Philadelphia, ECAC Hockey To Host 2014 NCAA Frozen Four
by Travis Hughes on Jul 13, 2010 6:02 PM EDT
in News
Email
Print
Philadelphia, the Wells Fargo Center and ECAC Hockey will play host to the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four. The weekend-long event, which crowns the champion of Division 1 collegiate hockey, will be held on April 10 and 12 of that year, the NCAA announced on Tuesday.
The Wachovia Center has hosted a number of NCAA Tournament events, such as the 2000 Women’s Final Four, the 2001 Division I Men’s Basketball East Regional and the 2006 Division I Men’s Basketball First and Second Rounds. The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) will serve as the host for the event on April 10 and 12, 2014.
In 2013, Pittsburgh, Robert Morris University and the new CONSOL Energy Center will play host to the same event. RMU currently plays in Atlantic Hockey and is the only Division 1 college ice hockey program in the state of Pennsylvania.
The closest NCAA Division 1 program to Philadelphia is Princeton, which plays in the ECAC, making that league an understandable host for this 2014 event.
Philadelphia has a rich college hockey history, dating back to a Penn team that began playing in 1898. The school competed in D1 hockey back in the 70s before the program took a tumble and the funding was cut. It returned as a club sport more recently, and the Class of '23 Rink that sits on the University City campus is often a secondary practice facility for visiting NHL clubs who cannot practice in South Philly for whatever reason.
Today, several of the schools in and around the city compete in the extremely competitive American Collegiate Hockey Association, which governs club-level college hockey around the country. Drexel, Penn, La Salle, Rowan Lehigh, Penn State, Villanova, Penn State-Berks, Delaware and St. Joe's are just some of the local schools that have strong club programs.
None of these local schools are close to making the jump to Division 1 men's hockey, for various reasons. PSU has debated the possibility and seems to be the most likely team in the area to eventually make the jump, but at this point there are no plans for expansion.
Perhaps our city landing this tournament is a stepping stone toward greater publicity for our many college hockey programs.
35 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
As someone who went to a school with D1 ECAC hockey,
I’m pretty psyched about this. Granted, RPI tended to place dead last in the league while I was there, but the following is awesome, and the games are a lot of fun to watch. I’m going to grad school in Philly, and I’ll definitely miss college hockey. I hope this launches further interest in the game in this area, and we get some other schools and communities into it.
Lets go RIT!
I’m pulling for my school again this year. RIT had a great run, surprising so many people. I only hope our season is just as good this year, would love to go to Philly to see them play at the Wach (I don’t care, I’m not calling it the Wells Fargo Center). Not to mention, I could totally make a trip of it and see a Flyers game too…
Rich hockey history?
There’s nothing sadder than the story of UPenn’s cancelled division 1 Ice hockey program to tell you the story of Philly college hockey — and that story quite frankly is an embarrassment. The class of ‘23 rink was a beautiful hockey rink in its day, and lead to the building of a program that became an official varsity sport in 1968. When you think of the programs at its Ivy league rivals like Harvard and Yale, it’s nothing short of an insult to the game and those who play it, that UPenn cancelled the program in the middle of the season in 1978, despite the popularity of the program being at an all time high and one of the most successful and popular at the school. When students stormed the administration after the plan to cut it was leaked to the school paper, the administration backed down and reversed the decision — for the other two sports (golf and gymnastics). There is no point in mincing words about it, Ice Hockey became the only sport that was dropped — a victim of Title IX that occurred ironically when interest in hockey had exploded thanks to the Broadstreet bullies.
That the school has never managed to resurrect the team when it has this fantastic facility, continues to show the disdain of local academics for it. Villanova university’s program suffered a similar fate in the 1990’s.
Quite frankly, collegiate Ice Hockey in pennsylvania and philly in particular is a complete and utter joke, despite the success of local youth leagues and wide acceptance at the High school level. Sadly, if you’re any good at the sport, you have to go elsewhere to pursue your passion. As I have a brother who coaches one of the local all star teams, I can say that things have come a long way, and players from the philly area are now able to get noticed by top tier college programs. None of those programs are in the state of Pennsylvania however, which is a shame.
I don’t think “rich history” necessarily means “they’re great.” It means “there’s been college hockey around for a long time,” or at least that’s how I meant it.
Visit the BSH Store :: Get us on Twitter :: facebook, too!
Broad Street Hockey - SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog. 2010 Eastern Conference Champions.
by Travis Hughes on Jul 13, 2010 10:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Penn State has its own history with its ice hockey program about which I’m not too proud. The program is just about a new arena (it’s the small things, naturally….) short of making the jump to the NCAA level. Of course, if the program hadn’t been shutdown for about 30 years and then restarted by a group of motivated students, the program might already be there.
"I did my walk of shame this morning and everyone was so much nicer," she said. "People were inviting me to parties at 9 a.m."
I’ve been in that arena many a time. Saying it’s a joke is an understatement. Sits maybe 1000 people, at most
Preaching the Inglewood Jack
by CoburnsCuddleBuddy on Jul 14, 2010 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions
I think seating is 1200, and max capacity (per the fire marshal) is 1500. It’s old, and it was an improvement of having to practice and play “home games” in Harrisburg and Johnstown. But yeah, a new arena would be awesome.
"I did my walk of shame this morning and everyone was so much nicer," she said. "People were inviting me to parties at 9 a.m."
The support for the Icers is pretty incredible, though. At least for club. … right?
Visit the BSH Store :: Get us on Twitter :: facebook, too!
Broad Street Hockey - SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog. 2010 Eastern Conference Champions.
by Travis Hughes on Jul 14, 2010 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions
In terms of vocal support, yes – they have a good following, the student newspaper covers them more closely than most of the other varsity sports, they’re on good terms with a number of businesses in the area, and most of the persons-in-power have given their verbal support of the team.
It’s the financial support that is either hunted down by the coaches/booster club, or comes out of our own pockets. The university has given some extra concessions in terms of rules and oversight because the Icers don’t really function like a normal “club” sport. But in terms of funding, well, they still enjoy the free, student-run labor portion of the program just as much.
"I did my walk of shame this morning and everyone was so much nicer," she said. "People were inviting me to parties at 9 a.m."
Yeah, WCU has a nice program there. In fact after my brother failed out of college in new england, he went to WCU which is near where we grew up and played hockey there while pursuing his
There were some good players on that team, and from what he’s told me, the program has built on their success for many years now.
With that said, any sport that isn’t officially recognized as a varsity sport, is a 2nd or 3rd class citizen. WCU, Penn State, even UPenn all have club teams. I compare that however, to Boston where just about every college in town, short of Emerson and Simmons have fully recognized varsity hockey programs. Considering that after Boston, Philly has one of the highest concentration of well known institutions of higher education, the fact that there’s not one single varsity hockey program is embarassing, especially considering the success of the state’s two pro franchises. Yet I digress. Are you involved with the WCU program?
WCU’s team has definitely made great strides in the past 5 years. A slight step back last season, but they have some solid players and they are (seemingly) a regular ACHA Tournament caliber team.
Drexel and ’Nova both have club teams, albeit fairly poor ones.
"I did my walk of shame this morning and everyone was so much nicer," she said. "People were inviting me to parties at 9 a.m."
I’m glad Phily got this. These tournaments are a lot of fun to watch! :)
#1 Flyers fan in England (originally from Southeastern PA)
by Orange and Black Forever on Jul 14, 2010 6:11 AM EDT reply actions
None of these local schools are close to making the jump to Division 1 men’s hockey, for various reasons. PSU has debated the possibility and seems to be the most likely team in the area to eventually make the jump, but at this point there are no plans for expansion.
I went to Penn State and watched many an Icers game – they were a blast! :) I’m happy to see IcersGuy on our blog as well – I’m sure he loved playing for them. (If you are reading this, IcersGuy, did you play for Joe Battista? I really liked him as a coach.)
I bet we do make the jump to D1 someday – a lot of our Big Ten brethren are already D1 and that should only inspire us to make the leap someday.
#1 Flyers fan in England (originally from Southeastern PA)
by Orange and Black Forever on Jul 14, 2010 8:20 AM EDT reply actions
I never actually played, but I worked/volunteered for the Icers through the Hockey Management Association. So I helped with all the behind-the-scenes stuff for the games, was the head statistician for 3 years, so on and so forth. But I did get to know JoeBa pretty well over my 4 years in the HMA (and the few years I’ve visited State College since graduation), and he’s an awesome guy. Great stories, too.
"I did my walk of shame this morning and everyone was so much nicer," she said. "People were inviting me to parties at 9 a.m."
Oops! Sorry I misunderstood about your playing on the team, but, if you worked with the team, that’s wonderful too! :) JoeBa always seemed very cool – and his nickname is perfect for PSU (having JoePa and JoeBa coaching at the same time I was there was pretty neat).
He’s pretty high up in management at the school now, right?
#1 Flyers fan in England (originally from Southeastern PA)
by Orange and Black Forever on Jul 14, 2010 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions
His role has shifted a couple times since he stepped down. Right now, I believe he is in charge of alumni donations for Smeal. He was the Executive Director of the Nittany Lion Club immediately after leaving, which involved a lot of travel trying to solicit big donors for the entire athletic department. If nothing else, the man is a schmoozer, (I believe he got his degree in marketing from Penn State) and I mean that fully in a positive sense.
"I did my walk of shame this morning and everyone was so much nicer," she said. "People were inviting me to parties at 9 a.m."
I understand what you mean. Since he is so charismatic, I’m sure he’s very successful.
Thank you for the info! :)
#1 Flyers fan in England (originally from Southeastern PA)
by Orange and Black Forever on Jul 15, 2010 6:34 AM EDT up reply actions
Lehigh...
Had a joke of a hockey program when I was there. I know when I when I moved on to grad school there they made some strides, and their top club team had significantly improved. But I’m surprised to see them on the list. To be honest my freshman year, they were kind of a joke on campus, their B team was more competitive since their A team only cared about drinking. But I was injured my freshman year and then decided to never play with them b/c of their reputation, so maybe I was misinformed.
Anywho, this is the best news I’ve heard. I’m really excited to see the Frozen Four, and I hope St Cloud State will be there since they are my adopted team.
newman
won NCAA DIII national championship last season and Mercyhurst College is a D1 program out of Erie
by asmallvictory31 on Jul 14, 2010 10:13 AM EDT reply actions
Neumann
Neumann plays out of Aston Ice Works. But they are D III for a reason. There is a big jump to make. Schools with D1 programs that have club teams could destroy Neumann (the club team that is). Heck, my cousins intramural team at BC was built of only kids that played on State Championship HS teams, their team was ridiculous. I’m not saying Neumann doesn’t have a good D III program, they do, just the level of competition is not there. But they do run a very good D III program that ahs been very competitive in recent years.
Norwich won last year. Neumann wasn’t even in the tournament, and they were ranked #15 in the East by the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee, and unranked (no votes) by USCHO.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I don’t think we have NCAA hockey in Florida yet. All of our teams are ACHA, mostly D3 with a couple D2. The ones I’d see as most likely to try to join the NCAA would be UF, UCF, USF, or FGCU (Gulf Coast is easily the smallest of those four, but they probably have the best team).
Honor is no substitute for victory.
It’s weird that Alabama-Huntsville is hosting the Frozen Four in 2012 in Tampa.
Visit the BSH Store :: Get us on Twitter :: facebook, too!
Broad Street Hockey - SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog. 2010 Eastern Conference Champions.
by Travis Hughes on Jul 14, 2010 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions
Heck, Orlando made a bid back in 2000, with Quinnipiac as the sponsoring school.
Hopefully it will boost college hockey in Florida. Like I said, there aren’t any NCAA programs yet. The ACHA programs I’m aware of are Florida Gulf Coast (D2, along with teams from Penn State and St. Joe’s), and a bunch of Division 3 programs: UCF, Embry-Riddle, USF, FSU, UF, FIT, and Florida Atlantic. There used to be independent programs at Florida Southern and Rollins (I’ve been a student at both of those schools, as well as UCF), but I believe both are currently defunct due to a lack of available funds.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I went to Quinnipiac and didn’t know this. Interesting.
Visit the BSH Store :: Get us on Twitter :: facebook, too!
Broad Street Hockey - SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog. 2010 Eastern Conference Champions.
by Travis Hughes on Jul 14, 2010 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
SBNation.com Recent Stories
In Association With
Latest Puck Daddy - NHL from Yahoo! Sports
- Capitals’ Vokoun shuts out Panthers: ‘We don’t want to be a bubble team’
- Snow building up: Isles sign Frans Nielsen to 4-year deal, avoid free agency
- Puck Previews: Capitals, Panthers in Southeast showdown; Winter Classic announcement day
- Tribute to Owen Nolan: 10 moments that best celebrate his hockey legacy (Video)
- Puck Headlines: Canucks split Sedins; Ovechkin’s $4M house; Coyotes booster club folds
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
