This past season fostered two different ways of looking at ECAC hockey.
On a positive note, its senior team won the national championship as part of four postseason bids to the NCAA Tournament, and the ECAC faced an even more declared conference when the Big Ten tied for a quarter of the national championship teams.
Cornell’s win over Denver won the defending national champion, and Quinnipiac’s win to his first title included wins over Ohio State, Michigan, and Minnesota, the latter of which was considered a stellar comeback in a national final rematch.
The dismantling of the Big Ten produced the league’s third national championship and the elimination of any lingering memories of sarcastic comments referring to curses, voodoo, hexagons, or droughts caused by the 1989 Harvard tournament, but the drama came at a negative cost to the conference’s bottom level.
Three teams finished in the top 10 worst teams in the annual binary rankings. Three more were within striking distance, a whopping 16 separating Colgate, the fourth-placed team and conference tournament champion.
Few seasons have matched the success of watching the ECAC men’s league soar to hallowed ground, but few have matched the victories equally with the frustration experienced by spectators who saw a 12-team conference venue, many teams in the bottom tier. It was, in some ways, the high point of retired Commissioner Steve Haguel’s career, even as it opened windows on future needs.
This kind of duality has long been woven into the conference’s genetic code, and his announcement Tuesday that Doug Christiansen will become the next sponsor signals exactly how the league will be committed to keeping things the same while changing for the better.
“I love the league,” Christiansen said during his inaugural press conference on Tuesday. “I’m excited about the league. I think it’s second to none in terms of priority and the opportunities it provides for both men and women. You look at those [member] Institutions, both academically and athletically, which are outstanding. I really enjoyed the opportunity I had with the USHL. It’s an exceptional league, and I learned a lot. And when that opportunity presented itself, it was something I sought and wanted.”
The employee itself reads as a no-brainer for ECAC member organizations. Christiansen played in and out of the association during the Kevin Sneddon era, but his understanding of the evolution of college hockey extended to every stage and level involved throughout the sports landscape.
His playing career included years spent traveling through the ECHL before spending one season with the infamous Danbury Trashers in the independent United Hockey League, and after cycling through several AHL teams, Christiansen finished his domestic career by playing 99 career games with the Reading Royals. Three years later, he finished his career abroad with the elite ice hockey league’s Edinburg Capitals and moved into coaching, eventually returning to North American shores as head coach of the Indie Fuel, an experience he cemented when the NFL made the Wisconsin native. Its deputy commissioner last season.
“I thought I was going to be a lawyer,” he said with a laugh, “but for me, the only constant in my life has been hockey. It’s been a part of every part of my life, dating back to my childhood, all the way through high school and college. It’s been everywhere along.” My trip.
“The other part that was tremendous was the education and the opportunities I had away from home. I think that goes with that. [idea]. It’s something I look back on in my time at Union, so I’m cautiously optimistic that I can try to help make sure that student-athletes who are there now or coming in the future have a similar experience to what I’ve had, and then hopefully they’ll come back, whether that’s as a donor or A fan or someone watching from afar. I want student-athletes to have that connection to all of our schools, too.”
Understanding these ideals is why Christiansen has been able to continue many of the league’s growth initiatives since he left the D.C. area at the turn of the century. The ECAC has spent the past 25 years at the forefront of the streaming revolution before capitalizing on the move of its Ivy League affiliates from the Ivy League digital network to the burgeoning ESPN+ platform, and after moving its conference championship to Albany, NY, eight years prior to three ill-fated seasons In Atlantic City, the final rounds of the Whitelaw Cup returned to Lake Placid in 2014.
These successes helped the league extract its talent base, and the league produced women’s Olympic medalists versus the men’s league Stanley Cup champions. The first league to boast a full suite of memberships between both sexes secured the first-ever NCAA Women’s Frozen Four Championship for a team based in the East, and in 2018 featured the first-ever East Championship game between Clarkson and Colgate after the Raiders won. Ranked second in Wisconsin in double overtime. Four of the 11 teams this past year in the women’s tournament also call home the ECAC.
“It’s hard to build on a national champion,” Christiansen explained. “Having four women’s teams and four men’s teams makes it difficult to build on an NCAA tournament, but it’s clearly something we want to make sure we continue to work toward and make it something consistent.
However, there is an understanding that things are not always rosy, and that an era defined by reorganization and transfer gateway and the emerging commercial aspect of name, image and likeness puts ECAC in a precarious position. The conference carries a larger freighter than its seven- or eight-team counterparts, and while it’s nearly impossible to place all of these teams above college hockey’s annual analyzes, being able to create or strengthen the foundations for both the men’s and women’s leagues is critical to teams seeking access. to the next level.
“The trainers [in women’s hockey] “He’s done a great job of attracting elite Canadian players,” Christiansen said, “but I think we can do a better job of attracting some of the best American players. The highest concentration of college hockey players is in Minnesota, and unlike the East Coast, there isn’t an abundance of programs.” there.
“In the academic index, where the schools are, what the grade requirements are, and hopefully that helps coaches gain a foothold and attract women to ECAC, the opportunities academically available for both men and women is a great selling point. It won me over.” [as a recruit]. “
This is against the backdrop of a freer sporting world, and no national champion can calm down rumors regarding expansion or secession. It didn’t seem to matter to the hot-spot that Haguel embraced and cemented the 12-team model during the radical realignment of the 2000s, and while Christiansen emphasized the league’s public body by saying publicly that the league would remain in its dozen members, questions remain about How these members operate in a world increasingly defined by dollars and terms of business.
“In terms of my vision, I think brand and recognition [can improve]”Whether it’s revenue or trying to sell and celebrate players and student-athletes,” Christiansen said. The second piece is that this is a fun time [NIL]. You look at the member institutions in our school or in our conference, there are a lot of different types of schools. But there is one piece in common: They all have passionate fanbases. I think it would be the duty of the league to help the coaches and administrators deal with that at this time.
“Because at the end of the day, you look at schools and some endowments, some alumni, and that can be very impactful for both men and women in the years to come.”
The Haguel period established ECAC as it appears in the present era. It built a league and the turbulent post-downturn turbulent waters of the 2000s sent warning signals. He oversaw the league Christiansen reached, and players in his era turned the conference into a super-talented group capable of winning national titles.
The next step is turning its attention to how this league can turn its academic reputation into stable capital during an equally muddy era. College hockey is entering its most popular era, and the future is stronger than ever. This hiring, at least on paper and at first glance, completes that circle as it starts over.