WCHA lifts moratorium...

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

If both BSU and NMU come this way, CCHA would have room for Huntsville.

Exactly what I am thinking...

[dakotadan]

I would say UN-Omaha over Northern Michigan.

Northern Michigan doesn't bring in any new markets or coverage for the schools in the WCHA. UNO brings in a very good sized market with Omaha/Nebraska/Iowa. The UP is covered for the WCHA with MTU.

Also, UNO's arena is much more inline with the standards of the WCHA. The Qwest Center seats 14,700 in the UNO hockey configuration. While UNO isn't anywhere near filling it, WCHA fans travel very well. With more regional schools coming in, I could see their attendance going up. And it would be a great, easy trip for WCHA fans.

Third, UNO has such a long history with all of the former NCC schools in the WCHA. To me, that is just as meaningful as NMU's previous history with the WCHA.

And finally, it doesn't make sence to have UAH or NMU heading west to the WCHA with UNO traveling east to the CCHA. There are only a handful of schools that sponsor hockey west of I-29. It just makes sence to have UNO in the western most hockey conference.

Just my humble opinions.

[Big A HG]

I would say UN-Omaha over Northern Michigan.

Northern Michigan doesn't bring in any new markets or coverage for the schools in the WCHA. UNO brings in a very good sized market with Omaha/Nebraska/Iowa. The UP is covered for the WCHA with MTU.

Also, UNO's arena is much more inline with the standards of the WCHA. The Qwest Center seats 14,700 in the UNO hockey configuration. While UNO isn't anywhere near filling it, WCHA fans travel very well. With more regional schools coming in, I could see their attendance going up. And it would be a great, easy trip for WCHA fans.

Third, UNO has such a long history with all of the former NCC schools in the WCHA. To me, that is just as meaningful as NMU's previous history with the WCHA.

And finally, it doesn't make sence to have UAB or NMU heading west to the WCHA with UNO traveling east to the CCHA. There are only a handful of schools that sponsor hockey west of I-29. It just makes sence to have UNO in the western most hockey conference.

Just my humble opinions.

That's all fine and dandy, but we pick who we want and who we don't want. UNO has remained adament about staying in the CCHA while UNM has expressed interest in coming back to the WCHA.

[Smoggy]

That's all fine and dandy, but we pick who we want and who we don't want. UNO has remained adament about staying in the CCHA while UNM has expressed interest in coming back to the WCHA.

When? Where have they expressed interest?

If we are going to go recruit a team I agree that we should go after UNO first and then NMU.

[AZSIOUX]

When? Where have they expressed interest?

If we are going to go recruit a team I agree that we should go after UNO first and then NMU.

brads blog

http://www.areavoices.com/undhockey/?archive=2009-01

Northern Michigan a possibility?

During the Thursday night live chat, expansion in the WCHA was a hot topic.

We know Bemidji State is going to apply for admission. In the interest of keeping an even number of teams, we've all speculated that BSU and the WCHA will try to get one more team to apply, too.

In recent days, both Air Force and Nebraska-Omaha -- two of the frequently mentioned suspects -- have said they are not interested in the WCHA.

But apparently, Omaha coach Mike Kemp said that Northern Michigan has been approached by the WCHA as a possible member, too.

This would be an interesting scenario. Northern Michigan was at one time a member of the WCHA. Could the Wildcats be Bemidji State's dancing partner? We'll see.

I can already hear the players celebrating the thought of two bus trips to the UP each season.

[Big A HG]

When? Where have they expressed interest?

If we are going to go recruit a team I agree that we should go after UNO first and then NMU.

This is from Brad's Blog (www.areavoices.com/undhockey)

"In recent days, both Air Force and Nebraska-Omaha -- two of the frequently mentioned suspects -- have said they are not interested in the WCHA.

But apparently, Omaha coach Mike Kemp said that Northern Michigan has been approached by the WCHA as a possible member, too."

I couldn't find where I thought I read that NMU has said they were interested, but it may have been a word of mouth thing from inside sources. The fact that we have contacted them is somewhat of a step (we also did for UNO and AFA). Also, the fact they HAVEN'T said they weren't interested (like UNO and AF both stated) is also key. If they didn't want to join, I think we'd already know that.

The fact that UNO doesn't want to join already befuddles your chances of getting UNO anyways. So, better to have NMU than UAH.

WESTERN COLLEGE HOCKEY BLOG:

"One of the big reasons why is that even though the WCHA may have more traditional hockey powers, Nebraska is football territory and names like Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State are going to resonate more with local fans than a school like Denver or North Dakota. Even MAC schools like Western Michigan, Miami, and Bowling Green carry more cachet than some of the D-II football schools in Minnesota.

Kemp did mention the advantage of being able to bus to most games in the WCHA--and I'm sure avoiding the air looked especially tempting after the fiasco getting up to Fairbanks--but also said that the CCHA has been good to UNO, and they have no interest in moving. "

The problem with that statement is, I don't think they're drawing much of a crowd even for those games against "big football schools." Also, the benefit of having more away fans coming to the games will at least keep the attendance similar, in my opinion. But, if they don't want to change, they don't want to change.

I do think AFA would be a good choice, but their arena is about 1500 seats too small for the WCHA if I remember right....the same problem that BSU has had.

I'll see if I can dig up where I found where I saw that NMU was interested in the WCHA.

[Big A HG]

Here's what I've been able to dig up about UNO attendance in my never ending quest for knowledge....

UNO is averaging approximately 8000 people for games against MichSt and Miami. Those are the only "big" draws they've had at home. The rest of the home games average out to be about 5500-6000.

That is a considerable difference for a school isn't in much of a hockey market. However, I think they underestimate how much the fans will be drawn towards Denver and North Dakota. The CCHA has a bunch of crap teams with a few good ones. It's the same with the WCHA. Wisconsin and Minnesota are recognizable names outside of hockey, and I think Denver and CC will be more recognizable than they give credit for. Add in more visiting travel saved travel expenses, and I think in the long run it evens out, or they may gain revenue for the program.

I bet their fans are smarter than given credit, so when a high ranked WCHA team that is less recognizable outside of hockey teams come to town, they'll get their crowds. If DU, or UND, CC, or Duluth come in with a high rank, people will come just to see if the Mavs get knocked off.

I don't care if we get NMU or UNO, as long as it's one of them and not UAH.

[star2city]

UAH

Huntsville Times: UAH to apply to CCHA, WCHA

"We have the official application letter and fee ready to be sent to the CCHA," University of Alabama-Huntsville athletic director Jim Harris said Wednesday.

...

Harris said UAH also will send a "letter of intent" seeking application to the WCHA, though "economically, the CCHA makes sense (regarding) travel costs."

UBC

UBC - attending NCAA hockey meetings in April (WCHA?)

-

UBC Athletics continues to hold talks with the NCAA. Philip recently returned from the league's AGM and he said he would attend NCAA hockey meetings in April. Div. 2 has opened the door to Canadian members, and UBC and Simon Fraser University continue to debate the move internally. The department would like to keep some sports in Canada, at least in the short term. CIS officials will discuss dual membership in April.

[siouxhockeyfan11]

UAH

Huntsville Times: UAH to apply to CCHA, WCHA

UBC

UBC - attending NCAA hockey meetings in April (WCHA?)

-

I am really between a rock and another rock on this Alabama thing I mean I know Sioux fans travel well to games but all the way to Alabama? With the rising travel costs this would also be another reason to tell them no. That flight from Alabama to Alaska would be brutal. Mabye The CCHA and the WCHA can come to an agreement and let Northern Michigan slide back over here and take in Alamaba. I hate the thought of Huntsville in our conference but part of me doesn't wanna see college hockey suffer as a whole.

[Ray77]

I am really between a rock and another rock on this Alabama thing I mean I know Sioux fans travel well to games but all the way to Alabama? With the rising travel costs this would also be another reason to tell them no. That flight from Alabama to Alaska would be brutal. Mabye The CCHA and the WCHA can come to an agreement and let Northern Michigan slide back over here and take in Alamaba. I hate the thought of Huntsville in our conference but part of me doesn't wanna see college hockey suffer as a whole.

I agree with other posters on here that I'd rather have UNO.

[AZSIOUX]

I agree with other posters on here that I'd rather have UNO.

uno or north mich work with me along with the beavs. i dont want alabama

[siouxhockeyfan11]

I agree with other posters on here that I'd rather have UNO.

Yes..as would I but since they have basically said no thanks already we have to look elsewhere.

[Big A HG]

Yes..as would I but since they have basically said no thanks already we have to look elsewhere.

I don't know how many times it takes for people to get the hint.

Maybe a more realistic question to answer is how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. Even then, the world may never know.

[AZSIOUX]

I don't know how many times it takes for people to get the hint.

Maybe a more realistic question to answer is how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. Even then, the world may never know.

824 licks?

[mikejm]

And then there's the issue that any addition to the WCHA requires a yes vote from at least eight current members (iirc). I'm not so certain even BSU, which "we" seem to think is a lock to join the conference, has the votes necessary to gain admission.

[krangodance]

i don't view 11 teams as a scheduling issue. get rid of the "rivalries" and, instead, play five teams four times each season and five teams twice each season. alternate which five teams you play four times with the five teams you play twice year by year.

this would essentially be the same as it is now only there would be no more "rivalries" and you'd play two more games per season than are played under the current scheduling system.

i don't see two more games as being a problem at all since und, for example, doesn't always play ten non-conference games per season as it is. they could easily make eight non-conference games the standard or, if they wanted to play ten, they could eliminate one of the off weekends or an exhibition weekend. between und's trip to manitoba, their game against the under-18 team, the weekend off in october, and the weekend off that's coming up after the st cloud series, that's four possible weekends on which they could have scheduled another non-conference series or invitational.

the tournament wouldn't even be that tricky if the team who finishes at the bottom is simply eliminated from the post-season. personally, i'd like to only see the top six make the tournament and give the top two a first round bye.

i know that might be an unpopular idea because people like under-dogs, but the five and six seeds would still be under-dogs, plus the committee that picks teams for the national tournament wouldn't have an opportunity to give extra weight to games won by lower seeded teams in the conference post-season.

this may be a source of disagreement, but i feel the gophers did not belong in the national tournament last year. they did not have a good season until the post-season. they did pull off a few upsets before losing to denver in the championship game, but that shouldn't erase a poor season. unfortunately, the members of the selection committee have short memories and, in my opinion, they let minnesota's run in the wcha playoffs cloud the lack of success the gophers had during the large majority of the regular season.

by only letting the top six teams into the wcha tournament, the top two get a significant advantage by not playing in the first round and teams in the bottom five spots are much less likely to get an un-deserved trip to the national tournament.

[dakotadan]

Yes..as would I but since they have basically said no thanks already we have to look elsewhere.

I don't know how many times it takes for people to get the hint.

Except this is college athletics. And a majority of the time what college athletic administrators say to the media, what they are thinking and what actually happens are very different. Things such as conference movement and realignment are often done behind closed doors and people never find out about it until it is a done deal and the paper work is signed.

Besides, aren't message boards for speculating on?

[star2city]

I am really between a rock and another rock on this Alabama thing I mean I know Sioux fans travel well to games but all the way to Alabama? With the rising travel costs this would also be another reason to tell them no. That flight from Alabama to Alaska would be brutal. Mabye The CCHA and the WCHA can come to an agreement and let Northern Michigan slide back over here and take in Alamaba. I hate the thought of Huntsville in our conference but part of me doesn't wanna see college hockey suffer as a whole.

Sioux fans travel well to DU and CC games because so many live there. While I don't expect Huntsville to gain WCHA membership, a UND-UAH match in Huntsville would attract a reasonable amount of Sioux fans: just not from ND/MN but from alumni throughout the Southeast. Huntsville is about two hours from Nashville and four hours from Atlanta. Huntsville as a city is surprisingly progressive and has much more in common with Knoxville or Nashville than Deep-South cities like Memphis, Montgomery or Birmingham.

While a NMU /BSU pair certainly appeals to old-time hockey fans, why would CC, DU, and UAA ever support a combo like that? They might support one remote back woods school, but not two. If the WCHA adds those two, the conference could just as well rename itself the Back woods hockey association, as the WCHA would be stepping back in time, not forward. Don't mean any disrepect to either program, but both would basically be on par with Michigan Tech and combined add the equivalent amount of hockey fans in the city of Moorhead. It would be all the more ammunition for Minnesota and Wisconsin to later jump ship.

Add either UNO or UBC, and then take BSU.

[rochsioux]

i don't see two more games as being a problem at all since und, for example, doesn't always play ten non-conference games per season as it is. they could easily make eight non-conference games the standard or, if they wanted to play ten, they could eliminate one of the off weekends or an exhibition weekend. between und's trip to manitoba, their game against the under-18 team, the weekend off in october, and the weekend off that's coming up after the st cloud series, that's four possible weekends on which they could have scheduled another non-conference series or invitational.

The NCAA only allows 34 games. Games played in Alaska are exempt so when UND travels to Alaska they get to play 36 games.

Additionally, the Icebreaker tourny is also exempt. Since UND played in it this year they can schedule 38 games.

Under your scenario with 30 conference games, teams will only be able to schedule 4 nonconference games in the years they don't go to Alaska. Highly doubt this would fly. Not only would teams have fewer non-conference games, but a 30 game schedule would likely mean an unbalanced number of home vs away games. It would also effectively mean fewer home games some years and the teams with large buildings (UND, MN, Wisc) would not want to go along with this. Some teams (MN) rarely play road games out of conference, now you would be asking them to play two more conference road games every other year, thereby reducing the number of home games. Not going to happen, IMO.

If the WCHA does expand, and I expect they will, I don't expect there to be more conference games. If anything I could envision fewer games.

With a 12 team league and 28 conference games, that means you play 8 teams twice and 3 teams four times. Sixteen conference games against 8 teams and twelve games against 3 teams. Extremely unbalanced, not even sure what it would mean to win the league anymore. The CCHA has this today and it is a joke. A few years ago Notre Dame won the CCHA. Two of three teams they played four times were the two teams at the bottom of the league.

I think the conferences are making a big mistake in expanding to include the CHA. Reducing the number of conferences is not the way to expand college hockey. It almost makes it inevitable that a group of schools will break off from these conferences in the future to form a new conference that is more advantageous to them (Big 10 conf anyone ?). I think the big mistakes were made in the past when the WCHA allowed itself to go from 8 to 10 teams. Eight is a perfect number for a balanced schedule.

[sagard]

....the tournament wouldn't even be that tricky if the team who finishes at the bottom is simply eliminated from the post-season. personally, i'd like to only see the top six make the tournament and give the top two a first round bye.

i know that might be an unpopular idea because people like under-dogs, but the five and six seeds would still be under-dogs, plus the committee that picks teams for the national tournament wouldn't have an opportunity to give extra weight to games won by lower seeded teams in the conference post-season.

this may be a source of disagreement, but i feel the gophers did not belong in the national tournament last year. they did not have a good season until the post-season. they did pull off a few upsets before losing to denver in the championship game, but that shouldn't erase a poor season. unfortunately, the members of the selection committee have short memories and, in my opinion, they let minnesota's run in the wcha playoffs cloud the lack of success the gophers had during the large majority of the regular season.

by only letting the top six teams into the wcha tournament, the top two get a significant advantage by not playing in the first round and teams in the bottom five spots are much less likely to get an un-deserved trip to the national tournament.

I'm with you on some issues. No mercy on the bottom finishers. Out. No soup for them.

Six teams would make the Final Five more fun.

Minnesota didn't have a great season, but they weren't even the least deserving at-large team in the field. A vile squad who was an OT goal away from the Frozen Four had that honor.

Eleven teams and twenty league games would be perfect. Forget the extra games that simply would make the schedule non-balanced.

[Goon]

For the people that are saying UAH doesn't have much Look at the pictures of their arena. They have a lot nicer facilitiy than some WCHA rinks and a lot of CCHA facilities.

[Big A HG]

For the people that are saying UAH doesn't have much Look at the pictures of their arena. They have a lot nicer facilitiy than some WCHA rinks and a lot of CCHA facilities.

I agree completely. But, it's still UAH. For those looking for the hockey pic, it's the 4th from the top. The others show AFL and concert setups.

[Upper Deck]

For the people that are saying UAH doesn't have much Look at the pictures of their arena. They have a lot nicer facilitiy than some WCHA rinks and a lot of CCHA facilities.

That's a lot nicer than I would have guessed - looks like the Fargo Dome with end zone seating. Also home of the Hunstville Havoc, which I guess makes weekend ice time for UAH a challenge.

$10 says the band in the virtual photos plays "Sweet Home Alabama."

[Goon]

That's a lot nicer than I would have guessed - looks like the Fargo Dome with end zone seating. Also home of the Hunstville Havoc, which I guess makes weekend ice time for UAH a challenge.

$10 says the band in the virtual photos plays "Sweet Home Alabama."

I don't know about that, I guess I could ask a few of my BSU buddies but I would be willing to bet if you put them in the CCHA or WCHA they would be a better them because it would probably be easier to recruit for either league than the CHA.

[Upper Deck]

I don't know about that, I guess I could ask a few of my BSU buddies but I would be willing to bet if you put them in the CCHA or WCHA they would be a better them because it would probably be easier to recruit for either league than the CHA.

BSU will definitely be a better team if in the WCHA. They're pretty competitive now (with CHA recruits). They should be able to recruit mid-to-lower level WCHA esque players (hopefully soon) and will have a new barn and solid coach to boot. For AH, I think it depends on which conference they get accepted into. I would think they'd be a weaker WCHA team because of geography and "nobody's heard of them." I would think CCHA may be a better fit recruit-wise.