Wis. Whitewater's football program has been to the national championship game the last 5 years (may be longer, but I'm too lazy to find out) and won 3 of them. When I saw a broadcast about the program never did I hear "are you thinking about moving up to D2 or D1?" but instead all I heard was congratulations on how good of a program they have put together. Should they consider moving up?
As for hockey, the same could be said about a couple of the teams in the NCHA as well as other D3 teams out east. St Norbert's, for example, goes to nationals regularly and could handle a low quality D1 schedule. Should they move up?
Obviously the answer to all of these questions is "no." But somehow the answer is different for MN high school hockey.
#1 is what most public school supporters on here are saying. #2 is basically a mockery of private schools and not actually the way anyone feels.Marty Moose wrote:Wow. This isn't complicated at all. The perspectives really fall into two camps.
1) STA, and other metro private schools, have significant inherent advantages that allow them to be more successful at hockey. These advantages are not available to smaller public schools. STA, or any other school that is readily pursuing those advantages, should voluntarily opt up to play in AA, where there is GENERALLY stronger competition. Anything else is shameful, as they are not honoring the intent of the two-class system.
2) STA, and other metro private schools, have significant inherent advantages that allow them to be more successful at hockey. These advantages are not available to smaller public schools. But that's cool. Any of these schools should be cheered for exploiting these advantages to the fullest. They should try to win as many games and trophies as they can in Class A. That way, they can feel good about themselves and claim that it is all about development, character, etc.
I'm sorry, but the honorable stance on this does not require further elaboration.
When it comes down to it (yes karl, I've said part of this before) EVERY state champ in both classes in the last 20 years is either private, from an affluent community or from a hockey community. Hockey is not a cheap sport and is played by those who are well off, or those who it is part of their life, generally. Because of this, a school with 2,000+ may not have that much of an advantage over one of 200, depending on where it's located. Which basically makes
I've been saying this for years (still am), and every once in a while someone (like you) posts this same thing in agreement. The vast majority of people don't care...why would you want two strong classes when you could have one strong class and one to make fun of?ogelthorpe wrote:
My point is if you had two classes with everybody playing by enrollment you would have two strong classes and then you wouldn't have to have schools opt up to keep the competitive balance.
If you don't allow opt ups, in most years the A tournament would be stronger than the AA tournament, or at least as strong as.
