I am huge DU fan and I think 3rd-4th is probably where they will end up. They lost their three most talented underclassmen to the NHL (Drew Shore, Jason Zucker, Beau Bennett) as well as a large senior class. DU has good goaltenders and solid and mobile defense returning, but he offensive talent depth is thin and mostly unproven at the WCHA level.

The author misses the two biggest reasons why large multinationals become IOC sponsors, and both have little to do directly with attracting "retail" customers or generating good citizenship.

1) Defense against competitors. If you own the IOC sponsor category, your competitor can't own it. In other words, Coca-Cola is an IOC/Olympic Sponsor, and if it were not, Pepsi probably would be.

2) Corporate Entertainment/Relationship building: The Olympics have the deepest backstage in the world, but if you don't have a credential to get back there, you'll never see it. IOC Sponsors have opportunities to host all kinds of VIPs at the Olympics - Heads of State, Government minsters, corporate titans, etc. Those relationships formed at the Olympics come in really handy when you need to get big global projects or big deals done down the line, long after the games are over. The millions spent on IOC sponorship can directly lead to the success of billion+ dollar initiatives that large multinational corporations undertake, and that's why the sponsorship ROI makes sense.