Sioux Win WCHA, ESPN and NCAA Both Suck

What a weekend for the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team at the WCHA Final Five...

They had to play last Sunday the 3rd (of a best of 3) game against the Minnesota Gophers to advance to the Final Five...which they won. That meant if UND wanted to win the WCHA Tournament they would have to play (and win) Thursday night, then against the #1 team, Denver, on Friday and then again on Saturday. They beat Duluth Thursday night, played a great game against Denver on Friday night and then fell down 2-0 in the first minute of play against St. Cloud on Saturday but the Sioux ended the first period tied at 2 and went on to win 5-3 to secure the championship.

So many folks thought that UND might garner a #1 seed in the Frozen Four, or, at the very least, be within driving distance of their fans...but like usual, the NCAA hates UND (probably their nickname more than anything) and put UND in the Northeast region, which is in Massachusetts, and of course make sure Boston College is in the same region as well...essentially securing home ice advantage for B.C. In the meantime, not 1 single WCHA team in the Frozen four is even in the west region playing at the Xcel Center. Are you kidding me? Alabama-Huntsville is in the Midwest region but UND isn't, which sure isn't the Xcel Center but it's at least Indiana. Don't have to look to hard as to who the NCAA is favoring and who they are not...it isn't much more blatant than that...

Then let's go to ESPN's fine coverage...instead of showing the UND game live they are going to tape delay it until Sunday...so what's on the ESPN channels while UND will be playing hockey, here's your lineup: ESPN: Sportscenter and then WSOP reruns, ESPN2: 30 for 30 rerun and then drag racing and finally ESPNU: the one station they are airing hockey games...but of course only one region and of course not the Sioux game.

The NCAA and ESPN have done their best to make sure no one can follow or care about this hockey tournament at all...and I am amazed that WSOP reruns would get better ratings then tournament hockey...