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Conferences have been around for ever and I am sure there are those that put winning one high on the list, but do a lot of people follow the standings that close - or are sections and class games more important?

Since my alma mater is an independent, I don't pay much attention to or put much stock in conferences. They have some uses, since they give their members a series of common opponents, which can make ranking easier. But from a practical standpoint conference titles don't really mean a thing, and in my mind they divert attention from the sections, which is what high school hockey really should be organized around. Some conferences have too many games within themselves too, which limits our perspective on the teams inside them.

Personally, I'd be happy to see the MSHSL do away with conferences.

karl(east) wrote:Since my alma mater is an independent, I don't pay much attention to or put much stock in conferences. They have some uses, since they give their members a series of common opponents, which can make ranking easier. But from a practical standpoint conference titles don't really mean a thing, and in my mind they divert attention from the sections, which is what high school hockey really should be organized around. Some conferences have too many games within themselves too, which limits our perspective on the teams inside them.

Personally, I'd be happy to see the MSHSL do away with conferences.

Come on Karl, you know the MSHSL has no power to do that, only the member schools have. I agree in this computer age, full schedules should be able to be created to satisfy all the parameters teams would want in a schedule without having conferences.

I hope you understand the logistical nightmares you would create by having each team create its own schedule.

The conference schedulers do a pretty solid job at taking the home ice availability and creating a home and away schedule. It also eliminates extra pressure on coaches and athletic directors to stay within budgets due to travel, etc. After all, this is how youth district play is handled, too.

It is tough enough for many teams to try and schedule the half dozen non-conference games, unless tournaments are involved, in date availability/ice availability, etc.

A conference schedule allows the teams that have a difficult time in competing a chance to play games. There might not be any team willing to play the "'challenged" team at all otherwise.

Interesting.
I was thinking more in terms of what competition-games seem more important not along the lines of scheduling problems.

I feel ya, elliot!! Karl is from the land where his alma mater is the Notre Dame of HS hockey. Having an open schedule allows them the freedom to the schedule they get.

elliott70 wrote:Conferences have been around for ever and I am sure there are those that put winning one high on the list, but do a lot of people follow the standings that close - or are sections and class games more important?

I think the conference win is a big thing in only a few conferences. Two that come to my mind are Classic Lake and Lake. In the Classic Lake you've got Edina, Hopkins, Minnnetonka, and Wayzata, and Armstrong. Three of those teams can be considered top 10 and the team that wins this conference takes a lot of pride in it. In the past 2 or 3 years this has been a very good conference. So to answer your question, yes it is but, in only the elite ones.

nikebauer05 wrote:

elliott70 wrote:Conferences have been around for ever and I am sure there are those that put winning one high on the list, but do a lot of people follow the standings that close - or are sections and class games more important?

I think the conference win is a big thing in only a few conferences. Two that come to my mind are Classic Lake and Lake. In the Classic Lake you've got Edina, Hopkins, Minnnetonka, and Wayzata, and Armstrong. Three of those teams can be considered top 10 and the team that wins this conference takes a lot of pride in it. In the past 2 or 3 years this has been a very good conference. So to answer your question, yes it is but, in only the elite ones.

Conferences are important. That said, they're not necassary. What a conference does is allow your team to play the same teams every year. This creates rivalries, competition, etc....helps to build interest or excitement in a program. Conference wins I believe are damn important. It could be a measuring stick type of thing, or just plain that you wouped your rival of 40 years....bragging rights and that type of thing are what makes conferences important....

It helps to have a schedule full of teams that you can play with. The new Two Rivers Conference, with the Minneapolis teams, North Branch, and Meadow Creek, among others is an example of this. These teams weren't competitive with anyone apart from each other last year. Sure, they're probably going to lose their first section game this year (unless they play each other), but they can have a fun, fruitful season without scheduling teams that they can't skate with. If conferences were abolished, these teams would only be able to schedule games with the lower-tier teams in their own section and class, creating less diversity in their schedule. If they did end up with games against the top teams in their section, it would be a waste of everyone's time.

Conference standings sometimes help when it comes to seeding for sections because your almost always if not always in a section with someone from your conference. It's good for helping fill out a schedule every year and keeping travel costs down for some of the season as well. I follow the conferences but obviously sections are more fun and more important to watch and follow.