College hockey conference craziness

UAA Seawolves, I believe.

 

Because when I think Anaheim, I think...Alaska! lol

 

Did Alaska-Fairbanks want a piece of that?

 

Notre Dame may want into Hockey East, but does Hockey East want Notre Dame? I know money wouldn't be an issue in terms of travel costs, and I'm guessing Notre Dame would pony up some cash for it. But for the most part, Hockey East schools can play home-and-homes in the same weekend, unless Montpelier or Orono are involved. It's just as bad as TCU being in the Big East.

 

It's a lot different in hockey where, yeah like Slapshot, most trips are bus trips...
South Bend to Orono will be every bit the bitch as Omaha to Duluth or Oxford to Fargo.

 

There are, what, 70 schools now playing D-I hockey?

 

Word out of Marquette (and by that, I mean speculation from the hockey PxP guy) is that NMU could announce a move to the WCHA within 10 days.

 

So if this all goes down...why can't the remaining CCHA/WCHA teams just join up?
The new league would have two 5-team divisions:
Western Collegiate: Alaksa, A-Fairbanks, Minn. St., St. Cloud St., and Bemidji
Central Collegiate: Ferris St., Lake State, Bowling Green, Mich. Tech, and Northern Mich.
Teams would play home-and-home with their division and an alternating home-and-away schedule every two years with the other division for a total of 26 league games per year. That leaves 4 weekends to fill for each team to play old cohorts from the WCHA and CCHA (most likely on the road)

 

Part of why the Alaska schools are in the WC and CCHA is because, IIRC, they supplement travel to their schools. I would think the tradeoff is attendance, because for Michigan Tech and Ferris, they also get Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame... How long does that last against no marquee draws in the league?
And I'm not seeing BG in for this. Either they join with new league with Western, Miami, NoDak, Duluth, or they fold the tent in hockey. BG has a great past, but it's been a while since they were relevant. So they either make a commitment to juicing the program or ditch it. Four games a year with Bemidji isn't going to draw.

 

The WCHA/CCHA leftovers need to form a 3-division league, the WCCHA:


Central Division:
Bowling Green
Miami
Notre Dame
Western Michigan
Ferris State

Northern Division
Lake Superior State
Michigan Tech
Northern Michigan
Duluth
Bemidji

Western Division
North Dakota
Minn. State
St. Cloud State
Colorado College
Denver
UNO

The two Alaska schools would be wild-card teams, not in any division, playing a balanced schedule against all league members -- and paying every plugged nickel of travel expenses for anybody going to Alaska. Presumably the schedule-makers would set up "Alaska swings" where teams would fly up, play 4 games in 6 days, then fly back.

Playoffs:

Three division winners get byes into the quarterfinals. Teams seeded 4-13 in the overall standings pair off in first-round series with winners moving into the quarters.

The Alaska teams would scream it was unfair because they couldn't win a division title. The perfect response would be, "tough shit. Go play in the Alaska Collegiate Hockey Association."