We = 'hockey rubes' have little say in the matter . as far as our rant goes, it starts and ends here in this forum.Stang5280 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:22 pmI won't bother addressing the A/AA alignments, since that is a horse that has been beaten to death already and both sides basically have their heels dug in and aren't budging on their stances.StanleyCup55 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:06 am I’ll also have to repcestully disagree with Karl and Stang about those percentages.
Lakeville North/South 90% of the time compared to Burnsville at 50%? I know north and south are two different teams but it’s the same town. Still, you have Duluth East at 80%, Hill at 60%. The percentages from the 80s are higher which prove Elliott’s point. I also took it a step further and looked up how many different teams actually qualified for state in each decade dating back to the 80s.
1980-1989
37 different teams made state
1990-1999
32 different teams made state
2000-2009
33 different teams made state
2010-2019
26 different teams made state
Looks to me like it’s going the way of the same teams. Both the %’s and the number of teams support that. Yet people are on here saying that it’s the same when the numbers clearly show they’re not! This boggles my mind just like the fact that Hermantown is still in Class A, Elk River and Andover are still in Section 7AA and the league allows AA caliber teams to play A hockey. I really do wonder who is in charge over at the MSHSL.
Here few points I do feel are worth addressing, however. First, 1AA presents almost an unsolvable dilemma at this stage. There are simply not enough AA size and/or caliber programs in that corner of the state to make it a truly southeastern section. So you have to shoehorn a few of the south suburban schools down there to fill out the section. Unfortunately, Rochester hockey is in such rough shape right now that they can barely fill out the rosters for the four schools in the city, much less compete with the Lakevilles, even when those teams are hovering around .500. You could shuffle some other south suburban schools into the section, but the same basic problem remains.
Excellent research in bringing up the number of state participants during each decade. It definitely does show that we have seen more of the same faces in AA recently than any other decade in recent history. Whether that is an aberration or a trend remains to be seen, however.
I would also point out that the 1980s were a unique period where the balance of power was transitioning from the north to the metro area, and schools were consolidating or closing. There were a number of tournament appearances by schools that no longer have hockey teams or have closed entirely: Columbia Heights, Minneapolis Southwest, WB Mariner, Hopkins Lindbergh, etc. And then there are a few programs that are no longer relevant or don't play at the AA level, such as Henry Sibley, Irondale, Denfeld, Warroad, Richfield, and Kennedy. By the end of the decade, however, we started seeing more of the same faces crop up repeatedly in the tournament, particularly the Edina/Jefferson/HM trifecta. So perhaps the 1980s were an aberration in the number of programs qualifying for state, as the numbers were lower but stable over the next few decades.
I guess the bottom line of what I have been getting at is that we should have some patience and faith in the system. It has largely worked well for many years, and making giant changes may lead to unintended consequences, and we could end up ruining what is still the best HS hockey tournament in the nation.
Only ones who kicked the premier one class tournament to the curb was MSHSL.
Only ones that could create a worse mess is MSHSL. Never underestimate their collective ability to hose things up!
I would like to one day read a Karl East article, post one class tournament but that ain't happening......EVER AGAIN.