Article out of Lansing discussing possible impact of new Big Ten Hockey league at http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/arti ... fied-sport

Remaining ncha teams join mcha, which then changes name to ncha
http://d3hockey.com/releases/men/2012-1 ... or-changes

Nebraska blog article discussing unconfirmed report that BTN will be paying each league hockey member an extra $2 million per year and if true,whether this money could/would make varsity hockey viable at a school like Nebraska.Link at http://www.cornnation.com/2013/4/29/428 ... -viable-at

NYTimes article(previously posted in another thread)with comments from Big Ten and BTN officials regarding potential growth for league hockey which "may"result in future expansion at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/sport ... .html?_r=0

Any current member willing to play hockey would join (rumored-Nebraska, for the markets Northwestern/Rutgers), and obviously this only illustrates 1 of the many reason the Big Ten wants ND who plays hockey and LAX.

I'm not sure any associate members will make it into Big Ten Hockey as they don't need them like they did JHU for the LAX autobid, nor is there a JHU level school (i.e. non-D1 yet academically elite level school) playing great D1 hockey that would be worth it for the Big Ten to add.

But once again, I think this shows that Boston College is a real Big Ten candidate as ND's tag-a-long if they ever join. With BC and ND in the fold, Big Ten Hockey would basically be made up of elite minor league programs.

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

Article out of Bowling Green discussing unconfirmed rumor that BGSU and other schools may try to "resuscitate" the old CCHA at http://www.sent-trib.com/bgsu-sports/fl ... y-10-30-13" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd chalk this article up to "wishful thinking".

Last year - the guys left behind in hte CCHA reluctantly joined the WCHA after:
1) they wer left behind by Miami (Ohio) and Westrn Michigan (who joined the NCHC, presumably for a more lucrative TV contract), and
2) the western-most teams in Atlantic Hockey decided to stay put, ratehr than move west into what remained of the CCHA.

Without 1) or 2) being reversed, there is no critical mass for a re-bron CCHA. Has something changed ? Or are the writer(s) just day-dreaming about "what if ?"
I understand that some of those teams face much more travel to Minnesota (they were already making one trip / year to Alaska), but such is life in a sport so thin on teams out west.

Yes, in an ideal world, we would put the 2 Alaska teams and Air Force into the NCHC, and move Miami and Westrn Michigan to the WCHA.

Geoography is important in hockey, where travel is a major expense, and TV / ticket revenue isn't that substantial.
Teams that are a bit isolated:
2 Alaska schools and Alabama-Huntsville (can't do much about that)
Notre Dame and Air Force (in east coast conferences by choice)
BGSU, Miami (Ohio), Western Michigan (at the very least all would be in WCHA and would have other Michigan schools (some way up north) as conf. mates).

I think it's more than wishful thinking, but nothing has really changed: the behind the scenes maneuvering has been going on for two years. There are at least three forces in play here:

1) BGSU desperately wants - and needs - to get out of the WCHA. Their travel costs will go way up (i.e., replacing trips to Miami, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Western Michigan, Michigan State, and Michigan with trips to Huntsville, Anchorage, Mankato, Bemidji, and Houghton), while their ticket revenue probably will go way down, due to the same replacements for home games. Most schools outside the state of Minnesota don't have enough hard-core hockey fans to fill their arena, so they rely on casual fans to fill seats; but casual fans are often only interested in seeing big name schools and regular conference opponents, none of which are currently in the WCHA. As of now, BGSU is the only school with a D1 athletic program stuck in the WCHA with nine D2 schools playing up in hockey, meaning they won't often (or ever) be playing those schools in other sports, so they will be unfamiliar to casual fans. (Except for Huntsville, all of the other WCHA schools have at least one other school from their main conference, which helps them some, but probably not much.)

2) The NCHC is somewhat lopsided, geographically, with Miami and WMU in the east and the other six schools much farther west (Minnesota and beyond). This places a heavy travel burden on Miami and WMU. I believe they play a 24 game conference schedule (6 home series, 6 away), which means Miami and WMU each play one away series in the east and five in the west. Obviously, more schools in the east would reduce that burden.

3) Several AHA schools (e.g., Robert Morris, Niagara) apparently want to play full scholarship hockey, but are limited by the AHA (to I believe 12 or 13 this season). They could perhaps join the WCHA, but are turned off by the travel distances and hard-to-reach locations.

I think the obvious short term solution would be to add BGSU to the NCHC, and perhaps also one of the AHA schools, say Robert Morris, to make it an even 10. This would give each of the four eastern schools three away series in the east and three in the west. In order for this to happen, WMU and especially Miami, would have to strongly support it.

I do not agree with your "ideal world" scenario. As a rule, I am opposed to any hockey realignment that puts full D1 schools in a conference with lower division schools; and for that reason I consider the NCHC an abomination in its present form.

I'm not going to defend the realignment that occurred ove the last 2 years.

I think the conferences could be shifted around to dramatically reduce travel for those schools that I identified as being relatively isolated in their current conference.

But that kind of thing is political, and the teams that joined the NCHC all took a political bent.
The WCHA has picked up the pieces after the BTHC and NCHC formation and invited those left behind. part of this had to do with their own survival,
but part of it was to help keep several programs viable. I think the WCHA is to be commended.

Just because BGSU wants a different (better) arrangement for themselves doesn't make it happen, unless other schools see fit to invite them.

Agree with some of your points.

The AHA does have a reduced level of scholarships (12 if memory serves) vs. 18 forD-1 hockey in general.
As the CHL was fragmenting due to paoching by the Bg Ten and NCHC, BGSU and Miami did meet with 4 AHA schools to discuss the formation of a "Lake Erie League".
I think it was Canisius, Niagara, Mercyhurst, and Robert Morris.
The AHA schools showed some interest, but ultimately declined. You can read about that, by scrolling way back up this thread.
So, if they remain uninterested, this new Conf. that BGSU would like to play in appears doomed.


If

Well, it's true that if those western AHA schools are "uninterested" there will be no "Lake Erie League;" but I don't believe all of them were ever uninterested, they just ran out of time. The WCHA gave BGSU an offer with a deadline for acceptance, and though I believe they did allow a short extension, there simply wasn't enough time for all of those schools to make decisions, which forced BGSU to accept the WCHA's offer, lest they end up without a conference. They have now had two additional years to think about it. No one should be surprised if we find they've been discussing it behind the scenes, and that there is indeed significant interest there.

In my mind, the more important question is: What does Miami want? I think it's clear that both WMU and BGSU want to be with Miami, but would Miami want to be in a Lake Erie League that it could perhaps dominate? Is Miami happy in what has become of the NCHC, as opposed to the original plan they signed up for? Ultimately, the fate of BGSU hockey could depend upon what Miami chooses.

As for the WCHA, you can commend them if you want. I'm glad they accepted Huntsville, but I believe Huntsville is subsidizing travel. We agree that travel costs are going up, but I think you may be underestimating the likely revenue reductions and their effects. My crystal ball is a little foggy here, but I see the WCHA becoming a reduced scholarship league like the AHA. And if that happens, I hope they do it before schools start losing their hockey programs.

Dennis -

I agree with your assessment.

BGSU was under time-pressure, and for this league to get critical mass, they need the 4 AHA schools to commit to jumping.
Maybe they're coming around....
A viable league needs 6, so as you suggested this might require Miami to renounce the NCHC OR.... they could invite UAH.

UAH is so geographically isolated ! They would not be a bad fit in the AHA, but for some reason get turned down.....
I think you are correct about them subsidizing travel in the WCHA, maybe they did not offer a travel subsidy to the AHA...
I would think the travel subsidy situation in the AHA is whatever precedent was set by Air Force.
It's a longer haul to Colorado Springs than down to Birmingham, Alabama via multiple flights in/out of Atlanta.
So if Air Force gets away with no travel subsidy (not sure if that is true or not), UAH may have felt no need to offer any subsidy to the AHA.

CHN article discussing possibility of future Atlantic hockey expansion at http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2 ... of_aha.php

Either Navy or URI would be great additions, but unfortunately it seems that neither can afford to add hockey right now. I think Navy is still limited by the federal budget/debt ceiling mess, and URI is in such bad shape that just two years ago they were planning to downgrade to NEC football in order to cut costs.

On the other hand, I am pleased to see that St. Anselm is now "off the table." The last thing D1 hockey needs is another lower division school playing up. I am even more pleased that the start of Big Ten hockey should signal the beginning of the end of all that nonsense.