way tie for second in the WCHA by recruiting expert Jasper Kozak-Miller.

Wisconsin brings in a small but respectable class led by Nic Kerdiles, taken in the second round by his hometown Anaheim Ducks, and forward Morgan Zulinick. Kerdiles is an athletic forward whose natural agility and stride excite scouts, and although his offensive ceiling might not be astronomical, it certainly will surprise opposing defensemen in Madison.

While the team lost stalwart D-man Justin Schultz to the pros, it does return the other nine of the top ten scorers from last season, including Mark Zengerle and Michael Mersch. Mersch was a fourth-round pick of the Kings in 2011 and he and Kerdiles are just two of eight NHL-drafted players on the roster. Long story short, PSU might have saved its biggest challenge of the inaugural season for last.

It's difficult to make sweeping statements before Penn State and the BTN release their full broadcast schedules, but the guess here is that we'll have to settle for these two national games plus the expected hodgepodge of streaming arrangements and inaccessible local broadcasts. While BTN does carry games involving non-Big Ten opponents, the broadcasts always originate from a Big Ten venue for rights reasons. Beyond the MSU and Wisconsin series, the Nittany Lions' only games on the campus of a league school will be played at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion, which has a television setup somewhere south of optimal for a number of reasons. NBC Sports and CBS Sports, the other major national carriers of college hockey, have already released PSU-free schedules.

BTN to Carry January 26th PSU-MSU Game

Penn State hockey will likely make its first-ever national television appearance on January 26th when the Nittany Lions travel to future Big Ten rival Michigan State's Munn Ice Arena. The game will be aired on Big Ten Network at 6:05 p.m., a shift from the game's original 7:00 start time.

The full BTN schedule has not been released yet, so there's at least a chance that PSU's series at Wisconsin on February 24th and 25th will make it to the network, although this news almost certainly reduces the likelihood of that possibility. It's improbable that any other games make it to the big stage, although several are likely to be carried by the local outlets of opponents.

Regardless, Michigan State represents an exciting opponent for a first BTN go, one that made it to the NCAA Tournament last season under then first-year coach Tom Anastos. The Spartans are a historical giant of college hockey, a legacy that includes three national championships, nine Frozen Four appearances and 25 conference regular season or tournament titles. For 2012-2013, MSU loses three NHL draft picks and superstar defenseman Torey Krug, who signed with the Boston Bruins. However, goalie Will Yanakeff is good enough to get a young team through some early growing pains. A talented recruiting class, including Shattuck-St. Mary's product John Draeger on defense, should find its legs by the time PSU rolls into East Lansing.

Contrary to what might be popular belief, this won't be Penn State hockey's first time on any sort of television. The Icers made a smattering of local TV appearances, including as far back as the 1973-1974 season.

Response from national broadcasters to the new NCAA program has been somewhat tepid so far, as both NBC Sports and CBS Sports passed on the Nittany Lions when releasing their schedules. It's unfortunate but somewhat understandable, as the novelty of a "new" team and Penn State's brand name has been outweighed by the unknown quality of the team and the "let's wait until next year when the arena's done" factor.

Speaking of next year, the Big Ten Network is expected to be a much larger presence for PSU hockey at that point, since it marks the inaugural season of the conference sponsoring hockey. One has to imagine that a majority of Nittany Lion games will be either on television or on the BTN's digital platform from that point.

Beyond the Saturday at Michigan State and for this season, PSU fans (and bloggers) will probably have to rely heavily on a not-yet-announced online streaming arrangement (better get on that guys, season starts in 11 days) as well as the streaming arrangements made by opponents for away games.

Three Stars: November 14-20

3. PSU Icers are good...almost too good
(Shooting for the Show)

I don't think I've linked this blog before, but it's pretty solid. Obviously, SftS does write about PSU on occasion, although it's not the central focus. But this post gets at a concern I've touched on a few times.

With the team jumping to DI next season, I can’t help wondering if their schedule this season is too easy. They’ve played a few squads that were either shorthanded in terms of the number of available players or so bad that they just knew they were going to lose from the first face-off.

I recently e-mailed a sports department official to see if the program considered scheduling any DI or DII games for the Icers this year. With other media priorities involving the school’s athletic programs at this time, it’s no surprise I didn’t get a response.

2. NCAA Today: Penn State (mp3 file)
(The Pipeline Show)

Guy Gadowsky talked to The Pipeline Show last Tuesday in his first, or at least most extensive, public comments on Sanduskygate (yeah, I -gated it). I hope those who questioned whether he'd stick around feel appropriately stupid now, but I doubt it because, well, they're too stupid to feel stupid. It's definitely worth a listen...Coach starts about 5:25 into the file and continues to show why PSU made a great hire.

In case you have issues with the link, here's the page leading up to that link.

1. Vaughan proud to be Nittany Lion
(The Daily Collegian)

I thought the Collegian crew killed it this past week, and I easily could have slotted any of about four articles here. But this feature on Katie Vaughan gets the nod because 1. I feel terrible about not having a post covering the Lady Icers' weekend (a pair of 2-1 home losses to NCAA Division III SUNY-Cortland, which dropped the team to 4-5-2 overall) and 2. I have a picture of Vaughan.

Best of the Rest

Junior leagues help players develop
(The Daily Collegian)

I try to write this blog mindful of the fact that some readers might be new to the game, having decided to join in the wave of DI hockey awesomeness when Penn State did or something along those lines. I think one area where I've failed is in assuming that people know what I'm talking about when I drop "USHL," "AJHL" or "BCHL" in talking about recruits. This is a good place to start to get filled in on the whole process, which is pretty unique to hockey.

@Cmen12
(Twitter)

Lady Icers Carly Szyszko, Cara Mendelson and Tess Weaver made sure they got a picture in with the Joe Paterno statue. You know, just in case.

Sports' entitlements foster evil
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Former Icer Nick Pappas is writing a book you might want to read.

"The Dark Side of Sports: Exposing the Sexual Culture of Collegiate and Professional Athletes," is the result of 12 years of Pappas' work on the sometimes stunningly unsettling sense of life in those locker rooms.

"My findings reveal that, based on interviews with players who competed from the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and right up through 2010, that there is rampant sexual deviance and aggression that's been part of that culture going back 45 years.

"There is no sign that it's slowing down. It's kept in the closet. There are sexual predators in the athletic culture."

The release date isn't nailed down as of yet, but it's expected to be in December or January.

Practice time difficult to get at Ice Pavilion for Penn State Icers
(The Daily Collegian)

That crunching sound you hear is the availability of ice time at the Pavilion.

Lindenwood’s long climb from club to D-I
(USCHO)

Another article - lengthy, but well done - on the transition struggles of our soon-to-be conference rivals.

@ChrisDilks
(Twitter)

Mr. Dilks, who writes the outstanding Western College Hockey Blog, shares some of my skepticism vis-a-vis Big Ten Network.

Addition of Notre Dame raises questions
(New England Hockey Journal)

Yeah, realignment's still out there (ominous sequel-clinching fade-out)...

Is BTN Enough?

Has the Big Ten already fallen behind in the college hockey arms race?

At first blush, the question seems a little ridiculous. And, to be perfectly honest, it's not one that even crossed my mind before last week. That's when Versus (soon to become NBC Sports Network) unveiled their initial college hockey broadcast schedule, consisting of sixteen games this season, including four from this year's Hockey East tournament. Hockey East and Versus/NBC Sports also announced a multi-year deal to keep the conference prominently on the network beyond this season.

That news, in and of itself, didn't lead to the question. We've known that something like this was coming since August and Notre Dame had already announced, via press conference last month, that Versus/NBC Sports would broadcast all Irish home games beginning with the 2013-2014 season. My reaction at the time was along the lines of "Notre Dame won big, the Big Ten won big, but we'll have to go down the road a couple years before a final verdict."

Two things caused me to more closely examine that position. The first was the fact that future Big Ten schools are represented only twice in this year's "national" schedule, compared with seven appearances each for future NCHC schools (most of which are in the WCHA at the moment) and the 2013 version of Hockey East (not including the conference tournament, which obviously adds to that total).

The other was this thought-provoking blog post from freelance sports reporter Rachel Lenzi (by the way, the blog as a whole is outstanding, give it a read).

NBC/VERSUS coverage of college hockey is a good thing – again, sheerly for EXPOSURE. How many times have you turned on your basic cable sports stations and seen a nationally televised college hockey game?

ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (the four-letter network’s Internet outlet) and ESPNU have typically broadcast the NCAA Tournament and the Frozen Four. In a way, it seems as if ESPN has monopolized the NCAA hockey tournament. Otherwise, college hockey has been confined to regional and local networks – some that weren’t easily accessible nationwide, unless you had DirecTV or the digital sports tier on your local cable provider.

For example – there are a few regional networks:

• Big Ten Network
• New England Sports Network
• Fox Sports North
• Root Sports

Even though I like watching the regional feeds – watching Maine-North Dakota a few weeks ago, I got a kick out of some of the commercials from the Grand Forks area – regionalization of the sport hinders the growth and exposure of college hockey.

When I first noticed her inclusion of Big Ten Network in the "regional" category I protested, mindful of the usual drumbeat from BTN brass, including "73 million households in the U.S. and Canada" and "on cable in 19 of the 20 largest markets in the U.S." But as I invested more thought, I realized that she's right.

See, while BTN does have a national footprint to an extent, one rather large hindrance exists: it only insists on basic (or extended basic) carriage in Big Ten states. Elsewhere, it's buried somewhere on a sports tier, along with present college hockey broadcasters CBS Sports, Fox College Sports, and those other regional sports networks that most people barely recognize, largely ignore, and perhaps don't even realize are out there.

There's no doubt whatsoever that despite this limiting characteristic, BTN has been a financial boon to the conference - it paid out an estimated $6.5 million to each member school for the 2009-2010 season. And yeah, I'm a fan of the product, enough so that I've complained to you about not getting it before. But neither of those things are the point to me. How many households will the BTN add because of hockey? How many more ads will they sell because of hockey? How many more buyers for streaming packages will step forward because of hockey? How much exposure will the conference's hockey product get beyond each school's already-entrenched following? I remain unconvinced that the answer to any of these questions is anything of substance.

Meanwhile, Hockey East (and possibly the NCHC later on) is bringing in television revenue that simply would not exist without hockey. Perhaps even more importantly in the long run, they're in with a channel that's quickly becoming the outlet of record for hockey, thanks to their position as the lead national broadcaster for the NHL. The Big Ten's involvement with Versus/NBC Sports at this early stage seems to be that of schools which merely happen to be playing Notre Dame and Denver.

That's vital, and college football may prove instructive in that regard. While the Big Ten pulled games off of ESPN networks in favor of BTN starting in 2007, the SEC enhanced their relationship with ESPN - a savvy move in part because, like it or not, ESPN is the primary distributor of reputation points (and perhaps more) in college football. Arguably, reputation fuels recruiting, which fuels on-field success, making the whole thing a self-fulfilling prophecy. And guess what? They're doing it all while still getting paid to the tune of $2 billion over 15 years.

Ultimately, I still believe that we have to wait a couple years to properly identify winners and losers. The Big Ten could still come out ahead for a few reasons (not the least of which is the fact that BTN is "stuck" with the Big Ten, regardless of the number of eyeballs on the product, while Versus/NBC Sports will eventually drop college hockey if it's not profitable). But as of right now, the conference that started this new era may be getting passed by a less insular competitor.