Big 10 Rumblings: Losing hurts

Hockey is a way of life for many people. It provides jobs, food on the table and entertainment when the other two are not options. Hockey used to be a revenue option for me. I wrote for a couple of paying blogs, papers and such to make a few bucks here and there. I was even published in the hockey digest a couple years back.

Now I watch hockey as a fun loving family man and hobbyist scout. I've been writing recently about the Big 10 entering hockey and today is no different. I've talked about expansion and the teams involved in the future growth of the Big 10.

First, to satisfy my need to talk about growth I'll address the reason why the Big 10 won't add Notre Dame or Boston College: The Big 10 prides itself on research and similar grants. With the exception of Nebraska, every school within the Big 10 is an AAU member. Long of the short: AAU schools dominate in research grants. Side note: Nebraska was accepted into the Big 10 and lost their AAU membership 3 months later. Had the big 10 waited, Nebraska would be sounding a different horn and it wouldn't be against fellow Big 10 opponents on a regular basis. Anyways, I digress.

Here are the teams that have not added provisions to include D1 hockey in the Big 10:

Rutgers
Maryland
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Northwestern

Let's do a breakdown of the feasibility of each program:

Rutgers: Currently holds  D1 hockey at the club level, but has failed in recent years to establish a solid basketball or football program. The clear wording here is Basketball and Football. The bread and butter of the Big 10. So until at least one of those void's are filled, or unless some rich alumni steps up, Rutgers won't be seeing the likes of Penn State on ice any time soon.

Maryland: Opposite of Rutgers, Maryland has a very rich alumni. Can't think of his name, but the company he started you may know of: Underarmor. He's got money and is often found raising money for the Terrapins, but doesn't have the funds that the Buffalo Sabres owner and Penn State alumnus does. Not to mention, hockey falls pretty flat in the D.C. area. The Capitals worship all things Ovechkin but before that suffered from years of junk hockey. Maryland has Basketball covered and can run with SOME big dogs in football. Still though, they don't have recruiting or the wholesale money to fund a D1 program.

Indiana: Well here is a no brainer. Indiana is basketball as Alabama is football. Name the last time Alabama won a basketball championship. Do the same for football at Indiana. Hard to remember without Google. So as much as this is a feel good story to bring hockey to the Hoosier state, it's not happening in Bloomington.

Purdue: Currently the only school in Indiana with a D1 hockey team is Notre Dame. Currently the only school in Indiana with a winning football record over the past 10 years is Notre Dame. Also currently the only Big 10 school to contribute anything to Big 10 sports in the state of Indiana, is Indiana. They won't be fielding hockey. So just reference Rutgers for this one.

Illinois: The copperhead. Has been above average in basketball and went to the rose bowl in football roughly 5 or 6 years ago. Large endowment and steady growth in the past years makes this school wonder why. Of the schools who have declared not to enter a program in hockey, Illinois is the only one to stump me. They have the money to make it happen, they have the recruiting grounds and they are within driving distance of a couple Big 10 hockey programs. Sad.

Northwestern: Contributes nearly no research to the Big 10 academic success, but takes everyone else's hard working research and culminates it into the Kellogg School of Business. The last time Northwestern did something in athletics, Blake Wheeler died. Of the schools without a team, this is the one with the most money from alums.