Anyone following NCAA D1 this year? - D1 Discussion thread

NicfromSweden 13
mani 8
bigmick 6
majwalrus 5
JiMMM 5
serbulator 4
silky 4
johncoxon 4
Gocu 4
kristof 3

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[g9]

University of Richmond and before that, a school Wassie is a bit familiar with....

[Wassie]

Hey garli that is enough out of you!

[garli]

Pft, it's never enough out of me.

[hockeyofthefield]

Rumors say that next season California will be adding a new D1 team - UC Davis.   

[garli]

Yeah, I've heard that.  I wonder where they'll get the girls, I wouldn't say their club is up to D1 standards.

[vellnueve]

They'll probably get some club girls, some transfers of kids from other Cali schools that may not be getting playing time, etc. Then they'll recruit about ten freshmen who may be marginal D1 players. Starting a new program usually hurts for the first few years.

[Wassie]

Plenty of girls out there wanting to play DI.

[NE14HOCKEY]

I've been out to a few games so far, anyone been tracking the season?

What is the NCAA D1?

I'm English so forgive the question, I'm guessing its College Hockey? or am I way off?

[Grumpy]

Hazarding a guess

National Collegiate Athletic Association or Associations

[NE14HOCKEY]

I can imagine traveling must be a pain, I recently honeymooned in Florida and even something that looks near is nearly a 30 minute journey I can't imagine what our typical 90 minute journey to somewhere like Ipswich in div 2N would be for them 

[Grumpy]

Its a big country and they have long distances even to train in some areas.
Longest trip i think in Ireland is about 590 miles, Cork to Raphoe return. For the AIL it is about 524 miles return.
I do not envy the guys doing this.

[g9]

I've been out to a few games so far, anyone been tracking the season?

What is the NCAA D1?

I'm English so forgive the question, I'm guessing its College Hockey? or am I way off?

Yes, NCAA is National Collegiate Athletic Assoc.  The background on NCAA can be found at http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=1354 .  But as far as the different divisions go, they are all competitive collegiate programs, but DI is the "big league" in college play and those colleges in the division can offer scholarships to players for athletics.  DII can offer some scholarships and DIII can't offer any for athletics. 
Depending on the conference some schools have to cross the country to play others in the same conference.  Not sure who decides what conference a school belongs to, but I'm sure someone on here can add to that.

[NE14HOCKEY]

Thanks for the info 

Am I right in assuming the best players in this setup would hope to represent the US at an international level?

[g9]

Could be, but not necessarily.  The US system is separate from the colleges, but I would think coming up outside the college system here and getting on the US team would be a rarity since the hockey here is very much tied into the school systems.  But also, we are talking women's hockey for all this...men's teams don't traditionally play in the NCAA structure or lower school systems here.

[NE14HOCKEY]

yes I noticed that they don't have mens as I trawled through the site its a bit unfriendly to navigate (or at least in Firefox) the menu shoots about like a rocket :D

we don't get a lot of boys playing at english schools the split tends to be hockey and rounder for girls cricket and rugby for boys although I think its being pushed in schools...