Ranking The Conferences For 2010-11
By Fetch
It seems in college football the annual discussion centers around how much better the SEC is than everyone else, and fans from all conferences come bowl games like to stand up for their own. Likewise in college basketball, a pretty major point of discussion is which conference has the most teams come the Sweet 16, or if one can get multiple teams into the Final Four.
In college hockey it is no different. Although Hockey East owns the last three national titles, WCHA fans still claim their conference is the best due to the overall depth and amount of NHL talent that plays there.
Here is how I see the conferences stacking up in 2010-11:
5. Atlantic Hockey
Atlantic Hockey is a conference on the rise. Their champion has won an NCAA tournament game in 3 of the last 5 seasons, and come very close in the other two years, with Alabama-Huntsville losing in 2 OT to Notre Dame, and Air Force taking Minnesota to the wire. Last year RIT made it all the way to the Frozen Four, but this year the conference is a little low on talent. RIT has lost some of the engine that took them to Detroit, and while Air Force has Jacques Lamoureux, a dazzling scorer who would be at home in any conference, there isn’t much else accompanying him. Watch for Robert Morris, who swept Miami in a weekend series last year.
4. ECAC Hockey
ECAC Hockey, for some reason, doesn’t get a lot of respect nationally. Although it is a very good league most years, this year it looks to be of the one bid variety. Yale is the type of team that could win the national championship if it finds some goaltending, but with the recent departures of Jerry D’Amigo and Brandon Pirri at RPI, the league probably loses out on its second NCAA team. Look for Cornell, who is young but talented, and Union to make runs.
3. CCHA
The CCHA has two elite teams in Miami, who has been to two straight Frozen Fours, and Michigan, who might have one of the best offenses in America. Michigan State is the only CCHA team to win a national title this millenium (2007), but Miami and Michigan could each join them this year. Alaska is another team to watch, as the program is coming off it’s first ever NCAA Tournament trip. The Nanooks are led by Andy Taranto, who was my CCHA Freshman of the year last year. Notre Dame was thought to have a lot of talent coming into the year, but the losses of Kyle Palimieri, Riley Sheahan and Jarred Tinordi have rocked the program.
2. WCHA
Although the WCHA is probably the deeper league, only North Dakota looks like they should be a definite national title contender. Minnesota-Duluth has a ton of scoring back, but has some questions defensively. St. Cloud State has the best duo in the league (and maybe the country, other than Miami) with Dan Dunn and Mike Lee, but they will have to get some non-Garrett Roe scoring to go far in the NCAA tournament. If Bemidji State, who is in their first year in the league, can do even remotely what they did in the CHA, the WCHA will probably be the best league.
1. Hockey East
Not as deep as the WCHA, but they have the best player in the country in Gustav Nyquist, the defending national champions (Boston College) and 4 teams who could make a deep run (BC, Maine, New Hampshire, Boston University).
The Black Bears will have to overcome the loss of Scott Darling, who left the team for personal issues, while UNH will have to replace Bobby Butler, the NCAA regular season goals leader. BU is a bit of a sleeper pick as they will be very young but very talented. Sophomore Alex Chiasson had a rough Freshman year, but I think he will rebound very well. Adam Clandening and Charlie Coyle are two highly touted recruits, but don’t sleep on Matt Nieto. He could put up huge numbers in college.