Hockey East-ACC proposal idea

[wildthing202]

This might sound crazy but what are the chances of the ACC buying out/merging with Hockey East and making the non-ACC members associate members of the conference?

I say this because the ACC in order to compete with the B1G on and off the field especially if they get their own network is going to need something other than basketball in the winter. My proposal would solve this problem and help out both conferences.

Basically Hockey East would retain all of their TV rights and such but would have an additional deal to air games on the ACC Network. The non-ACC members such as Maine, Providence, and eventually UConn would become associate members of the conference like the deal that West Virginia soccer has with C-USA and Boise St. wrestling has with the Pac-12. Of course Hockey East would become the ACC in name but basically retain everything else.

I made this proposal since BC and ND are members of both Hockey East and the ACC and I don't want to see BC lose all of their rivals in case some of the other ACC schools decide to create hockey teams(Pitt & Syracuse) with their newly gained money and force BC out of Hockey East due to NCAA rules about conference sponsorship with a minimum number of teams.

Could something like this work?

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[Oilers Chick]

This might sound crazy but what are the chances of the ACC buying out/merging with Hockey East and making the non-ACC members associate members of the conference?

I say this because the ACC in order to compete with the B1G on and off the field especially if they get their own network is going to need something other than basketball in the winter. My proposal would solve this problem and help out both conferences.

Basically Hockey East would retain all of their TV rights and such but would have an additional deal to air games on the ACC Network. The non-ACC members such as Maine, Providence, and eventually UConn would become associate members of the conference like the deal that West Virginia soccer has with C-USA and Boise St. wrestling has with the Pac-12. Of course Hockey East would become the ACC in name but basically retain everything else.

I made this proposal since BC and ND are members of both Hockey East and the ACC and I don't want to see BC lose all of their rivals in case some of the other ACC schools decide to create hockey teams(Pitt & Syracuse) with their newly gained money and force BC out of Hockey East due to NCAA rules about conference sponsorship with a minimum number of teams.

Could something like this work?

First off, BC isn't going anywhere as far as Hockey East is concerned. HE isn't interested in dismantling what is already there...they're trying to build on it.

Second, hockey doesn't have as many D-I teams that football and basketball have, so the scenario you're presenting ("associate member") wouldn't make sense nor work.

As for the TV rights, Hockey East already has a very good one with NESN. Furthermore, NBCSN has shown some HE games this past season. So no problems there.

If Pitt, Syracuse or any other team (ACC or otherwise) wants to go D-I in hockey, it's highly doubtful that it will happen anytime soon because there are a number of issues that will have to be addressed before it could become a reality....and not just strictly conference-related ones either.