College Hockey Conference Realignment

College hockey has already undergone some serious conference realignments and I believe that this will continue to be a trend throughout all of NCAA hockey. Two new conferences have gone into effect this season in the Big Ten and NCHC (National Collegiate Hockey Conference) and with their emergence the landscape of collegiate hockey conferences has been drastically altered.

Two of the major conferences before these additions, the WCHA (Western Collegiate Hockey Association) and CCHA (Central Collegiate Hockey Association) each took a significant blow. The WCHA lost 8 teams to these new conferences while the CCHA lost 9. There are currently 6 conferences in NCAA Division I Men's Hockey and they are as follows: Atlantic Hockey, Big Ten, ECAC, Hockey East, NCHC, and WCHA. To get an update on which teams are in which conference check out their current standings.

The Big Ten Network has 27 games on its schedule for this season, with seven more featuring Big Ten teams on ESPNU or ESPNews. There is clearly a huge marketing opportunity here. What the Big Ten Network sees is exactly the same thing I see. That is a chance to put NCAA hockey on more of a national scale. The NHL has been rising in popularity over the past decade or so and with that hockey in general has developed a core group of fans who feverishly support the game. It makes perfect sense that fans would love to watch college hockey on a nationally televised scale and what better outlet than ESPN and its vast family of networks.

With the Big Ten being the first mid-major to create their very own hockey conference one can't help but wonder if this will become a trend in college hockey. A lot will depend on how the Big Ten fairs from this development economically, but with America's love for hockey growing at a consistent rate and the massive success of other NCAA sports such as football and basketball, I think it is only a matter of time before college hockey becomes the next big thing.

I think the Ivy League has a great opportunity to significantly benefit from this. With six of the eight Ivy schools having a competitive squad along with some terrific rivalry games, the possibility for the Ivy League to capitalize on this growing market is certainly there. An Ivy League Hockey Conference is an extremely viable concept that all 6 universities could greatly prosper from. It would also be a great chance for the Ivy League Digital Network to expand and grow as they could obtain a monopoly over the broadcasting rights for the games similar to the way the Big Ten Network did with their new conference.

There is already a post-season tournament in place that is similar to NCAA basketball and consists of a 16 team bracket that after two rounds boils down to the Frozen Four, as opposed to basketball's Final Four. Enhanced media coverage of this tournament could be extremely profitable as well. With only the top 16 teams qualifying the tourney often provides high quality, close matchups between the best schools. However, as the sport grows I can envision expansion and an increased number of teams in the bracket in order to further improve the overall experience.

This is all just educated speculation, but I personally believe that NCAA hockey is ready to blow up and become just as big as college football and basketball. The atmosphere at any college hockey game is electric and comparable to any NCAA football or basketball venue and I think that if hockey fans everywhere get a chance to experience it via national television on a consistent basis they will realize this and ultimately fall in love. Who knows, maybe one day we will be watching NCAA Winter Classic games outdoors.