Bemidji State was hoping to keep its string of good fortune alive and well this week, as the WCHA meetings adjourned on Tuesday. However, Christmas is going to have to wait awhile, as the WCHA didn’t even elect to vote on a decision to induct Bemidji State to the conference at the annual meetings. A vote most likely will not take place until a candidate for a twelfth team is selected. The conference would like to stay with an even number of teams to facilitate regular head-to-head match-ups throughout the season. That definitely makes sense from a scheduling perspective, much like how Major League Baseball is split into leagues of 14 and 16 instead of 15 and 15.
So to find a twelfth team, it might require swiping a team from another conference. I suggest that all of the Division 1 men’s college hockey conferences work together to geographically realign, promoting closer travel and stronger rivalries. Here is what I would like to see.
- College Hockey America should disband, and they’re planning on it. The CHA currently consists of four teams, and one of those teams (Bemidji State) is proactively searching for a new home. Bemidji State should join the WCHA, Niagara and Robert Morris should join Atlantic Hockey, and Alabama Huntsville should join the CCHA.
- To get the WCHA and CCHA down to an even number of teams and to geographically align, Alaska-Fairbanks and Nebraska-Omaha should join the WCHA and Michigan Tech should join the CCHA. While this might not bode well for Michigan Tech’s travel arrangements, they’d be in a conference with all of the Michigan teams and could arrange home-and-home series’ with Northern Michigan, and could continue to play some WCHA teams in non-conference matchups.
This would put the WCHA, CCHA, and Atlantic Hockey all at twelve teams. While I’d like to see Air Force get into the WCHA to take on Denver and Colorado College on a regular basis, there don’t appear to be any logical swaps with the above proposal to get another Colorado team into the WCHA. I feel strongly that the changes I’ve proposed would be in the best interest of the conferences mentioned, would create new rivalries, and would be good for the sport in general.
