FreddyFoyle
Registered User
OK, first and foremost, this proposed change would only work if another Quebec school adds men's hockey.
So here's the plan:
So here's the plan:
- Convince another Quebec school to add men's hockey (e.g. Université de Montrèal, Laval, Sherbrooke, Bishops)
- That would make four Quebec schools.
- Convince uOttawa and Carleton to transfer to RESQ for men's hockey.
- Now RESQ is revitalized as a conference with six teams, and a guaranteed berth at UCup.
- OUA drops back to only one guaranteed berth at UCup.
- Now you can go back to a true Final 4 format at UCup with four conference champs.
- For example, AUS drops back to 24 games (play each other 4 times) for conference play, standings, playoffs, etc.
- AUS then adds 4 (28 game total) to 8 (32 game total) out-of-conference games for each team.
- Like the NCAA, out-of-conference games wouldn't count for standings, but would count for rankings, etc.
- Out-of-conference games based on reciprocity - home and home series (2 or 4 games) spanning up to 2 seasons.
- To make travel/study more manageable, arrange long-travel games early in Fall and/or the first weekend in January.
- This gets us to more of the "Super League" Bob Stauffer used to advocate for. Those who want to travel cross-country for opponents can; those who don't want to don't have to.
- The new RESQ would have 20 conference games (play each other 4 times), and the balance of the sked could be to AUS teams (all bus-able) and OUA teams, or even Canada West.
- OUA and CanWest can keep doing their own thing and treat out-of-conference games as exhibition on their end, or they could modify their conferences as well.
- The 8-team format is not working. It is difficult to manage for the hosts (who has 8 dressing rooms in their rinks?) and expensive. No wonder few schools bid to host anymore.
- The old 4-team format was exciting (one game a day to hype, must-win to advance to final), like the NCAA Frozen Four, but meant there was no host team (which I guess was why they were always in Toronto?)
- I believe the CIAU went to a final-6 format to include a host (in order to move the game around the country), plus a wildcard to round it out (you can't easily have a 5-team tournament).
- I was totally fine with that format; the only people that hated it were TV (and CIAU/USports bureaucrats), and face it, Sports TV is not that interested in the UCup.
- Still, I think it is worth the risk to go back to a Final-4 format (AUS, CanWest, RESQ, and OUA champs) without host berths. I believe there are certain markets (Halifax, Fredericton, Moncton, Charlottetown?, Saskatoon?, Thunder Bay?, Winnipeg?) who appreciate the level of the hockey, and the "event-ness" of the University Cup enough where fans will buy tickets and still show up even if their local team isn't involved. This would obviously involve some serious marketing to create buzz, and AFFORDABLE tickets (have you seen what they want for World Juniors in Alberta next year?)