DII needs 20 teams!!!!!!!

[Hockeyguy22]

DII has become pretty competitive across the nation and if only 16 teams get bids then some quality teams will miss out who have a good chance in making some noise at nationals. Alot of schools get a good amount of their money from recieving a national bid. If we want this sport to continue to grow it does nothing but help if more teams get a bid.

[dan sangiorgio]

d2 used to have 20 teams when it was arugably at its most competitive and it was too many then. and now that the ncrha is trying to move all the top teams to div1 there is even less of a reason to have more d2 teams. chances are if you are not in the top 16 you have 0 chance of winning anyway, however there will always be 2 or 3 teams left feeling cheated as there are every year after national selections.

[Hockeyguy22]

yeah but i see in alot of divisions such as secrhl where several DI teams moved down to DII. Im pretty sure that there are more DII teams than DI

[kevinsmithAZ]

yeah but i see in alot of divisions such as secrhl where several DI teams moved down to DII. Im pretty sure that there are more DII teams than DI

That's why they increased DI bids and are giving less DII bids this year.. They want the more competitive teams to play DI. Everyone knows there are teams that sandbag (in every sport and league/tournament series) and the NCRHA doesn't want teams playing DII when they're competitive with other DI teams just so they are guaranteed Nationals.

[smiller]

DII has become pretty competitive across the nation and if only 16 teams get bids then some quality teams will miss out who have a good chance in making some noise at nationals. Alot of schools get a good amount of their money from recieving a national bid. If we want this sport to continue to grow it does nothing but help if more teams get a bid.

Under the new set up of the NCRHA the teams that do get good amounts of money and support from the their school and have the talent and organization should be playing DI. So why reward them with a bid to nationals for choosing to stay in DII?

[hockey1]

d2 used to have 20 teams when it was arugably at its most competitive and it was too many then. and now that the ncrha is trying to move all the top teams to div1 there is even less of a reason to have more d2 teams. chances are if you are not in the top 16 you have 0 chance of winning anyway, however there will always be 2 or 3 teams left feeling cheated as there are every year after national selections.

The NCRHA tried to get more teams to move up, but the oppisite happened. Now over half of the D1 teams in country will be going to nationals. Because teams that should be moving up are not, many quality DII teams will be hurt. In turn, because teams like Neumann and others are staying in DII, many teams that are not fit to play in DI may have to move up just to have a shot at nationals and, as a result, countinue to get good funding from their school.

[wednthavddr]

In my eyes the changes in divisional structure was to make D1 the quality product of the NCRHA. It is based more on the organization of a team rather then the talent. It just so happens the best teams are the most organized. A feel a lot of D2 have the talent to move up but not enough money or dedication. I am the President of USF and the reason we moved down to D2 is because of the rule changes and lack of dedication. We were able to compete in D1 but nobody had the money or wanted to spend the money on new gloves and helmets. We still believe we can compete in division1, last week we lost to FIU by one, and look at our D2 record, we suck. We went 1-6-1 in the past 8 games. We are just a bunch of guys that enjoy playing hockey, so it does not make sense to go through all the trouble of getting new equipment when the desire to say, "We are in D1" isn't there. I dont feel like proofreading so this may not make sense.

[FAUplayer]

I agree with the above guy from USF.

FAU chose to do D2, because, well, we did not think our team would actually come out to be this good. Also, it is our inaugural season, so we thought it would be best. We are banking on getting a national bid so we can try and get some funding for next year, because as of today, we have gotten no money from our school. It will be very expensive for us to get all new gloves and helmets, but yet, I have seen D1 schools that ar enot compliant with the helmets and gloves rule....

[oldschool22]

I agree.
Thank your regional directors for this one. This is a poor call from the league.
Who wants to play DI? I'd rather have a chance to win a National Championship than know I have no chance of going up against LU. They have a clear advantage over everyone in that they give scholarships and that it's an easy school to get into. I bet their streak runs over 10 years. Is that fun to look at the elimination round seedings and see that you will run into LU before the championship game? That's the first thing guys look for - where do we play LU. In other words, where is the tourney over for them.
To give over half the D1 teams a bid is ridiculous.
Someone made a point that if a team wasn't top 16, they probably wouldn't have a chance to win the NCT. Anyone remember SLU a few years ago, going to the championship game? They were at best on the bubble. At 12-4-2, they were tied for 3rd/4th in the G.P. and would never have a chance to play in the NCT under this format.
It's easy for D1 teams to talk sh1t and tell the D2 teams to come on over. But who wants to. A lot of schools that are solid now could suck in a year or 2 simply because they are small schools. DII is probably more fun for a lot of guys. It's more competitive and has had a variety of teams appearing in and winning the NCT's over the last few years.
At the end of the day, the league needs to seek and listen to input from the players. Not to take anything away from the efforts and volunteer work from the admins, etc., but they need to think about what the players want.
Instead decisions are made by a handful of regional directors that don't seem to consider some important issues. (Correct me if I'm wrong)
Trying to force true DII teams to play D1 will never work.
Under the logic from the NCRHA, there should only be 2 teams from the B division - that way players will want to work hard and get to the A teams. Also, there should only be 2 DIII teams in the tourney too - as those guys should want to go to a 4 year school and play DI or DII.
Using the NCRHA's logic, I have found more room for deserving DII teams.
DII is the most competitive and balanced division. Getting into the NCT means you've got a shot.
I don't mean what I joke about in cutting down the DIII and B divisions. Why not just play DIII and B Div's at another rink neary during the round robin and then bring them all together for the elimination rounds? I'm sure it's easier said than done - however it could be done and done well.

[boring]

Who wants to play DI? I'd rather have a chance to win a National Championship than know I have no chance of going up against LU.

I do, i would rather play lindenwood and lose, then play in d2 and say were the champions of the second-rate division... but I guess everyone has their priorities

[rshock73]

I agree with the USF and FAU guys. I currently run the Kennesaw State team and as a first year team we felt DII was a great fit until we got organized. I can see both sides of the argument, 1) DI teams that moved up to have a better chance at nationals would feel cheated and 2) DII teams that are getting their start are in a bitter fight to win their regional in order to get any sort of bid.

In my opinion, the field should be limited. But 16 is too severely limited. In the southeast alone there are at least 5-6 teams that have an excellent chance of winning the southeast title. If you limit the field too much you may hinder exactly what you are trying to create, a broader field of DI teams that are better organized. Earning bids to nationals gives a big boost to new teams and teams from small schools.

[jpalic]

It will be very expensive for us to get all new gloves and helmets, but yet, I have seen D1 schools that ar enot compliant with the helmets and gloves rule....

For clarification purposes, I believe that this year's NCRHA rules state that the glove rule will be fully instated in the beginning of the 09-10 season (September 1, 2009). So the teams striving to be DI still have one year to get the funding for equipment if they didn't at the beginning of this season.

Currently, all DI players must have matching team helmets and a registered USA Hockey coach should be on the bench as of this January.

[Facewash]

I've got to agree with the OP here. I see where the NCRHA is going with this. They are trying to provide more motivation for the elite DII teams to move up to DI through an increased chance at making nationals. The problem is, this is offset by the more stringent equipment and coaching requirements. As other posters have said, some teams that might necessarily have the talent to move to DI might not have the financial resources to meet the requirements that accompany the jump from DII. This is why more teams have moved down from DI to DII rather than up from DII to DI. You've got the potential loss in funding for not making nationals in DII up against the guaranteed equipment (and possibly coaching) costs of moving up to DI.

Now DII has over 60 teams in 6 regions, with many being very competitive on a national scale and only 16 spots open for nationals. A region like ECRHA, which is home to both the DII champion and runner up last year has about 5 teams competing this year for the regional championship. In all likelihood 2 of these teams are going to be left out of nationals when they have a legitimate chance of winning the whole thing. I'm sure the same is true with a few of the other DII regions as well.

[MBurke]

I think it's been stressed to the point of nausea on here and in press releases, but the new divisional structure is not about talent.

The spirit of this isn't to get the top-shelf DII teams to move up. It's to allow NCRHA to set up ALL divisions in a way that makes sense to the teams within them by grouping teams based on their resources.

Previously, we never would have been able to introduce something as simple as the matching helmet requirement because there were always teams in DI that could barely afford to field a team or have jerseys. I've heard a lot of positive feedback about all the interregional play this year, and making that more widespread also isn't a possibility for teams operating on shoestring budgets.

NCRHA's hope is that it sort of naturally shakes out that more competitive teams move up to DI over time, but there will always be teams in DII who are better than teams in DI, just as was the case before the divisional realignment. This is the first year of the new program - we had no expectations that everyone would move this year.

The nationals field sizes were set before the season - everyone had a chance to pick a division with full knowledge of how tough getting into DII nationals could be.

If the argument being made is that many teams are playing DII because helmets and gloves introduce such a financial strain, where are these same teams finding the money to fly, rent hotels/cars and enter a national championship tournament that probably costs about $10,000.00 per team, all told?

[GoRangrHky]

And to be honest, the gloves and helmet requirement is not that tough to comply with. If you look at your team, odds are that over half of them already own matching color helmets (black or white, most likely). And most of them probably have gloves that are either black or in team colors. So we're talking probably 6 guys on each team that need a helmet and gloves. That can be done for under $500 total. Like Mike said, you can find 10 grand to go to nationals, but not 500 bucks to move to DI. My former team (Hofstra) has lost repeatedly over the past few years, but there is not one guy on that team that thinks they should be playing in DII. They actually had their budget cut by almost $8,000 this year, and still went out and got warmups, matching gloves, matching helmets with stickers, 3 new coaches, the most expensive rink time in America, and have 3 full teams.