CRHL Premier Preview

[purduepimp]

I was wondering what everyone thinks of the new CRHL Premier Program. Being one of the six member teams in the program, I personally think that it is a step backward for the CRHL. The CRHL was growing at an unbelieveable rate the last couple years, though several things could be done differently, it was moving forward. Now it has these three divisions split up by talent. And one question, does the NCAA set up DI, DII, and DIII based on talent, no, they do it based on school size, which is what the CRHL has done for the last 4 years. Now I we are going to be forced to play in a national tournament that consists of 4 teams, come on, where is the fun in that. I just want to know how many people agree with me and/or disagree with me. Personally, I do not think the Program will last all that long.

Kurt Wampach
Purdue University

[umroller]

You have many people that agree with you, for just the same reasons you expressed, and I am one of them. However, it seems that the reason for the "Premier" division is to better promote the sport of college hockey by exhibiting the best teams in order to "put the best foot forward" to the industry and anyone else who is watching and listening. The fact that there are only 4 or 6 teams or however many there are, most or all being in the same geographic area, only strengthens your argument that it is not time to make the split quite yet (if ever).



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[macmill1]

You're right, it's much more fun to watch a 26-0 game between schools of the same size. That also really promotes the sport and attracts young talent to the sport. I can almost hear the high school kids saying to themselves "I wish my team would win 10-0 every game, that would be so much more fun that the close, competitive games I have to suffer through. And wouldn't that suck if we couldn't pick the team that was going to win the league after the first week. It would just be awful to have evenly matched teams playing against each other all the time."

I just wish they did this a few years ago when I was still in school. We had a team plus/minus of like +255 one year. The only games that were fun were against you guys and other region's top team(s).

Al

[umroller]

Well then that may just be Mid-West Region problem. In the ECRHA that is certainly not the case. There is no team in either D1 or D2 that we would be able to say is more likely to win the league after one week, or even in the second-to-last week of the season, for that matter. There's RIT, Penn State, Maryland, Delaware, Altoona, Northeastern, Towson, etc. etc. the list goes on, all who could take the title in D1 and all who could probably give any team from any other region a run for their money or even beat them straight up. It is also unlikely that you would ever see a 26-0 game, nor a 10-0 game between teams in the same division in the ECRHA. Just like in the NCAA for every single sport, teams play some teams who beat them, teams play some games where their opponent gives them a run for their money and make it close, teams play some games where they blow out the opponent, it just happens and that's the way it works. In NCAA hockey, everyone espects Michigan State or Colorado College to blow out some teams but they will also have close games when they play each other or when they play BU, BC or Harvard. I understand that the better teams want to have better competition. That's good and fine, but the ECRHA teams are just fine with the way things are now, they have plenty of good commpetition. I don't think RIT, Penn State, etc. are complaining after sampling the competition this past weekend in Long Island, NY.



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[Jockey1412]

The Premier league wasn't created just so the "best" teams could have their own league. The idea was that the teams that were most marketable, or very organized, would play in a league that would market the CRHL better. I believe the ECHRA is a very strong region, and that their players can play at a very high level of hockey. That was exhibited this past weekend with the game against the Riot. But, the problem is the league has so many good players and no one knows who there are. Sure, some players are known, but they know these players because of Narch, Torhs, etc.

The best example is I played with Bobby Cottrell at Narch this past year. He played with the US Junior team over the summer and we played in the Narch regional in Detriot. Many of the guys knew him at the tournaments, but no one knew he played in the CRHL, or even what the CRHL was.

A big reason is it is hard to market 40 games that happen over a weekend. With the new Premier setup, we play only 2 games in a weekend. The games are longer, there is halftime entertainment, and it is played more like a college ice game or a Narch pro game. This is much easier to market. People can come out to see one game on a Friday night, and the game will happen when the rink is usually busy. The more people passing by, the more people see us.

The ECHRA does a good job of promoting its events, and i have heard have a good fan base. But there are not too many people that will stick around two hours to see the third game of the day for any team at a weekend event. I would love to see a huge National Tournament this year with tons of good teams too, but someone had to make the step. I believe the ECRHA could form a region in the Premier league, and I challenge the teams to come to the Midwest and see what the Premier league is about. The only big difference is teams play the same amount of games per season, but the games are more spread out. Big travel weekends are cut down, and it is possible to have one night game against a school rival with 500+ fans. And those people are more willing to come back and to tell others if the game is promoted as a single college game, and not a big tournament with a bunch of teams. Wait till the season starts, and then judge how the Premier league is.

Dave Hanley
MSU Hockey

[purduepimp]

Ok, I am sure that you guys are wondering why someone in the Premier League would say those things about it like I did. First, our team did not like the idea of this leaque, but if we played in the other region, we would royally have screwed our B team, which we did not want to do, so we said, what do we have to lose. Also, I agree with all of you, I hate winning 26-0 games and playing crappy teams, but at the same time, I do like a little variety. And everyone is talking about how the Premier league is going to promote the CRHL. Well.....being in the Midwest region last year, we have already tried this and in my opinion, it was no different than previous years, with the exception that we had matching uniforms and longer games. We were required to tape games, even if that meant setting a camera up behind the net, with no one attending it. All I am saying is that this has been tried before by most of the same teams and the same person running it, how is it going to be any different?

[John_S_Osborne]

The jury is still out on CRHL Premier, I will admit that much. However, do you not find the arguments behind supporting this league very fallacious? Here, let me present my viewpoint.

From what I can gather, the CRHL Midwest Region has a pretty big gap between the top level and the bottom level of the region. The teams at the top are a little tired of whipping up on the teams in the middle and towards the bottom, and thus springs the idea of the CRHL Premier league (someone correct me if I'm wrong, but don't give me the "it's for marketing" thing.. it's for that too, i understand, but don't tell me that competition didn't have something to do with it.. Andy pretty much admits there anyway).

Now, in my experiences in the ECRHA, there have been times when gaps between the top and the bottom and even the top and the middle have been extremely noticeable. Penn State of 2-3 years ago had near a 100+ goal differential. RIT of last season probably had a substantial positive goal differential as well (can't get stats at the moment). But, what does that say about the ability of other teams in the league to compete with them in the long term? 5 years from now? Right, nothing. Teams change over time, the good becomes not as good, the bad becomes not as bad. So, saying that you whipped up your league for one year does not lend credibility to the argument of making a league out of the best teams. The best teams are probably not going to be the best teams forever. (Hey, where my Rams fans at?)

Well then, how about the "It promotes the CRHL" argument. Okay, big, one-time events between powerhouse teams probably does do something positive for the CRHL. But, let's look at the downside. Having these Premier teams play in front of large audiences ultimately promotes themselves more than it promotes the good of the league. Now, why do I say this?

My name is Joey H.S. Roller Hockey Player. I go to a big game at the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse between Michigan and Michigan State. After watching the game and talking to some players, I decide that I need to go to college and play roller hockey for one of these good teams, not one of those puny schools that don't play in this awesome Premier league, or godforbid go to a school based on academic reasons and try to start a new roller hockey program if my school of choice doesn't have one.

So, the strong will probably become stronger. They're the most recognized, promoted teams in the entire sport; of course there is going to be some sort of long term gain for them because of that!

But, look at what the ECRHA's doing. Hell, maybe even look at what I'm trying to do in Philadelphia. There are upwards of 45 teams participating in the ECRHA this season. I'd say in DI, maybe the whole division has a shot at knocking off one or two of the perennial favorites. In the league I help run in Philadelphia, in 5 years we've gone from about 6-7 colleges with 10 teams participating to this season about 13 colleges with 18 teams participating! We're involving more, more, and more people in college roller hockey every single season. Is there a tremendous gap in competition in either league? In the ECRHA, probably not. In the PCRHL, yeah, Neumann was a powerhouse for about the last three years, but they're off doing damage in ECRHA's DII this year, so new teams will probably have opportunities.

From what I understand, this method of operation is *drastically* different from the way things run out in the Midwest. I had heard previously (and I will openly say that I do not know whether this is true or not) that new clubs wishing to enter the Midwest's league were sometimes not allowed to enter DI. Really, I hope that isn't true. I hope someone flames me for posting not-so-sure information, but if it is, well, isn't that your problem in a nutshell?

Hey, don't get me wrong... this Premier thing may be the best thing to happen to college roller hockey. But, ultimately, I don't think this is the right time for it. Some who support it suffer from wildly specious reasoning that's all, and I don't see how in the long run, it is going to support the whole of college roller hockey instead of just the finite amount of teams that play in the league.

Ultimately, I envision a time when there will be so many teams involved in each region, that they will have no choice but to grow gradually smaller and smaller, until college roller hockey mimics college club ice hockey in it's approach to scheduling and such. But, you're not going to get to that point unless you try to build new clubs, make new teams... not exclude them.

Listen, if an 18 team college league can run competitively in the approxiametely 25 mile radius around the city of Philadelphia, you're telling me you can't do it with the entire goddamned state of Michigan? I say bullocks to that.






- john