College hockey conference craziness

New six-team league of the best leftover from the WCHA and CCHA (after the Big Ten Hockey Conference starts play) will form.

North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, Minnesota-Duluth and Miami (Ohio). Notre Dame and Western Michigan could join.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/209049/

 

At first blush, seems awfully far for Miami to travel.

 

Wait, they play hockey in college?

 

One would think this is a good opportunity for Air Force to get out of Atlantic Hockey. Plus, the two Alaska schools should be considered.

 

I am SE in a WCHA market that isn't one of the ones mentioned here and I'm rather ticked off.

As I see it, this is basically one big cash grab led by North Dakota to cut college hockey's smaller schools (the D-IIs and IIIs playing up) out of the money and avoid trips to such undesirable locales as St. Cloud, Mankato and (maybe especially) Houghton. No regard for the best interest of the game, for the programs that they could be driving into the ground, just one big pile of greed.

The CCHA and WCHA remnant is probably viable for at least the forseeable future, but only by the will of their respective administrations, and is now perennially the Atlantic Hockey of the West.

To speak to a few things already mentioned:

1. Notre Dame isn't that good a bet to join up. They're more likely to go to Hockey East, where they can play a lot of schools (BC, PC) that resemble it.
2. Western had already been cut out of the discussions before the coach who resurrected their program bolted after one year to take an assistant job with the Red Wings. And they're Western, so they can sod off.
3. It is far for Miami to travel, but they apparently didn't want to be the proverbial big fish in a CCHA pond without the Big 10 schools. At least if they're going have to travel 500 miles, in their mind they're happy it's somewhere more substantial than Marquette.
4. Air Force apparently likes Atlantic Hockey because they get to play Army regularly and since travel's not really a problem with all those planes.

 

Why should St. Cloud, Mankato, Northern Michigan or Michigan Tech be propped up? It seems they are living off the coattails of the better teams and have for some time.

 

Because there just aren't enough teams in college hockey for haves and have-nots. If programs start folding (admittedly a worst-case scenario, but possible within the decade in a few cases), the NCAA probably busts the tournament down from 16 teams to 10.

St. Cloud and Northern have both been to the NCAAs in 2010 (they played each other in the first round, oddly enough). Tech has multiple national championships and I think would look a little better over the last 20 years if they weren't in such a meat-grinder of a league.

Further, this was done very below-board. Alaska-Anchorage's AD called it, on the record, "a sneaky back-door deal." Basically, led by ND, these second-level Western teams stabbed their league in the back.

 

Anchorage's AD would have ditched the WCHA in a second if asked. In every conference move, schools left behind complain about being stabbed in the back.

Without the Big Ten schools, the schools leaving wondered what's the point of being hitched to dregs that won't invest in bettering their hockey programs.

 

NMU has been a top 5 competitor in the CCHA for years...better than some of the big boys...for the leagues to insinuate that the 'Cats don't do their due diligence to "better" their program year after year is horsefeathers!

Then again, I'm alumni and grew up on fumes from the Donor's Room at Lakeview, so I am biased.

 

By "not doing their due diligence" the Big Boys mean "We're sick and fucking tired of going to Marquette."

 

Well, we all know how much Scooter Vaughan enjoyed the experience.