The CCHA has been streaming all their games via Flo Sports for the last 3 years but that deal expired this off-season and ultimately the CCHA decided to go a different direction this month by signing a three year deal with Midco Sports, based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Midco is primarily a Cable TV/Internet provider in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota with some service in Wisconsin and Kansas. Midco has deals to broadcast North Dakota Fighting Hawks and Augustana home hockey games on cable.
Their streaming Service, Midco Sports Plus (MS+), is currently the home of Summit League sports, which is a non-football Division 1 conference. You might recognize a few of the teams in the Summit League including North Dakota, Nebraska-Omaha, St. Thomas and Denver that also play Division 1 Hockey. They’re led by the former commissioner of the NCHC, Josh Fenton. Midco Sports Plus also has streaming rights to the Missouri Valley Football Conference which is Division 1 (FCS) and includes North Dakota and a bunch of other schools from the Summit League, Missouri Valley and Horizon League (all conferences that don’t sponsor football). Another Conference that has a deal with Midco Sports Plus for streaming the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, a division 2 conference. Again this conference also has some familiar names in Bemidji State, Augustana, Minnesota State, St Cloud State, and Minnesota-Duluth.
This change comes with some concerns. Midco has no footprint in Michigan or Ohio. The price point of Midco Sports Plus is currently $80 per year or $9.99 a month which is a major improvement over FloSports, but the CCHA release states that pricing is still to be determined, so fans don’t know yet if “CCHA TV” will be included in the normal Midco Sports Plus subscription or if it will be a stand alone package similar to the MLS Package on Apple TV+. Here is hoping it’s just added to the Midco Sports Plus subscription, or somehow cheaper than $80/year, $10/month. Otherwise this deal might not improve from a fans perspective very much.
There are still many things that fans are left wondering. It is believed that this deal does not change the ability of local cable companies or over-the-air channels from broadcasting games in a more traditional manner like TV6/Fox UP have done with MTU, LSSU and NMU games, or BGSU’s games being shown on BCSN. It also left to be seen if this means Midco will plan on broadcasting playoff games on their cable network. There are also rumors that Midco plans to invest in consulting with on campus production across the league to try and optimize each school’s streaming quality.
Certainly fans of GLIAC schools like MTU, NMU, LSSU and FSU are losing out if they enjoyed watching other sports on Flo besides hockey, but beyond that, this deal should be better for CCHA fans. More details are to come over the coming days or months as Trent Singer, who originally broke this story last week, is hoping to get more details for fans soon. Stay tuned as we try to keep you informed on what’s new with the CCHA and Michigan Tech. In other news there are just a couple weeks left for players to enter the Transfer Portal. It’s likely the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast will have new episode shortly after the portal closes on May 14, but for now they’re broadcasting replays of some of their favorite episodes over the last 5 seasons of the podcast.
Tim is a 2004 graduate of Michigan Tech. He is a co-founder of both Mitch’s Misfits and Tech Hockey Guide. With recent additions to the staff, Tim is again able to focus on his passion, recruiting. He currently works as an environmental engineer and resides in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area.
This sucks for me. I like to stream Tech games and USHL games. Both are on Flo now, so now I am split.