carroll81

Maybe, maybe not. If you mean by marketing to attract spectators, I agree. If you mean marketing to attract student-athletes, it is hard to say for those schools. DIII sports as all about attracting student athletes. For many sports, it is about attracting students that will pay full boat (no non-need financial aid). For many small schools, having these types of students is crucial to their bottom-line.

RMU has a nice pipeline of Canadian students in several sports (M hockey, W hockey, M lacrosse). Other sports I checked have significant non-US rosters. I don't think that is coincidence. I think it is a planned approach to meeting their enrollment needs.

Bigger worry with college hockey is that the programs get cut altogether. Quite a few schools are cutting sports. Some will not survive the pandemic. Quick check of Forbes College Financial Health Rating for some DIII programs (D was lowest score): Chatham D Robert Morris D Elmira D Lebanon Valley C King's College C

Yup, that is the rumor. A few went out, then infected the rest. Most likely infection spot - the locker room?

Locker Room: probably - ask MLB how locker rooms are working out for them.

Here's my take on why football is questionable whereas other sports maybe not. In football, you have players lined up in each others faces, exhaling on them for about ten seconds, about 100 times a game. I can't think of another sport that has such a problem other than maybe wrestling. The only thing coming close to that in hockey is faceoffs. Which if really worried about you could tweak a bit to mitigate.

Maybe out west where the lacrosse is not very good it's like that. Here in the East, the lacrosse parents are way worse than the hockey parents. Sorry about the dig, Saw the shot, there was no danger, so I took it. ?

You could do a multi-state AAA league. Would be like the Atlantic Youth league. It has teams from SE PA, NJ, Long island and MD. They play a league schedule, which includes their district games. Keeps most travel under 2 hours. Teams also select individual showcases or other leagues to schedule (some play Tier 1, etc.).

The state or county can shut the rinks down or impose other restrictions at any time. That is why it is really hard for any organization (USAH, Mid-Am, PAHL, even PIAA) to come up with an overall plan. Mid-Am and Atlantic Districts are great examples. Mid-Am covers what, 5 states? Being from the East, our district covers "only" three. Now add in that the people running those organizations have ZERO knowledge or expertise to make these types of decisions and you realize how tentative the season really is. Saw an interview the other day with reps from NFL, NBA and MLB. At the end of the segment they asked each rep to rate their chances of finishing their season: NFL 4 out of 10; NBA 7 out of 10; MLB 6 out of 10. That is with isolation, quarantining, testing and hiring lots of experts. I really want youth sports to go on, but the chances are not great.

It isn't just hockey. All youth sports are the same. It is a big business.

Why are school teams holding tryouts in July? Is that normal for the western part of the state? In the east, tryouts are usually in Sep/Oct, occasionally in late August. Even then, they aren't really tryouts per se, they are workouts.

The PCR tests being used today are the most reliable and accurate. These are the tests that require a nasal swab. These are the most likely tests that are being done by the teams, though I have not been able to confirm that. They detect actual virus particles. The virus they might miss would be an exposure within a day or so of the test, because the virus has not had time to spread in your system. Otherwise your good. The antibody/antigen test and not reliable. The detect if you have one of 2 antigens in your system, indicating that you may have been exposed or had the virus. They are not very reliable (ranges from 30% - 70% at one point).

Just to close the loop here. From the East - the Flyers Cup is officially cancelled for 2020. Email came out yesterday.

Most people here like the 10 goal rule. Some alternate ways to look at it: Players: the high school kids really want the game to be over at that point so they can go out with their friends. Coaches: they don't want to lose a player to an odd injury or stupid penalty due to high school testosterone gone astray For the fan/spectator rule, if it gets to removal of one or multiple people, we do stop the game until they are removed. Couple years ago they cleared the student section due to the throwing quarters. Took 5-10 minutes to actually clear the stands. The players played duck-duck goose at center ice while they waited. There is youtube video of it somewhere.

From the East: - 10 goal rule in ICSHL. If the goal differential is 10 at any point after the end of the 2nd period, game ends - Atlantic district procedure for unruly fans is a warning to both benches. Teams have to send AC to monitor parents. If unruly actions persist, entire stands are cleared by rink personnel.

It reminds me of when the new Standard of Play was introduced. It took about 2 months for the "standard" of how to implement the Standard to shake out. The first weekend of games had every game with over 15 penalties per team. It takes time for these things to be introduced, taught, digested and the implemented. Remember, this is not a rule change year. This is a change in how we are supposed to interpret the rules. That is not something that you can just do automatically right away. You have to see the plays, process the plays and then make a determination. It takes time to redevelop the mental memory of what is and what is not a penalty. In the handful of games I have worked, the AA level and above seems to be adjusting very easily. The 16A and 18A are having the most problems. Most coaches know of the changes, a couple had no clue that the changes happened. PuckHead7, anyone can submit and comment on rule changes. Next rule change year is 2021. You can follow the process here: https://www.usahockey.com/rulesandresources

Herein lies the problem that most of us have. AAA is supposed to be the top teams in the country. If you give each USAH District 2 teams and then allow hotbeds and larger metro areas some extra teams, that probably tops at 25-30. For giggles let's say it is 50 teams. Anything beyond that is not AAA hockey. Now, if you want to pay the same amount to play against the next group of 50 teams and justify it by how much the coach costs, and the gym fees are,etc. knock yourself out. Those of us that think it is a money grab figure you could have the same hockey experience for less money, less travel and less stress. It is your money. Unfortunately, this is the state of youth sports today. It is a $15.5 Billion market. Enjoy your sportcation this summer.

I don't want to nitpick, but I think it is important to make sure we are on the same page here. Body Contact is legal in all levels if USA hockey - Mites -> Midget and all Girls levels. Body checking is not allowed below Bantam level or in any Girls classification. Having said that, I have seen squirt and peewee hockey with a tremendous amount of body contact. It's all about angling and trying to take the puck away, not deliver a huge hit. It's really fun to watch. As I have seen this progress through the system in the last few years, it has changed the way Midgets play. You see lots of big hits, but generally they are clean and the players are quickly moving to gain the puck after the hit. Personally, I think bantam is probably the right level to move from body contact to body checking. The bantam level is when the majority have the body awareness, body control, peripheral vision and mental processing ability to handle checking in a safe manner. The key is that the kids have to have good body contact skills taught to them prior to moving to checking. I think the case can be made that checking at the Bantam B and maybe even Midget B should be limited. When I watch those levels, the kids just don't have the skating skills and body control to handle the hitting. I could go either way on this one. Final thought, parents are worried about checking. Now more so than ever before due to all the emphasis on concussions. No way around it. If they are pulling their kids from hockey, football, lacrosse and even soccer when body contact gets "too rough" then the governing bodies need to react to that.

Eddie, you are ahead of the curve again. That is a new emphasis, just added at the Congress a couple weeks ago. My guess is that we will see it added as a situation in the next rulebook in 2021. Is there really that much banging the boards to celebrate aggressive fouls?

What/how does MidAm use the rankings?

It is not a new rule. It has been in the rule book for quite some time. It is under the Abuse of Officials Rule 601. It is meant to be applied to misconduct towards the officials and that is how it is taught to the officials. Can an official misapply it, sure. Just like they can misapply any of the rules.