[nl]Providence, R.I. and Minneapolis, Minn. have been chosen as sites for the expanded 2003 NCAA Division I men’s regionals, according to the official recommendation report filed by the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee following its meeting in San Francisco earlier this month. They join Worcester and Ann Arbor, which were previously announced.
The four resultant regionals will be known as the East ([nl]Providence), West (Minneapolis), Northeast (Worcester) and Midwest (Ann Arbor).
The recommendation still needs final approval of the NCAA’s Championships and Competition Cabinet, which concludes its quarterly meetings today, and is expected to approve the recommendations.
The report also confirmed the committee’s intention to change a number of the selection criteria for the NCAA tournament.
As reported earlier by USCHO, the committee discussed these possible changes during their San Francisco meeting, but at the time, still had not finalized which recommendation it would send to the Cabinet.
The committee also formalized its recommendation to grant an automatic qualifier for College Hockey America in 2003, and its reprimand of Maine defenseman Peter Metcalf for comments in the press conference following the Black Bears’ loss in the NCAA championship game.
[nl]Providence’s arena, the Dunkin Donuts Center — formerly known as the [nl]Providence Civic Center — was site of the 2000 NCAA Division I Men’s Championship. The regional will be hosted by Providence College. Boston University is host of the Northeast Regional in Worcester.
The University of Minnesota is the host school for the 2003 West Regional, which will be played at the on-campus Mariucci Arena. The newly-named Midwest Regional will be hosted by Michigan, on campus in Ann Arbor at Yost Ice Arena.
The committee also selected Manchester, N.H. (Northeast) and Grand Rapids, Mich. (Midwest) as regional sites for 2004. The University of New Hampshire will serve as host institution for Manchester at the Verizon Wireless Arena, while Western Michigan is the host school for Grand Rapids at Van Andel Arena. The other two previously announced regional sites for 2004 are Albany, N.Y. (East) and Colorado Springs, Colo. (West).
In its report to the Championship Cabinet, the men’s ice hockey committee presented a guaranteed revenue figure for the four regionals of over $1.2 million dollars: Providence ($331,425); Minneapolis ($414,037); Manchester ($275,625); and Grand Rapids ($277,312).
Other Eastern sites that submitted bids for either or both of the next two years were: Lake Placid, N.Y. ($230,850); Rochester, N.Y. ($308,319); Bridgeport, Conn. ($332,344); and [nl]Amherst, Mass. ($191,040). Western sites also submitting bids were: Green Bay, Wis. ($119,750); Grand Forks, N.D. ($232,631); [nl]Denver, Colo. ($257,255); [nl]St. Cloud, Minn. ($135,000); Madison, Wis. ($173,212); and Omaha, Neb. ($115,008).
In addition to the reprimand of Metcalf — which consists of withholding from Maine its reimbursement for Metcalf’s per diem expenses during the Frozen Four — the committee also issued a letter of private reprimand to a student-athlete for inadvertently flipping a puck into the stands during a preliminary-round game. The student-athlete and his school were not named.
Finally, the committee voted to award Minnesota ($160,262.77) and Boston University ($34,686.40) their full 10 percent honorariums for serving as hosts for the 2002 Frozen Four and the East Regional, respectively. Michigan, which hosted the West Regional, had its honorarium reduced from an original 15 percent (for hosting on campus) to 10 percent due to crowd control issues and then was docked another 25 percent for submitting its financial report late. The school was awarded an honorarium of $20,615.25, rather than $30,923.30.
