Debate whether NCAA tourney should go back to school
The atmosphere was hardly befitting a game of such magnitude.
When the men’s hockey programs for Western Michigan and Minnesota squared off in March 2022, there were 2,848 fans in attendance at the DCU Center in Worcester, a venue whose hockey capacity is 12,135. A berth in the Frozen Four was on the line, in front of nearly 10,000 empty seats.
Yes, there were mitigating circumstances: Both Northeastern and UMass were also in the Worcester regional, and had one or both of the Hockey East teams advanced, plenty of local fans would have been willing to make the drive from Boston or Amherst.
Some may have been selective about which games to attend. Just one week earlier, the Hockey East championship rounds drew 25,155 fans over two nights at TD Garden. Two weeks after the regionals, TD Garden was sold out both nights for the Frozen Four.
Worcester may be an extreme example, but similar scenes have played out around the country. It’s what prompted Denver coach David Carle to lobby for the regionals to be played on campus sites, something he spoke about in October after the Pioneers won in front of a sellout crowd at Boston College.
“I would much rather play BC in Conte Forum than play them in front of nobody in Manchester, [N.H.],” said Carle. “We’ve all been through that. We’ve experienced it. Home crowds are what makes college hockey great. We need to grow our game. We need crowds like this, and we need them in playoff hockey.”
The topic was broached at the 2023 American Hockey Coaches Association Convention in April, but no formal plan was offered.
“I’m not opposed to it,” said Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo. “If it’s something they bring up and it makes sense that it’s better for college hockey, I’m certainly not opposed to it at all.”
The NCAA tournament last held games at campus sites in 1991, when 12 teams played best-of-three series in the first round — four received byes — and quarterfinals. Having regionals on campus would not work in the current format, which features 16 teams playing single elimination across four sites. It’s the same approach that men’s and women’s basketball use to determine the Final Four.
According to the minimum bid specifications outlined by the NCAA, teams or conferences submitting proposals to host a men’s hockey regional must have a facility that seats at least 5,000. That would eliminate a number of New England schools, including Harvard, Northeastern, Merrimack, and Providence. Additionally, prospective facilities need to be capable of accommodating a minimum of 75 media members, a tall order even for some of the bigger on-campus venues in the area.
One proposal for on-campus games that advocates would like to discuss at next year’s convention would break up the regionals into two weekends, with the top eight seeds serving as hosts for the first round. It would be similar to the format that the Football Championship Subdivision uses to decide its national champion.
There could be two games each night Thursday through Sunday to whittle the field to eight. The four highest remaining seeds would then host the following weekend — perhaps one game Thursday-Sunday, or two days of two games per day, with the winners advancing to the Frozen Four.
There are, of course, issues with that format. Currently, the regionals are played on the same weekend as those of the men’s and women’s basketball tournament. The men’s hockey tourney has long used the following weekend as a bye, when both the men’s and women’s basketball Final Fours are being held.
This new proposal would have the final eight playing in the long shadow of Final Four weekend for the right to get to the Frozen Four. It also would leave the winning teams little time to prepare and travel to the national semifinals, which are played on Thursday before a Saturday national championship game.
The proposal would have to include moving the semifinals to Saturday, and the title game to Monday night — how the men’s basketball Final Four has been run. Both national championships for men’s basketball and football are played on Monday nights.
Steve Metcalf, who chaired the NCAA Division 1 men’s and women’s ice hockey committees prior to being named Hockey East commissioner in 2020, sees the benefits of the proposed model, but also sees fatal flaws.
“I think the vast majority of coaches prefer the current model because of the neutrality it provides,” said Metcalf. “You’re not having a home-ice advantage, and they think that’s important.”
ESPN has the tournament broadcast rights in a wide-ranging deal with the NCAA that is up in August. As it stands, it only has to broadcast from four sites. The proposed format would push the network to send eight crews out for the opening round, and four for the second.
Metcalf is not sure that would be a reasonable ask, adding that there would be the added expense of teams and officiating crews traveling to single games on separate weekends. Not to mention the fans, who may have attended conference championships and have bought tickets for the Frozen Four.
The two biggest concerns of opponents of the current system revolve around atmosphere and attendance. Metcalf believes the NCAA can address those while maintaining neutral sites. The committee can shift teams within their seeding band to keep them geographically closer to home.
Another piece of the solution is getting more western sites. The goal each year is to have two regionals in the east and, ideally, two closer to the Big Ten and NCHC. That was not the case in 2023, when three regionals were held in the east — Manchester, N.H.; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Allentown, Pa. — with Fargo, N.D., the lone regional out west.
A look at future sites demonstrates more balanced locations, with Maryland Heights, Mo., and Sioux Falls, S.D., hosting in 2024. Fargo and Toledo, Ohio, are on tap for 2025, and Sioux Falls and Loveland, Colo., are in the rotation for 2026.