College Hockey Exile: Week One

Overview

This will attempt to be a (boring/mediocre) weekly chronicle of a college hockey fan's attempt to follow the season from what is essentially a college hockey "no man's land," Cleveland, Ohio. This will mostly consist of me watching high numbered extended cable channels on weekends, listening to the radio with a bad wireless connection, and complaining.

Based on my present location, this should include visits to Quicken Loans Arena to watch former BU players play (Kenny Roche) and coach (Joe Sacco) for the new local AHL club, the Lake Erie Monsters. I'll also probably drop in on division III club team Case Western Reserve University at the Cleveland Heights Community Center at least once.

The real highlight will be an exodus to Ann Arbor for the BU-Wolverines series in 2 weeks.

Impending Disaster

Speaking of Michigan, when I watched BC's attempted comeback in the first round of the IceBreaker on FSN-Atlantic last Friday, I had mixed feelings about Michigan's victory on a cheap own goal in sudden death OT. I like seeing BC get beat, but Michigan would have been a nice non-conference scalp for Hockey East on the whole. In the scheme of things, one non-conference loss rarely has a large effect on the league as a whole... of course, I didn't know how the rest of the league was faring on Friday night.

On Friday, Hockey East went 1-7-0 in non-conference play. This included losses to teams from ECAC Hockey (Clarkson over UMass, St. Lawrence over Providence), the CCHA (Miami over Vermont, BC's aforementioned loss to Michigan), the WCHA (Denver over Maine), the soon-to-be disbanded CHA (Robert Morris over BU), and Canadian Interuniversity Sport's Atlantic University Sport (New Brunswick over UNH, thankfully an exhibition).

What a colossal disaster.

The league's lone win came via Merrimack (last place in the HEA Coach's Pre-Season Poll) who beat Niagara.

At this point, Hockey East's interconference record is 3-9-1, better only than Atlantic Hockey's 0-10-1. All other conferences are over .500.

I'm not saying HEA is the second worst conference (down from their usual position of second best), some of those results were wacky, like BC beating themselves or BU losing despite outshooting RMU 35-15 and still losing to three unanswered late goals, but the panic button must be hit. Unlike football and basketball, hockey's postseason berths are decided by a wholly objective process. League reputation is worthless if you don't win this season. 27 (plus playoffs) of each HEA teams' games are inconference, leaving only room for 7 non-conference games (plus extra for exempted tournaments). That means there's not alot of time to get the out of conference wins necessary to garner a respectable RPI or PWR. At this pace, HEA could be looking at getting only 2 teams to the dance since the dawn of the 16 team field.

What to Watch

Flipping between a pair of games Friday at 8PM:
- North Dakota @ BC on CSTV
- "BU Killer" Robert Morris @ Wisconsin on FCS-Atlantic

Sunday at 4PM:
- BC @ Vermont on ESPNU

Thank You, Boston College!

Sing it with me Hockey East (and CCHA, ECAC Hockey, Atlantic Hockey, and CHA) fans!

Ding, dong the WCHA is dead!
The WCHA is dead!
The WCHA is dead!
Ding, dong the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is dead!

Two nights ago, the BC Eagles bounced the North Dakota Fighting Sioux from the Frozen Four, meaning that for the first time in over half a decade, the WCHA will not claim the champions of the college hockey world.

Never thought I'd say this, but thank God for Boston College.

A Future Trivia Question

Question: What was the result of Boston College's first play from scrimmage in their inaugural ACC football contest?

Answer: An interception, returned for a touchdown by Florida State.

Congratulations Boston College on being eliminated from legitimate national championship contention after your first conference matchup of the season. Sure, you might make the [Insert Sponsor Here] Bowl, but really, if that's what you're playing for, why bother?

Three Simple Rules

ESPN's Pat Forde has three simple rules for fans of the home team at an NCAA basketball game:

1. Maintain absolute conviction that the refs are conspiring against your team.
2. Never let an opposing player forget it when he shoots an air ball.
3. Never rush the court when your team has the higher ranking.

Now, it's very difficult to know when Rule #1 is violated, because it can be a non-vocal thing. They can just be seething at the refs under the surface. Of course, for the most part, it's a very vocal rule, that can often extend well beyond the actual end of the game. In any case, this is not one of the rules that was violated yesterday in the ways that Rules #2 and #3 were broken by the fans of the University of Nevada and Boston College, respectively. Late in Nevada's Bracket Buster Saturday game against the University of Vermont, Catamount power forward Taylor Coppenrath unleashed a long three which bounced off of the front of the rim. Nevada Wolfpack fans proceeded to chant "air ball" through the next possession and into the commercial break. Bravo. Sounds like the people of Reno need a "Basketball 101" course to properly explain the concept of an "air ball," i.e., a shot that hits nothing but air. On the Heights, Eagles fans rushed the court when their #6 ranked team beat the #9 Syracuse Orangemen. Congratulations, you win when you're supposed to win... just like when you defeated Northeastern and Providence... except this game was on national television, so it's "LOOK AT ME, I FOUND AN EXCUSE TO EMBARRASS MYSELF AND MY SCHOOL ON TV... WHEEEEEEEEEE. HI MOM!"

For your violations of decency and self-respect, I proudly salute you Wolfpack and Eagle fans. Well done.

Sux2BU

Ah yes, that old Boston chant "Sux2BU." At times it is heard as often as "Yankees Suck" on Huntington Avenue, on the Heights, and in Harvard Square. Both of these phrases were invented by those bitter and envious of the nearby hegemon, the team that shatterred their dreams so often, that many wanted them to lose more than they wanted their own teams to win.

Through all of this though, fans of the Boston Red Sox never had the gall to say it was the Yankees fans who were bitter and envious.

Yesterday, however, Boston College's school newspaper issued an editorial which was entitled "Always Remember: It Sucks to BU," in which they state "There's no two ways about it - the Terriers are just plain envious of all things BC."

National Championships: BU-4, BC-2.
Beanpot Titles: BU-25, BC-13.

Oh yeah, BU is quite envious of that outstanding track record.

Boston College, in their blind arrogance, likes to pretend they are the dominant force in New England collegiate sports, but Boston College has fewer national championships than many of the other schools in New England, including Boston University, Yale, Connecticut, Vermont, Harvard, and Dartmouth. Their best ever performance in the NCAA basketball tournament was an appearance in the Elite 8, which puts them in a tie with BU (way to go!) and behind other local programs such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Providence.

They like to chide BU fans for not having football, and blame "megalomaniac ex-chancellor John Silber" in the article for cutting the program. Football was cut only a couple years after an undefeated regular season (wow, that's right kids, more recently than BC) , because there was little fan interest, because football fit BU's demographics poorly, and because it was decided that it would be better to save the lost money for a new venue for hockey and basketball and to renovate Nickerson Field to make it better for soccer. Similar decisions have been made by Vermont and Providence. BC, meanwhile, struggles through an easy schedule, never wins its conference, never sells out a small stadium for anyone not named Notre Dame (who has announced they will stop scheduling BC in favor of BYU), and plays in illustrious minimum payout bowls such as the Carquest Bowl and Continental Tire Bowl. Here's a trivia question for everyone, which Boston based school has played in a bowl game in Pasadena, California, in college football's most revered stadium? That's right kids, Boston University. The school that dropped football, because it doesn't make economic sense in a region that doesn't watch college football.

Another pearl from the article was "Boston College: No. 37 in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. Boston University? No. 56, and you'll never hear us chanting "safety school."" First of all, school's are ranked by silly criteria like library size and a average alumni donation and not actual academics in the U.S. News Rankings. Boston University, along with several other schools, has elected not to participate in U.S. News self-administered survey, which causes a bunch of "N/A"s to be averaged in... for which we are penalized. This is why this is the only poll BCers ever bring up, because every time real criteria is used, either the difference becomes negligible, or BC falls behind BU. I'd also like to take issue with the never chanting "safety school." I've heard it with my own ears. I've also walked up an aisle at Conte Forum wearing a BU jersey while hundreds chanted "BC Reject," which I'm sure was because I deserved it, and not because ever envious BU had just beaten BC in the conference hockey tournament. Not that it matters anyways, because once graduates of either school travel west of the shelter of Route 495, they learn that if you went to BU, people assume NYU rejected you, and if you went to BC, that Notre Dame rejected you.

More jewels from the article include "Remember John Sabo? He was the BU forward indicted on charges of aggravated assault after he stomped on someone's head outside a local bar. Go Terriers!" BCers will remember Bill Romanowski right? You know, the guy who had multiple suspensions for violating the NFL's drug abuse policy, and who ended his career by assaulting a young teammate in the locker room (ending the young man's football career as well)? How about William Green? He got a 4 game suspension last year for violating the league's substance abuse policy too, plus a suspension this year for taking a swing at an opposing player during pregame warmups. How about Mike Cloud? Might he have violated the substance abuse policy too? This doesn't even bring into account the two gambling scandals in recent memory. But John Sabo is a bad person whom BU should be derided for.

I could go on, as the BC article continues to move from the outdated, to the false, to the laughable, but anyone can read the article on their own if they just click the following link and give Boston College a bunch of personal information:

http://www.bcheights.com/news/2005/02/07/Editorial/Always.Remember.it.Sucks.To.Bu-854708.shtml

Lastly, congratulations to the Boston University Terriers for defeating the Boston College Eagles 2-1 in the opening round of the Beanpot on Monday. Boston University has never failed to make the finals in my time as a fan, and has never lost an opening round game to Boston College, in 7 meetings, during my lifetime. Thank you for keeping these streaks alive because I am so envious of Boston College's outstanding accomplishments.

NCAA cheats UNH

Well, that time of year is upon us, college sports fans, the 16 team bracket to determine the NCAA Division I-AA National Champion in football has been announced. (NOTE: The 11 rogue conferences who choose to play in 30-odd bowl games like the CapitalOne Bowl, GMAC Bowl, and Continental Tire Bowl do not compete for an NCAA championship, they have chosen to sell themselves for sponsorship dollars and for a non-NCAA title which is voted upon rather than played for.)

As signified in the note above, I feel that a 4-week tournament is a far superior way to determine the true national champion. Unfortuneately, because the NCAA gets shafted on the Bowl money, they have decided to tweak the I-AA field to make it more profitable. What they do for the 8 first week games, is give 4 home games to the top 4 ranked teams, and 4 home games to the 4 most profitable teams. Enter the victim: the University of New Hampshire Wildcats. The Wildcats, in the top 4 in many of the computer rankings, boasting a 9-2 record, 7-0 on the road, an Atlantic-10 North divisional championship, wins over defending national champion Delaware and I-A member Rutgers, were conspicuously absent from the top 4. At that point, remaining home games go to traditional powers who believe they deserve annual home games (including the Delaware team that UNH themselves crushed on the road). Because road teams are determined in the name of reducing travel and avoiding 1st round conference matchups, UNH can pack its bags for Statesboro, Georgia, to play #4 Georgia Southern University. This means that in the name of a cash grab, the NCAA is pitting 2 of the top 5 schools against each other in round 1. The saddest part, this format is still more legitimate than the NCAA I-A Bowl Championship Series format.

(HEY I-A! How's being forced to put a 2 loss Michigan, and a schedule strength weak and 2 loss Boston College in 'Championship Series' Bowls looking? How's this one, what if Iowa State beats Oklahoma? You'll be forced to take them too! Wow, that means shafting undefeated Utah! What a public relations killer! That's OK though, since you've already decided to shaft undefeated Boise State! How is this format supposed to be better at picking a champion than the past, when you have all but assured that there will be 2 or 3 or 4 undefeated teams when the bowls are over?)

The Pride of Chestnut Hill

There's something magical about being in Cleveland when William Green (Boston College, Class of 2002) decides to throw a haymaker at the Pittsburgh Steelers' Joey Porter, nearly an hour before gametime, and completely misses. Every channel on the dial keeps showing clips again, and again, and again. I can't decide which shot is my favorite, the one where Green misses, or the one where a bloody Green is walking away from the field, because Porter certainly didn't miss. I hope Green was able to clean himself up in time to watch the kickoff from the locker room, because it would be a shame to think he missed a single second of his team losing without him. Of course, he's watched the Browns play without him before, since he, along with fellow Chestnut Hill College alumni Bill Romanowski and Mike Cloud, has had the honor of serving a four game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy in the past. Maybe it's something they pick up on the streets of Newton. In any case, Green certainly didn't learn how to fight in college, because Bill Romanowski has certainly never swung his fist at someone and missed. Sadly, Bill is prone to put up his dukes against teammates in the locker room, with career-ending force.

In other news, the Patriots finished dismantling the Bills 29-6 on Sunday Night Football mere moments ago. Poor Drew.