With the addition of Dubuque and Muskegon, it was unclear what the league structure would look like for the 2010-11 season. Things have finally cleared up, as the Des Moines Buccaneers website now lists three divisions in the USHL: East, West, and Central. Here is what the setup will look like:
USHL East Division
Chicago Steel
Indiana Ice
Muskegon Lumberjacks
USNTDP
Youngstown Phantoms
USHL Central Division
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders
Des Moines Buccaneers
Dubuque Fighting Saints
Green Bay Gamblers
Waterloo Black Hawks
USHL West Division
Fargo Force
Lincoln Stars
Omaha Lancers
Sioux City Musketeers
Sioux Falls Stampede
Tri-City Storm
It certainly is an interesting setup, with the West having six teams and the others having 5. I would've expected a four team, four division system, but obviously the USHL higher-ups decided on the three division system. Any thoughts on the new setup?
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I find it interesting that Green Bay is listed in the Central Division while Chicago is in the East... granted Chicago is located slightly more East than GB, I am surprised they are in different divisions. My guess would have been that GB would be in the East, Central would be all 5 Iowa teams, with the remaining 5 in the West. Not a criticism, just find it interesting.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work with the blog... helps make the off season more bearable.
That is pretty interesting about Chicago and Green Bay. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteI feel like this has been out for awhile...
ReplyDeleteIt was posted back in April in a story from the Dubuque paper - straight from the mouth of Skip Prince.
http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=280075&usg=AFQjCNEwcZSHY2qPeE-p5HfkHl9kbruVVg
But still love hearing it from you!
Wow...I guess that has been out for awhile. Tonight was the first I had heard about it. But nevertheless, thanks for reading!
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ReplyDeleteWest is still the toughest division. It could be difficult to make the playoffs out of the west, depending on how they determine seeding. Indy has a great setup.
ReplyDeleteHow will they format the playoffs? I would love to seee them have a playoff tournament weekend where the three division winners and a host team form a four team round robin and play till you have a champ..similiar gto the Memorial cup. I think that would generate a lot of interest.... Or how about having the winner of the NAHL and the winner of the USHL playing a three game playoff?...
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous @ 9:31, that would not work the Memorial cup is a tournament of the 3 Canadian MJ champions + a host team(OHL, WHL and QMJHL) This would not work when you are talking about only one league. And the USHL would NEVER play a championship with the NAHL since the USHL is T-1 and the NAHL is T-2. Back before the USHL went T-1 we would play in the Gold cup which was the Regular season winner, Playoff winner from the USHL, NAHL and the AWHL plus the host team. But each team had already played their league playoffs, not using the Gold cup as their playoffs.
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