Notre Dame Hockey To Join Big Ten Conference In 2017-18
After years of speculation, rumors, debates and even some vitriol, the University of Notre Dame has finally joined the Big Ten — but only in hockey.
The school officially announced on Wednesday that the current six-team hockey Big Ten Conference has welcomed the Fighting Irish into its league, beginning with the 2017-18 season.
Notre Dame completed its third season in the 12-team Hockey East this year, improving from seventh to fifth to third place during that time. The 2016-17 campaign will be its final one in the league. The three main reasons for the switch are: 1) more convenient and easier local travel overall, 2) better exposure via the Big Ten Network, and 3) a greater “traditional” appeal of opponents/rivals in a familiar geographic region.
“While we have enjoyed our affiliation with Hockey East, the opportunity to participate in Big Ten hockey is a compelling one from the perspective of our student-athletes,” Notre Dame director of athletics and vice president Jack Swarbrick said. “The move will significantly reduce the time our team spends traveling, increase the broadcast exposure for our program and allow us to take advantage of the natural rivalries that exist with the Big Ten schools that participate in hockey.”
It is a reunion of sorts for Notre Dame hockey. From 1971 through the 1980-81 season, Notre Dame was a member of the powerful 10-team Western Collegiate Athletic Association (WCHA), which included four Big Ten members: Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Since then, Ohio State and Penn State also have formed hockey programs, and the addition of Notre Dame in 2017-18 will make it a seven-team league.
Prior to joining Hockey East, Notre Dame was in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) from 1981-83 and then 1992-2013, with the program falling to club status in between. In the CCHA, the Irish competed against Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State, while Wisconsin and Minnesota remained in the WCHA until 2013, when the Big Ten hockey league was formed.
Under current head coach Jeff Jackson — a 1978 Michigan State graduate — Notre Dame won CCHA regular-season and postseason tournament titles in 2007 and 2009, and also captured the final CCHA tourney in 2013.
Notre Dame played two-game regular-season series against Minnesota and Penn State in 2015-16 and will renew its rivalry with Michigan at 5:30 p.m. EDT Friday (March 25) at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship.
“Just like last time when we made a move, I’m going to be sentimental in some ways just because you develop relationships,” Jackson said. “It’s also a great opportunity for our team. It’s going to be great for our fans. Every opponent coming in our building conference-wise, they’re going to know.”
While Jackson contends that Hockey East has been the nation’s best conference for a number of years — Boston College is an annual superpower, and Providence defeated Boston U. in an All-Hockey East national title showdown last year — there is a better and more natural fit for the Fighting Irish in the Midwest, including being able to recruit more effectively in the Big Ten states.
Plus Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin have combined to win 17 national titles since 1964, each with at least three. They provide name recognition to Notre Dame followers (as do Ohio State and Penn State) that Hockey East schools such as Merrimack, UMass-Lowell, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, among others, do not.
“At times that’s been a factor over the last several years, even in the CCHA,” Jackson admitted. “There’s just name identification with our fans. And frankly, more importantly, as fortunate as we are being at Notre Dame and being able to travel first class, it still wears on you as the season progresses when you’re traveling out East several times a year.”
Jackson, who is battling a strep throat and pink eye this week, joked that joining a third league in his career at Notre Dame will make his résumé read like “a crossword puzzle.” The Irish head coach also added that he doesn’t anticipate having to alter the recruiting blueprint significantly while transitioning from different league styles.
“I think it’s going to help our recruiting,” Jackson said. “The only thing we did differently [after joining Hockey East] is we changed our philosophy on the type of defensemen we were recruiting, and I don’t think that’s going to be a factor as we move into the Big Ten.
“We may start looking bigger again a little bit, but we still have that mobility back there. We still want to be a good transitional team. … We’re going to start recruiting in Michigan again. We’ve been out of Michigan a few years. We’ve been recruiting in Minnesota — it’s probably going to help us there. It’s going to help us in the Midwest, and Ontario potentially.
“They still have to have good grade-point averages.”