2023-24 Manitoba Bisons/CW

[Hollywood3]

I see North Dakota's hockey schedule came out and they have an exhibition game against the Bisons scheduled for Jan. 4. Has a mid-season exhibition vs. ND been done before? It seems unusual.

My kid has never been to a game at the Ralph, that might be a convenient date to do it. But if I do, it will be tough to talk myself into wearing my Bison gear and cheering for the brown and gold when we know what the outcome is likely to be

I had heard that the pre-season rules in the NCAA were changing so as to allow exhibitions within the USA, meaning that the usual fixture was being scrapped. So this January 4th game is a bonus. I wonder what will happen across USports. If there were mid-season games it was a long time ago. I do remember that they used to play some games in Manitoba as well.

 

[Campy]

I had heard that the pre-season rules in the NCAA were changing so as to allow exhibitions within the USA, meaning that the usual fixture was being scrapped. So this January 4th game is a bonus. I wonder what will happen across USports. If there were mid-season games it was a long time ago. I do remember that they used to play some games in Manitoba as well.

Current AUS ops manual is written in a way that basically disallows exhibition games during conference play. Essentially, a friendly has to be before the 1st half...played in September, very early October or during the Christmas break, which essentially is only between Christmas and New Year's due to exams and players getting home for Christmas.

 

[Hollywood3]

Current AUS ops manual is written in a way that basically disallows exhibition games during conference play. Essentially, a friendly has to be before the 1st half...played in September, very early October or during the Christmas break, which essentially is only between Christmas and New Year's due to exams and players getting home for Christmas.

View attachment 859474

The Bisons probably don't re-start their season until the following weekend anyhow. I believe that conference approval is required, or at least was at one time. This was to prevent the CW season from being "secondary" for some teams. Not really an issue any more.

BTW the 2024-25 thread will be starting tonight. The Bisons have 3 WHL recruits.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

Current AUS ops manual is written in a way that basically disallows exhibition games during conference play. Essentially, a friendly has to be before the 1st half...played in September, very early October or during the Christmas break, which essentially is only between Christmas and New Year's due to exams and players getting home for Christmas.

View attachment 859474

The Darren Burns rule.

 

[Drummer]

I wonder what will happen across USports. If there were mid-season games it was a long time ago.

The AUS no longer allows for Exhibition games during the playing seasons (Fall and Winter) which means the schedule is 'locked' from early October to Dec. 5th'ish and again from early January to the end of the season.

This means that exhibition can occur as soon as 14 days after Labour Day up to the start of the Regular Season (early October) and over Christmas.

UNB Played UMaine on January 14th, 2014 after playing six regular games after the Christmas break - this is likely the biggest gap/mid-season exhibition game I know of.

There are some seasons after the rule came in where there is a gap at the start of the season (early October), but that was to grand-father in some games that had been on the books with US teams prior to the rule coming into affect.

Most US Teams have adjusted their own schedules and you can get a game in prior to the season (Oct. 1-3 weekend - whenever it is), but it's a logistics challenge now. AUS teams can't play any of the Ivy Teams anymore though - they don't start until the 3rd week of October which is well into the first half for the AUS.

This is another perceived "UNB Rule" - as the AUS team closest to New England - they were getting the most opportunities and were making requests to have 'bye' weekends so they could play double-headers in late October.