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Interesting scenarios with hockey realignment, but unlike basketball and football, there is much more to be said about tradition here.
In the east, you have Vermont moving to Hockey East, which is an excellent decision. And there was no screwing around - UVM asked Hockey East for in and three weeks later, they're in.
The other moves you might see are Niagara leaving CHA (which is doomed) for the ECAC to replace UVM. You might also see UConn (women already in HEA) and Holy Cross move from Atlantic Hockey to HEA to give it 12 teams. 12 is a good number in hockey since every team can play a 22 game league schedule, get 12 non-confernce games and there is nobody sitting home
on any given weekend.
As for Atlantic Hockey, think of it as the Mid-Continent Conference of hockey. Same goes for CHA, but they're going out of business anyway.
Out west, things could be shaken up a bit, but there is no way that the Big Ten will ever have a hockey league. Minnesota and Wisconsin play a different knd of hockey than Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State. Plus if anything happened with conference shuffling, you would need to include North Dakota with Mnnesota and Wisconsin.
The best moves would be for the CCHA to trade Alaska-Fairbanks and Nebraska-Omaha to the WCHA for Michigan Tech. The CCHA then picks up Alabama-Huntsville to get to 12. Alabama-Huntsville would be a good pick-up because they have strong hockey tradition (really, no joking) and make a better weekend trip than Fairbanks.
The WCHA picks up Air Force to get to 12 as well. There would be 2 leftovers from the implosion of CHA - Wayne State and Bemidji State. However, they don't have much of a tradition or following, so you're on your own or to Atlantic Hockey.
Hockey East
Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University, Providence, Merrimack, Holy Cross, UMass, UConn, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, UMass-Lowell
ECAC
Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, RPI, Union, Niagara, Colgate, St. Lawrence, Clarkson
Atlantic Hockey
Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Mercyhurst, Army, Canisius, American International, Bentley (possibly Robert Morris and Navy)
CCHA
Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Western Michigan, Miami (Ohio), Bowling Green, Ohio State, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Notre Dame, Alabama-Huntsville
WCHA
Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Denver, Colorado College, Minnesota State-Mankato, Nebraska-Omaha, Air Force, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaksa-Fairbanks
Independent
Bemidji State, Wayne State
Last edited by civilrat on Fri Jan 23, 2004 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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