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I was looking at some blog reports this morning, and I discovered that this blog has 2,615 members, which is fricken' awesome. Then it occurred to me that only 580 of you have liked us on Facebook. This ratio of members-to-FBlikes does not align well with out secret plan to rule the Golden Gophers blogosphere. So, to help us achieve internet dominance (tell no one), I request that you use this fancy little box to become our Facebook friend. We promise not to spam your news feed with pictures of our kids (if we have them), whine about how we hate Mondays, or print song lyrics in a vague, but oh-so-obvious, cry for attention. We'll only give you the best Golden Gophers content on the internet.
Footbaw
Must Reads
Big Ten football West Division title scenarios - ESPN
Gophers football: Confident is good; cocky is not - TwinCities.com
Goals still in sight, Gophers refocus for Nebraska | Star Tribune
Gophers football: Briean Boddy-Calhoun making name for himself in secondary - TwinCities.com
Gophers football: Jerry Kill touched after 11-year-old with epilepsy visits team - Gophers Now
Update: ESPN article about how David Cobb was snubbed by Doak Walker committee
Basketbaw
Gophers basketball: Shae Kelley exceeds already high expectations - TwinCities.com
Gophers basketball: DeAndre Mathieu bounces back in win - TwinCities.com
Gophers postgame: That's the idea Pitino has for this program | Gold in the Barn | StarTribune.com
Much-improved Gophers stomp Western Kentucky | Star Tribune
'Zona Hawkey
Sun Devil Hockey
Sun Devil Hockey
Is it even remotely possible that Arizona State Sun Devils hockey ends up in the Big Ten Conference? Well, apparently it's not as far fetched as one would think. Apparently the Big Ten has been making overtures to ASU about a willingness to expand certain sports to teams outside of the conference. If that's the case, how did this conference not end up with either Notre Dame or North Dakota in conference, or even Denver?
If the Big Ten is willing to expand hockey to seven teams by taking on someone outside the conference, they must have a goal of expanding to eight or ten teams, either by adding more out-of-conference schools to the league or by transitioning traditional big ten schools to new varsity hockey programs.
As for ASU, I would guess that a Power 5 school has little to no interest in entering the WCHA (I could be wrong, they might just take what they can get at this point) and playing against a bunch of small to mid-major schools. I would guess they would take the NCHC as their first choice for geographic reasons (two Colorado schools are very close by) or the Big Ten for prestige and TV money reasons. It remains to be seen if the NCHC cares to bring in ASU, or if the Big Ten is serious about expanding to non Big Ten schools. The WCHA is dieing to have them.
No matter what, this is a shakeout process that will take years to resolve, just when we were all getting used to the post-realignment era.
Update: SBN College Hockey has lots of ASU coverage located here.