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According to a report in The Daily News, Boston College and Boston University were extended invitations to join the new college hockey "Super Conference." Wait, what?
"Invitations were also extended to Boston College and Boston University to join what has been dubbed the "Super League," but both schools turned down the offer to leave Hockey East."
Both schools turned down the invitation, opting instead to stay in Hockey East. This move wouldn't have been as big a power play as the formation of the Super Conference itself, but it still would have been fairly significant. This new "Super Conference" is looking to land a national TV contract with Versus / NBC Sports Network, which would have increased the national exposure for both programs. But it looks like the promise of a better TV deal wasn't enough to trade in existing local rivalries with New Hampshire, Maine, Northeastern, UMass and Providence, among others.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame remains uncommitted to this conference at this time. Also according to the report, Notre Dame is looking for a smaller league that would allow the Irish to play a larger non-conference slate -- something along the lines of a seven team league with a 24-game conference schedule.
If Miami wasn't headed already headed to the Super League, I would suggest that Hockey East add both Notre Dame and Miami and decrease the league schedule to 22 games (2 per league opponent). Adding Notre Dame to Hockey East is still an attractive option to help Bertagna improve Hockey East's next TV deal, but the current 27-game format would be a bit unworkable if the above is true about the Irish's intentions. Still, at this point I would rather see the Irish head East than West which would make the Super League just a little less "super" and improve Hockey East.
The difference in the number of league games across the three major conferences -- Super Conference, Big Ten, Hockey East -- will become an issue when it comes to NCAA Tournament selections. The difference between a 20-game conference schedule (a la the Big Ten Hockey Conference) and 27-games (Hockey East) will be significant when compiling PWR rankings and making Tournament selections. Personally I'd like to see the three top conference converge on a similar conference schedule.