southpaw

Then how did CC, Duluth, Omaha, SCSU, Miami and Western get in this TV-specific conference?

So you've got one Alaska team (assume they'll fold the other in the next couple years), Huntsville, Tech, LSSU, and Ferris State on an island. AHA would then be AFA, Army, AIC, Bentley, Canisius, Holy Cross, and Sacred Heart. 5 and 7 teams respectively. I know AHA teams already dislike their flights to Colorado Springs but I think they'll have to add someone. That might be Huntsville but they balked at it last time. I don't know the answer to that. We're seeing Mankato want to join the NCHC despite being pretty successful in the current WCHA. Would WMU and Miami leave the top college hockey conference to form a new one just to be with BG and some scrubs from AHA? Outside of Bowling Green, none of those teams bring more fans into Lawson or Goggin Arenas. It seems like a great idea to leave because you're allegedly upset that the conference is going more west, but it's another thing to actually leave for a conference that is significantly weaker and would be the 4th or 5th best conference in the country. This new conference won't have the strength of schedule to get multiple teams in the tournament on a regular basis.

Where does Huntsville go in this? If the AHA gets plucked by losing RIT, RMU, Niagara and Mercyhurst they'll have to do some adding of teams as well. I can't see Bemidji or Tech going to the NCHC. The conference was formed to get away from those two teams. If WMU and Miami do leave, the conference will sit at 10 until some quality schools come around.

As of right now. It goes up and down depending on how much money the NCHC spends in a year. It will be a bit lower for this coming year.

WMU and Miami are not leaving. This isn't a trade, it's adding two more teams to make the conference 10.

Yes, Mankato will be added but it's not a done deal. If it was, Brad would still see that info in the released documents he requested.

Honestly, who would people rather have in their conference... ASU, Western and Miami or Alaska, Tech and Bemidji?

Plan on scenario 1 happening but if WMU and Miami are going to leave... that would be the end of the WCHA unless they join that conference. They have to go with other teams, so it would be creating a new conference. By the time they leave (it's not happening soon) there will be other teams in the west that the NCHC can pick up to replace them. The NCHC won't add any of the other WCHA teams and Air Force won't leave AFA.

UNLV is not going D1 anytime soon. This "delay" in announcement is because the athletic directors don't get together until August and the presidents don't get together until early September. The NCHC, just like all of the other conferences can't unilaterally make decisions to add. The membership gets together and discusses those options. They talked about it in Florida but had made no decisions at the time.

Hockey Priority: UND, DU, CC, UNO, Duluth Cost Cutting: Anchorage, Bemidji, Mankato, Tech, SCSU (at the time) If the WCHA was going to add two more teams to replace Minnesota and Wisconsin, they both would have had to be hockey priority schools, or the best case scenario would have been a 6-6 split. That's why the NCHC was formed. They wanted a majority of schools that were making hockey a priority and they got that. Does it mean there won't be some teams that can't spend like the other schools? Absolutely and I think Western and SCSU were examples of that. But you don't want to start a new conference with 6 schools because if one leaves for greener pastures then you're left scrambing.

You literally know nothing about any NCHC conversations. You've thrown a lot of crap at the wall and none of it sticks. WMU was a late add after the NCHC said no to Notre Dame.

Wrong. Western was not an original team. They were added with SCSU.

Where do you get that BG was invited? I've never heard that.

In Mankato's defense, they do have the benefit of being a bus drive from four current schools.

Keep your eyes peeled for a report in September about two new members...

After taking the interlocking ND logo off the ice once... I don't think they'll ever put it back on.

Considering you don't cheer for UND's teams anymore, I doubt there is much of a reason for you to go to GF. But you'd also think there wouldn't be much of a reason for you to post here anymore...

Unofficial, but I'm guessing a lot of shirts and gear for fans will include both the logo and the wordmark.

This is an awesome idea. If I lived in Minnesota, I'd definitely make a trip to a night of games for a good cause: http://m.startribune.com/beautiful-minnesota-based-nhlers-start-4-on-4-league/386364871/ Several former UND players involved, plus Boeser.

Just getting around to this... to be the champion of something, shouldn't you have to beat a team in your same division? That's like saying the Iowa Wild are the AHL champions because they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So to sum it up... humble Iceland and "humble-because-of-ISIS" France both failed to achieve their main goal. Does that mean the WAC football league will happen... but fail like it did before?

Agreed with SF97's take. It was to save money, because flying into Houghton isn't easy, or cheap. Just like travel to a majority of the schools in this "new league." Technically, it would be a bus league, but who wants to ride 9 hours each way on a bus every other weekend?

Didn't you hear? Those crickets mean something big is going to happen.

Agreed. That one year since they made the tournament has been forever .