Very big considering we were outside looking in at the Pairwise rankings as well, two W's vs. #8 will certainly boost us up there.

Penn State is such a dangerous team, because with our offense all we need is a goalie to get hot.  But man, with even a semblance of a defense we'd be unreal.  Notre Dame looked pedestrian ending the seasons, so they man be ripe for an upset.  Who knows.

That said, how about the Big Ten Conference?  Only a few years back people were saying it was stupid, or a mistake in hockey.  Now, it's a fairly dominate league with 5 of it's 7 teams in the top 20.  Not bad.

Big Ten Hockey is very strong. PSU may have actually put itself in a good position. It doesn't matter if you play hot to start, it's how you end the season, and they are coming off 3 big wins

Adding Notre Dame and making a few head coaching changes over the past two years has been positive for the B1G. I follow college hockey on the USCHO and College Hockey News websites. College hockey fans tend to be very regional and very opinionated, perhaps more so than football and basketball fans. Many of them resent that their regional rivalries were ended when the B1G decided to sponsor hockey and some blame Penn State. It's similar to when PSU joined the B1G for football and other sports in the early 1990s.

The Penn State women's team is also improving. They tied the record for overtime games in a season. Most of those games ended in ties, which may not seem so good. But it shows that they kept fighting. I think they have the right coach now.

I'd be surprised if Nebraska doesn't make a big push to add Ice Hockey in the next few years.  They have a brand new arena which was built with an ice configuration, a new smaller ice hockey rink on campus, and a club team with a good draw.

All the infrastructure is in place, and now they are FULL members of the Big Ten.  I believe that just happened, as they didn't receive the full school payouts until now.  With all that cash coming in, I don't see why they wouldn't add it to the school's athletic program.  There's also a lot of really good regional teams they could play out there, so travel would be light on the team as well with the Dakotas and Minnesota easily accessible.

Nebraska is a possibility. Isn't that their basketball arena? One mistake seems to be that schools with multipurpose arenas add hockey and try to play games in those big arenas (12,000+). Ohio State has an arena that seats 17,500 but their average attendance is 5,510. It looks very empty at games. Ohio State's studying the possibility of building a smaller arena for men's hockey. There is a USHL arena across the street  from the Nebraska campus that seats 4,200 which is more like a D-1 barn.

Iowa is another school that has been mentioned. Apparently, there is an arena that seats 6,200 near campus.

Illinois received money from the NHL to do a feasibility study last summer, I'm not sure if it has been completed yet. I think they don't have the money right now.

Northwestern has also been talked about due to the proximity to Chicago and rich alumni, but not sure if they are interested in expanding sports.

There are folks at Rutgers who would like to move to Division I, but that is probably a pipedream. They have too much debt from the past to pay down.

But any of these could happen if the right alum with enough money and an interest in ice hockey comes along (i.e., another Terry Pegula).

You might find this item from a Meatchicken blog interesting:  http://mgoblog.com/content/college-hockey-expansion-again

After reading that, I'm even more convinced Nebraska will be coming into Ice Hockey soon.  NU has no money issues, they are completely flush.  That school does a great job with it's boosters.

There's a new AD there now, so the previous AD's plans are moot.  This AD is also one known for getting facilities in place if they are needed.  He did so at WSU and Oregon, both schools really upgraded their digs while he was there.

Iowa is interesting too, and wouldn't surprise me if both schools came in around the same time period.

I agree. Nebraska and/or Iowa are most likely. Illinois and Northwestern are more wishful thinking on the NHL's part. But if a person with a lot of money comes along and adamant about starting D-1 hockey, Universities are reluctant to turn down the money.