ticipating starting in 1969. Back then, when the Badgers, Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State were all
members of the WCHA, regular season results among
those four teams were used to crown a Big Ten champion. Wisconsin captured five Big Ten titles in its 13
years of competition and Eaves was a member of two
of those title-winning teams (1977, 1978).
With the current incarnation set to begin this
weekend, Wisconsin has its eyes set on putting its
name on the Big Ten hockey trophy first, something
it was picked to do in the preseason by the six conference coaches.
"Teams are going to want to win the inaugural title," McCabe said. "We put a target on our back getting
picked as preseason favorites and teams are going to
want to get the best of us and take us down."
That starts this weekend against No. 1 Minnesota,
but the Badgers aren't expecting the level of competition to wane after that. The Big Ten boasts two teams
in the top-three and three in the top-12 nationally
this season and the six teams are among the most storied in college hockey history, having combined for
23 total national titles.
"The Big Ten will be, if not the top, one of the top
three conferences in the country," Meuer said. "You
can argue that it's as good a conference as any and it
is going to be a battle for every point this season."
Wisconsin is excited to play under the Big Ten
banner, something that Barnes said he believes will
bring new energy to the sport. The new conference is
sure to bring new rivalries, but this weekend brings a
sense of the familiar against Minnesota.
Hate, passion, intensity or however you want to describe it, the dynamic of the Badgers-Gophers border
battle rivalry won't change, it's just moving to a new
stage.
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VARSITY November 28, 2013
