D2 Nationals

[Bthumme]

Division II
•California State University, Chico
•University of Central Michigan
•University of Colorado
•University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
•University of Florida
•Kansas State University
•Kennesaw State University
•Maryville University
•University of North Carolina, Charlotte
•Northeastern University
•University of Pittsburgh
•Texas State - San Marcos
•State University of New York at Binghamton
•University of California, Irvine
•University of California, Santa Cruz
•Western Michigan University
•Alternate #1: Queens College
•Alternate #2: Florida State University
•Alternate #3: Slippery Rock University
•Alternate #4: Washington University

[NUHockey72]

I'm interested to see what the pools will be, definitely would love to play CMU early in round robin just to get a feel for how good this team is.

[Bthumme]

Just gonna take a stab at pools:

Pool A:
Central Michigan
Chico
Colorado
Northeastern

Pool B:
UC Santa Cruz
Pittsburgh
Kennesaw
Colorado Springs

Pool C:
Western Michigan
UC Irvine
Maryville
Flordia

Pool D:
Texas State - San Marcos
UNCC
SUNY Binghamton
Kansas State

This is assuming all D2 teams go, I don't know when it becomes official what teams are going and what aren't.

[hockeykid12]

Just curious, I thought central mich was a d1 team, didn't they make d1 nationals last year?

[ilovecollege]

Just gonna take a stab at pools:

Pool A:
Central Michigan
Chico
Colorado
Northeastern

Pool B:
UC Santa Cruz
Pittsburgh
Kennesaw
Colorado Springs

Pool C:
Western Michigan
UC Irvine
Maryville
Flordia

Pool D:
Texas State - San Marcos
UNCC
SUNY Binghamton
Kansas State

This is assuming all D2 teams go, I don't know when it becomes official what teams are going and what aren't.


if these are the pools, UNCC is going to run train on all of pool d.

[aElliott15]

Except their game against Binghamton. They played each other last month and Binghamton won 4-2, just saying. I agree that they should handle the other two teams pretty easily.

[ilovecollege]

Except their game against Binghamton. They played each other last month and Binghamton won 4-2, just saying. I agree that they should handle the other two teams pretty easily.

didnt see binghampton for some reason...just did a quick glance. but you're right.

[uncchockey96]

The binghamton game will definitely be a good one. We played them close at chantilly but unfortunately we had a short bench n we were missing a few key guys. Definitely could've been a different game

[aElliott15]

Is anyone surprised about any of the DII bids? Personally I'm surprised that Queens College didn't get an at-large bid. Granted, they got the first alternate, but I felt that they deserved an at-large

[Sbu31]

Just curious, I thought central mich was a d1 team, didn't they make d1 nationals last year?

was wondering the same thing actually. They were 11-2-4 last year and went to nationals, why would they move down? I saw them play in palatine and they hung in fine against Michigan State granted they lost 6-3

[aElliott15]

They lost quite a few people from last year including their top scorer and 4 of their top 6 scorers. My guess is thats why they moved down

[Bthumme]

Didn't realize that UNCC and Binghamton played each other already. You could swap one of those two for Western Michigan.

From what we were told about Central, they appealed (successfully) to move down from D1. Among other things they weren't "organized" and didn't send a representative to the Mission hockey College last year. The only thing they have going against them is their lack of competition from our region this year. Relatively speaking they are leaps beyond anything we have to offer in D2. We played them strong our first game against them, but we ended up on the short side, in part due to penalties.

[cincybearcat]

Central Michigan has no business in D2. Bunch of sandbaggers.

[hockeykid12]

Rowan D1 team lost like 90% of there scoring and there team and yet still stayed up in D1 in the east let alone... That is such a poor reflection of CMU...

[Sbu31]

Rowan D1 team lost like 90% of there scoring and there team and yet still stayed up in D1 in the east let alone... That is such a poor reflection of CMU...

As did uri and buffalo

[Bthumme]

Not to mention their B team was runner up last year and did fine at nationals as well.

[js1091]

Anyone know what the selection criteria is for bids and how they weigh regular season vs playoff (Regionals) record?

[sruinline16]

from what i have heard Pitt has declined their bid so queens is now in

[NUHockey72]

from what i have heard Pitt has declined their bid so queens is now in

Where did you hear this from? If this is true that makes the field a lot more wide open; aside from central michigan being the favorites.

[NUHockey72]

Central Michigan has no business in D2. Bunch of sandbaggers.

I feel the punishment for moving down and having a undefeated season/ winning a regional championship, should be a rejection of the nationals bid. It would be the perfect deterrent in my opinion.

[William Bourque]

from what i have heard Pitt has declined their bid so queens is now in

Pittsburgh accepted their bid.

[Bthumme]

I feel the punishment for moving down and having a undefeated season/ winning a regional championship, should be a rejection of the nationals bid. It would be the perfect deterrent in my opinion.

Or put them in nationals for D1 where they belong.
That's twice in two years we've gotten screwed. Last year we lost in the championship game to Schoolcraft CC, so as a result we were not declared regional champs and also had to pay an entrance fee.

Not to mention also that another team may have gotten a shot (Miami wasn't eligible, but probably NIU) to at least be an alternate for nationals.

[LstLineOfDfense]

I feel like Northeastern and Binghamton can give CMU a game. Pittsburgh has now choked in the playoffs two seasons in a row...

[RhodyDlenz]

I can't understand why a team would want to drop from D1 to DII, unless they are asked/forced by the league.
Every team goes thru the tough times of graduating players, finding new ones and trying to get things organized year to year........we (URI) are a prime example of that after going winless in 2010-2011.
For CMU to drop to DII and then go undefeated and win the regionals is a joke.

[CUDangled]

That goes back to the whole debate about the difference between DI & DII

Is it based on skill of the program? Or the level of organization of the program. Matching jerseys/helmets/gloves/etc, coach, hockey college, etc. Not sure what the requirements are anymore...but that used to be a key deciding factor.

[CMU_RH]

I play for the CMU roller hockey team and nobody understands what is actually going on before they start bashing our team. To start off the D2 division in the MCRHL is not that strong, no team besides us and Western deserve a national bid.

If you look at our schedule Western played us to a 1 goal game pretty much and gave us really good competition. Unfortunately they lost one of their best guys throughout the season. Because they destroyed all the teams in our division besides us, does that mean that they don't belong in D2?

Kennesaw came over from the SCHL and played us to a one goal game and beat everyone else but Western. Yes, we have an undefeated record in our division, but if the WMU team didnt fall apart throughout the season, the games between the two teams could have gone either way.

We moved down from D1 to D2 because of a few reasons. One of those being that our B team was going to be the new D1 team and, we weren't a D1 caliber team. We only expected to have one player come back from the old D1 team. Someone made a point that we were regional runner ups and did fine in nationals as a B team. Yes we were regional runner ups two years in a row and went to nationals both times. But we only won 1 game out of the two years we went to nationals. Also we had to move down because of the organization of our club and our school support.

Were excited to get to nationals because we know that the majority of teams we played in the MCRHL is not the best competition that the D2 division has to offer.

As for the Cinci player calling us sandbaggers, I don't know why you're only mad at us when 5 or 6 other teams beat you as well.

So I'm sure I'll continue to read the bashing on us, but I wanted to at least clear the air somewhat. Were excited about Nationals this year and can't wait to play all of you that are going.

[hockeykid12]

so basically what your saying is, that you went to a weaker division in your region because you didn't want to take a few lumps in D1 for a year or so, knowing you could run house on D2 in your region. it is sandbagging, the east has Rowan/URI/Buffalo all of whom were real good teams who lost talent and stayed in D1 knowing lumps were to be had. Rowan/buffalo could probably have done very well in D2 this year but they chose to play at a higher level.

CMU chose to take the most easiest route possible, knowing they would have a pretty competitive team coming from the B squad. Its ashame the league doesn't really enforce or have specific criteria in place that doesn't allow for this kind of stuff to happen.

To think people complained that the east were sandbaggers of D2 with WCU/Rowan/Nu/brockport staying down there

[CMU_RH]

So basically you didn't fully read my entire post. Us moving from B to D2 was only a small part of why we moved down. I talked to the NCRHA about everything going on with us and our school and they must have agreed with us, to allow us to move down.

I don't know who you play/played for but until you play us, you have no room to call us sandbaggers. Everyone can choose to read what I wrote and take out a few parts here and there to make us look bad. There are more reasons than just our old D1 team graduated as to why we needed to move down.

[NUHockey72]

CMU_RH, would you mind elaborating on the issues that in the end was the dealbreakers in deciding to play DII? I think people without the insight into what your team experienced in the offseason most of us are currently perplexed about your sudden move down to DII. I'm curious to see if it was money allotment issues, or inability to meet uniform requirements, etc.; because most people on here see you're one year removed from beating MSU in a regional championship, a year removed from beating Rowan at Nationals 9-8, two years removed from losing to Lindenwood by only 2 goals and a 3 goal loss to arguably the second best team in the country (MSU) this year. We also see you have a near .500 B team as well, so player participation which is a struggle for so many teams seems not to be an issue in your organization as well.

I think in the end what most people are so confused about is when teams in DI, are refused the ability to move (or stay) down for a multitude of reasons similar to yours I.E. URI, Rowan, Brockport, Missouri S&T, and Texas Tech were not given the same leniency as you and Kennesaw were given this year; and therefore suffer a potentially organization ending season.

[ISFN]

Shouldn't some (if not all) the blame be put on the regional/national director(s) for allowing them to do so, right or wrong isn't the question but why were they 'allowed' to move down?

...And I'm sure the answer will be because of everything CMU said but again I'm sure there were plenty more teams in the same situation and their directors did the correct thing and denied their application to move (or retained them in D1).

[RhodyDlenz]

Shouldn't some (if not all) the blame be put on the regional/national director(s) for allowing them to do so, right or wrong isn't the question but why were they 'allowed' to move down?

...And I'm sure the answer will be because of everything CMU said but again I'm sure there were plenty more teams in the same situation and their directors did the correct thing and denied their application to move (or retained them in D1).

I don't think it's a matter of whether or not the league/region "granted" a teams request to drop down a division. Being that most (if not all) of us are extremely competitive people, I would be willing to bet that every team would fight to stay in D1. I know I don't have all the facts, but based on what we read on this board, I don't see why CMU would initiate the request to move down......especially based on this seasons results for both D2 and their B team.

[void]

Didn't realize that UNCC and Binghamton played each other already. You could swap one of those two for Western Michigan.