Frozen Four in the South Is a First for Hockey Final Craig Litten for The New York Times Minnesota's cheerleaders greeted the Golden Gophers before their semifinal loss to Boston College in Tampa, Fla. TAMPA, Fla. - With palm trees swaying and boats meandering through a sun-kissed marina, Christian Miller could barely contain his grin. Proudly wearing a sleeveless Ferris State University T-shirt, sunglasses and flip-flops, he looked like a typical college student on spring break. "I skipped class to drive down here," said Miller, a senior from Saginaw, Mich. It's hard to say I don't like this - they should have it down here every year. It's been a lot of fun. But "it" is not spring break. Instead, Miller made the two-day drive from Michigan to Florida to be part of the Frozen Four, the college men's hockey equivalent of the Final Four. For the first time in the 64-year history of the event, college hockey's championship is being contested in the South. For a sport that typically anchors its tournament in traditional hockey sites in the Northeast and Midwest, merging hockey and sunshine in early April was an outside-the-box venture. The only other time the event was held at a warm-weather site was at Anaheim, Calif., in 1999. When heavy underdog Ferris State (26-11-5) meets top-seeded Boston College (32-10-1) in the championship match on Saturday night in the Tampa Bay Times Forum, it will be the culmination of a seven-year journey to bring college's hockey's ultimate prize to the South. In the summer of 2005, the Tampa Bay area was basking in the glow of hockey royalty. The Tampa Bay Lightning had won the Stanley Cup the previous year, and area representatives put together an aggressive campaign to secure the Frozen Four in competition with more obvious choices like Detroit, St. Paul, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston. The N.C.A.A. selection committee granted bids to Washington in 2009, Detroit in 2010 and St. Paul in 2011. Then came the stunner: Tampa Bay earned the right to host the Frozen Four in 2012. "I remember the call like it was yesterday," said Rob Higgins, the executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. It's just something we'll never forget. It's such a historic moment and opportunity for us. Higgins and the rest of the Tampa Bay contingent impressed the N.C.A.A. hierarchy with a presentation centered on the student-athlete experience. They were assisted by Martin St. Louis, a star forward for the Lightning who had competed in the Frozen Four in 1996 for the University of Vermont. "He did a great job verbalizing to the N.C.A.A. what the student-athlete experience would be like here," Higgins said. He helped us pitch the thing and here he is seven years later, helping us promote it, advising us on how we should handle things for the student-athlete experience. It meant a lot to have him in our community, to have somebody out making those promises side by side with us seven years ago, helping us fulfill them now. With three professional franchises and having hosted four Super Bowls and Final Fours in both men's and women's basketball, Tampa is no stranger to top-level sporting events. In tandem with the University of Alabama-Huntsville, the host institution and the only top college hockey program in the South, the area rolled out an actual red carpet for this year's participants from Boston College, Ferris State, Minnesota and Union College. When the teams" planes landed last Wednesday, players, coaches and administrators were greeted by a red carpet on the tarmac, a steel drum band, a human tunnel of area youth hockey players with raised sticks to walk between and standard Florida tokens like oranges. A huge sand castle featuring the team logos and the Frozen Four insignia was built in the lobby at the teams" hotel, and the reception for the athletes was held on a yacht. "We get off the plane and there's a band sitting on the tarmac waiting to play - those things didn't take place years ago," said Minnesota Coach Don Lucia, who is in his 13th year at Minnesota. It's become a real treat for the players. It's always been a great experience for the fans, but I think it's really grown as far as the player experience. Lucia, who has guided the Gophers to four national championships, said he welcomed the change of scenery. "I think it's important to have it in traditional areas," Lucia said. But it's great to have it in some nontraditional areas at times, too, because it does open up some eyes. But not everyone in the hockey community shares Lucia's outlook. A casual glance at Thursday's near-sellout crowd of 18,605 for the semifinals demonstrated that many fans wore jerseys of teams not participating in the Frozen Four. "I appreciate the N.C.A.A. trying to expand their scope, but to me this is too far south," said Brian Bakke, decked out in University of North Dakota gear. I believe in the northern tier. It should be in Boston and St. Paul, and throw in some other rotations. This is too hot. Despite having to carry what his wife, Jan, said was "50 tubes of sunscreen," Bakke, who has lived in Rochester, Minn., the past 30 years, still said he would not consider missing the Frozen Four. "This is our eighth or ninth year," Bakke said. We're just huge college hockey fans.