INCH Podcast Previews Wisconsin Series: Never Mentions UAA

National College Hockey website Inside College Hockey who's slogan is "Just trying to capture the spirit of the thing ..." completely and totally missed the "spirit of the thing" in their most recent podcast which previews all the playoff action around Division 1.  

After covering the CCHA, Joe Gladziszewski, Mike Eidelbes and James V. Dowd moved on to discuss the WCHA.  For the next Two-Hundred and Twenty-Three seconds they talked about the UAA Seawolves versus Wisconsin Badgers matchup (Note: That was easily twice the amount of time they spent discussing the other WCHA series).  And not once did they mention the Seawolves, UAA or a single player on the UAA roster.  Seriously, they didn't say "Let's talk about the Badgers versus the Seawolves" or "What about the UDub - UAA series" or "The Seawolves have the #1 goal scorer in the WCHA on their squad" or even "The Badgers should just walk over the Seawolves".  The big question during the Badger/UAA segment was whether Wisconsin could beat Denver.

They drooled over all-things Badger that you might imagine.  Please, just imagine it.  Don't bother listening to the podcast.  Don't bother visiting their site at all.  I have removed my link to their website as I cannot in good conscience support my team and lead people to their website.  This eastern-centric and CCHA-loving group of college hockey writers deserves not a single hit from a computer in Anchorage.  Remove your bookmarks.  I have.  Every single WCHA writer they have ever employed came from Wisconsin.  Did you know that?  Piss on INCH.

Here's the email I just sent "Gladdie";

Joe,
I certainly understand that the Seawolves haven't impressed anyone this season.  I recognize that the Badgers are a fine team.  Yet, if you're attempting to garner the widest possible audience and cover "the spirit of the thing ..." then I'd assume you might actually just once mention the name of the fucking team that is playing the Badgers in your podcast.  You mentioned Michigan Tech's name.  Didn't you?
I have listened to virtually every single podcast that your site has ever produced.  It's a nice feature that separates you from your competition.  However, I now will forever only reference College Hockey News and USCHO on my blog.  I will encourage my readers (don't worry, I only get 400 hits a day) to remove their bookmarks for you site and to never visit it again.
After the Seawolves dispatch your beloved Badgers this weekend, don't bother mentioning it ok?
Sincerely,
Donald Dunlop (former INCH website visitor)

Oh yeah, I also love how much love they threw to Jason Gregiore on their podcast and with a nomination for National Player of the Week when he didn't even garner the WCHA Player of the Week honor.  I wonder if they understand what the word "Putz" means out there in Michigan land.

Sunday Potpourri: Poetry, Prose and Activism

I received an interesting email yesterday from someone who'd prefer to remain anonymous. It's a sort of an "Ode" to Seawolf hockey. Here it is:

Seawolf Pride

Our hometown team of green and gold call this great north state and city home. Although many great Seawolf skaters have passed our way, the best Seawolf team has yet to play.
Win boys win, and they will come; the cheers of UAA! UAA! will continue long after you’ve won.
Beat the badger, the Gopher, the Sioux and fans at the Sully will love you.
The time for winning is now.
Straight into the 2009-10 playoffs we will plow.
It’s a long, tough season in the WCHA.
No lead is ever safe, no easy teams to play.
Give it everything you got - skate, shoot and hit!

_______________

The BYOTCH Project

It's been 8 days since I my challenge to WCHA Athletic Directors to answer my Open Letter calling on them to renounce the travel subsidy that UAA shells out. Only UAA Sports Hall of Fame swimmer and current Colorado College A.D. Ken Ralph had the courtesy to reply. Honestly, I expected no replies. Ken was informative and polite but in no manner came close to renouncing the subsidy. That means only one thing.

Project B.Y.O.T.C.H. is a go. BYOTCH stands for Buy Your Own Tickets College Hockey or Buy Your Own Tickets Cheap Hacks or By Your Own Tickets Charlie Brown if you prefer. I was going to call it the YHABRFYTSWAYSTMFU ... (You Have Already Been Recompensed For Your Travel So Why Are You Still Taking Money From Us) ... but that seemed a little cumbersome. I'm officially looking for one volunteer to make some simple 8x10 posters that look like the picture below. Use it as a template if you want.

(click to enlarge)

If you want to volunteer to do this let me know. I envision passing them out to folks behind the opposition bench and to the student section. Maybe 50 or so on regular paper wouldn't be too expensive? I'll do all the legwork at the games.

The secondary part of the BYOTCH plan is to make some quality paper airplanes (with the message above printed on them) to be thrown by the student section after UAA scores the first goal. As long as it doesn't evolve to throwing the airplanes at any other point then I think we can get away with it.

Referees typically give a warning to a team after such events. A second infraction would result in a penalty against UAA so we have to make sure that doesn't happen. Any good paper airplane engineers out there? Let me know.

_______________

My understanding is that the first official practice may be tomorrow (Monday). If that's indeed the case then I'll try to make it. I'll pick up my media pass stuff and take a couple of pictures and watch the rookies skate. I may not get to it until Tuesday though. I'm still following all of UAA recruits as they get their seasons underway. I'll have a full-blown "recruit update" within a couple of weeks.

_______________

It seems to be exceedingly quiet out there on the college hockey interweb. Collegehockeystats.net posted official rosters a couple of days ago. So if you want to take a peek at exactly who other teams are going to put on the ice, you won't have to visit every schools webpage anymore. All of the three "big" college hockey sites use collegehockeystats.net to build their rosters and stats but none of them have updated rosters as of tonight.

The only news of any sort worth commenting is that Susies fans are all atwitter because one of the two Sioux nations tribal councils which have to give approval reworded an earlier resolution to make it clear that they ...

"... affirmatively approves and supports UND's use of the current nickname and related imagery, and hereby confirms Spirit Lake Tribe's full permission for UND to continue using the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo and the duration of this authorization shall be perpetual commencing Oct. 1, 2009."

If (and it is a really really big if) the other tribal council decides to issue a similar proclamation then UND might actually be able to keep HOSTILE name and ABUSIVE logo of a decapitated Sioux warrior. It's a bit amazing and more than a bit shameful when a people become complicit in their own racial oppression but there is a litany of such throughout human history. Que Sera Sera, I guess. I was so hoping they'd become the Zephyrs with a cool speeding train logo. That would have been something I could have supported. Since I thought of it and all.

I have to imagine that we'll see the WCHA Coaches Preseason Poll sooner than later. Here's my guess as to what it will look like:

1. DU
2. UND
3. Wisconsin
4. Minnesota
5. St. Cloud
6. UMD
7. Mankato
8. CC
9. UAA
10. Michigan Tech

And to remind you of the way I picked back on August 28th:

1. Denver (highest 1st; lowest 1st)
2. Wisconsin (highest 2nd; lowest 4th)
3. UND (highest 3rd; lowest 5th)
4. Minnesota (highest 3rd; lowest 6th)
5. UAA (highest 4th; lowest 7th)
6. UMD (highest 4th; lowest 7th)
7. SCSU (highest 5th; lowest 8th)
8. Mankato (highest 7th; lowest 9th)
9. Colorado College (highest 8th; lowest 9th)
10. Michigan Tech (highest 10th; lowest 10th)

If it is much different than that I'd be surprised. Maybe Mankato and CC will swap and perhaps the 2, 3, and 4 spots could vary. But dollars to donuts it won't be hugely different. Or ... maybe it will?

Remember, in most years at least one team will ikely perform greatly above everybody's expectations and one team will likely perform greatly below everybody's expectations. That makes it likely that both me and the coaches will be wrong in our prognostications to some degree. At least I gave myself wiggle-room with the whole "highest/lowest" dodge.

_______________

Curtis Glencross skated tonight with 41 year old Theo Fleury in a preseason game against the Florida Panthers. Fleury is impressing lots of fans and might find himself a spot in their lineup. Glencross scored a goal and added two assists in the 5-2 win. Here's the highlights:

_______________

And you waited all Sunday for that? The "Ode" was good anyway. Since you're all so patient. Here's another lovely Sunday treat. 15 UAA Fan Blog bonus points for the first correct guess to another actress I enjoy watching that isn't named Gretchen or Milla.


And yes. It has nothing to do with hockey. I'm sorry ... I like movie actresses too.

Open Letter(s) to WCHA Athletic Directors

I've written and emailed the following letter to the Athletic Directors at each WCHA institution (UW's Barry Alvarez has no email address ... in their case I directed the letter to Justin Doherty -- Assistant Athletic Director for External Relations) . An issue that concerns me deeply is the ongoing subsidy that UAA supplies to WCHA teams traveling to Anchorage. Currently, UAA provides 12 airline tickets for each visiting conference member per series. It's not unfair to characterize that as about $6,000 per home series for UAA.

As I've mentioned many times over the summer with regard to conference realignment ideas, the NCAA created the "Alaska/Hawaii Exemption" to incentivize schools from outside to compete in Alaska. Each school has the ability to schedule additional home games as a result of this rule. In some cases, the potential amount of money the school could make is substantial. In other cases, not so much. Regardless, UAA is providing a subsidy that I believe it should not be providing. This letter is my first step in attempting to address this unfairness. There will be an ongoing effort on my part to see this subsidy eliminated. Future steps in this theme are "in development".

Dear (insert name here),

I’m writing today in the hope that I may enlist your support and share that with the readers of the UAA Hockey Fan Blog (http://uaafan.blogspot.com) regarding an issue of basic fairness. No doubt you are familiar with the NCAA’s Alaska/Hawaii exemption.

Some 25 years or so ago, the NCAA recognized that schools in Alaska and Hawaii faced significant geographic challenges that hindered the fairest possible competition with schools in the contiguous 48 states. They introduced a measure granting game exemptions for any/all schools scheduling an away contest against an Alaska or Hawaii school.

The measure’s stated intention was to provide a financial recompense for schools like yours to recover the costs associated with travel to the 49th and 50th state. This rule has helped keep athletic programs afloat at NCAA institutions in these two states. Without such a rule, competing on home turf/court/ice outside of conference mandates would be virtually impossible for these distantly located schools.

My concern today is, that in addition to the potential revenue gains for your school (I conservatively estimate that amount at $xx,xxx per year for Xxxxxx), the University of Alaska Anchorage currently subsidizes 12 airline tickets for each WCHA member traveling to Anchorage to play hockey.

I hope that you can see this amount (roughly $6,000 per) can be defined as nothing other than largesse from UAA to your school. Since a mechanism already exists to more than adequately recover your travel costs then I call on you today to completely renounce this practice. In doing so you will be contributing to the NCAA’s stated goal of “fair play”.

With your permission I will post your reply to this plea in my blog. Best of luck with the 09/10 athletic season.
Most Sincerely,

Donald M. Dunlop
UAA Hockey Fan Blog

The email addresses for each are below should you have any thoughts regarding this issue that you'd like to share. I'll add here that my "potential revenue" numbers are derived by multiplying sold-out attendance by $15 per ticket for ONE additonal home game per year. The subsidy cost to UAA is also an estimate based on 12 commercial airline tickets at $500 per. It is somewhat relevant to note that a school like Michigan Tech has no where near the potential revenue enhancement as do the larger schools. But I do propose that in ALL cases (see how that word is bolded?) the amount of actual revenue more than repays the additional costs associated with being forced to travel to Alaska.

I honestly believe that this practice goes against basic fairness in any sense or definition of that word you can imagine. Fairness was rightly applied when the NCAA implemented the "Alaska/Hawaii Exemption" but requiring UAA (not to mention UAF in the CCHA) to provide additional recompense over and above is in many ways an affront to it.

Colorado College -- Ken Ralph -- ken.ralph@coloradocollege.edu
University of Denver -- Peg Bradley-Doppes -- lbridge2@du.edu
Michigan Tech -- Suzanne Sanregret -- srsanreg@mtu.edu
Minnesota -- Joel Maturi -- icaadmin@umn.edu
Mankato -- Kevin Buisman -- kevin.buisman@mnsu.edu
UMD -- Bob Nielson -- rnielson@d.umn.edu
UND -- Brian Faison -- brainfaison@mail.und.edu
SCSU -- Morris Kurtz -- mkurtz@stcloudstate.edu
UW -- Justin Doherty -- jmd@athletics.wisc.edu

Unless otherwise requested, I will share any responses from this esteemed group of Athletic Directors in this comment section of this post as they arrive in my email. I look forward to all their responses.