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— Keith Allain, Yale Coach older and more mature players looking for a college hockey program tend to place greater weight on academics and life after hockey, and are more likely to stay in school for four years, which can be a huge on-ice advantage. "In college athletics, you win with your juniors and seniors," Appert says in reference to high-profile recruits that often bolt for pro hockey after one or two seasons. "If your players don't get to be juniors and seniors, you don't get that boost." When Lake Superior State won its three titles, Jackson was there, first as an assistant coach and then as the head man behind the bench for the '92 and '94 crowns. There he commonly recruited older players, and hit the jackpot with future American stars like Brian Rolston and Doug Weight. Now at Notre Dame, the recruits are generally younger, which presents challenges in getting them to commit, and sometimes getting them to keep their commitments. In addition to seeing more senior-laden teams at smaller schools succeeding, Keith Allain, who coaxed that Frozen Four title out of Yale in April, says that schools the size of his also benefit from a crop of available players that is growing every year. "It's a product of the greater numbers and greater depth of players available nationwide," Allain says. "Here in New England the numbers are very good, with hockey growing around the country, especially in the non-traditional areas, there are just a lot more players to go around." Don Lucia got his feet wet in the coaching ranks at a pair of small schools, Alaska and Colorado College, before taking the Minnesota job in 1999 and leading the Golden Gophers to a pair As one college hockey coach put it, 'you win with juniors and seniors,' which is exactly what of NCAA titles. Yale University did in capturing its first NCAA He feels there's hockey title. a misperception that college hockey programs in the Big Ten or other "BCS" conferences have significantly more money than smaller schools, saying that the Gopher hockey program brings in significant resources via TV deals, ticket sales and merchandise, but the money goes to the athletic department, not necessarily to the team. Like Allain, Lucia subscribes to the "deeper pool" theory, noting how many more players of college ability there are available now, and not just in the traditional states like Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and New York. So what does the future hold? With the Big Ten sponsoring hockey next season, and high-profile schools like Notre Dame and Connecticut headed to Hockey East, some envision a slow trend back toward dominance by the so-called "monsters." Others see young talent continuing to depart those schools early, while the lower-profile programs are able to field senior-laden teams that seem to have so much success every March and April. Jackson, who has seen, done and won pretty much everything one can experience behind a hockey bench, has coined an apt description of the modern college hockey world, where conference alignments, traditional rivalries and the balance of power seems to be changing by the minute. "Consistent craziness," is how Jackson describes the new world of college hockey, which seems fitting. N Jess Myers covers the Minnesota Wild and college hockey for 1500ESPN.com. USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM June/July. 2013 21