AP NCAA Basketball
| CCHA, WCHA talk merger (08-03-11) |
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| Written by KEVIN GORDON Sentinel Assistant Sports Editor | ||
| Wednesday, 03 August 2011 08:48 | ||
Representatives of the two leagues met for "exploratory talks" about a merged 10-team league, CCHA commissioner Fred Pletsch said Tuesday. Pletsch said the league commissioners will go back to their respective athletic directors to determine if further talks will take place. Bowling Green was represented at the meeting by Jim Elsasser, associate athletics director for internal affairs. The 11-team CCHA already has lost five members in the last five months during its sport's realignment, while the 12-team WCHA has lost seven members during the same time span. All of the realignment becomes effective after the 2012-13 season. Most likely, a merged league from the CCHA and the WCHA would consist of BG, Ferris State, Lake Superior and Alaska (Fairbanks) of the CCHA; and Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State (Mankato), Northern Michigan and St. Cloud. Northern recently left the CCHA for the WCHA, also effective after the 2012-13 season. BG still is exploring its options for league membership starting with the 2013-14 season. University officials already have had discussions with the WCHA, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and four members of the Atlantic Hockey Association. Jason Knavel, BG's assistant athletics director for athletic communications, said Tuesday the school has not made any decision in regards to what league it will join and no options have been ruled out. The other remaining CCHA schools are Notre Dame and Western Michigan. But Notre Dame is not expected to remain in the CCHA once all of the realignment is complete. The Fighting Irish are considering a move to the fledgling NCHC or Hockey East, or scrapping league membership entirely and playing as an independent. ND will inform the CCHA of its decision at the league's annual summer meetings Aug. 15-16 in Dearborn, Mich., ND associate media relations director Tim Connor said. Once the Fighting Irish announce their decision, the rest of college hockey's realignment is expected to be completed quickly. Western AD Kathy Beauregard has said all along her school would like to follow ND to whatever league it joins, if the Fighting Irish decide to join a league. "In our conversations with Notre Dame, they have been waiting for some television information," Beauregard told the Kalamazoo Gazette about ND's decision not to announce its decision so far. One rumored proposal has the newly-formed Versus/NBC partnership airing college hockey games, including those from the NCHC. The NCHC currently has six teams and is expected to finish with eight. The NCHC consists of Miami of the CCHA; and Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota of the WCHA. Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State are leaving the CCHA to join the Big Ten hockey conference, along with WCHA members Minnesota and Wisconsin. Penn State completes the Big Ten hockey conference. WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod is going to visit Alaska (Fairbanks) later this month to learn more about the school and its hockey program, The (Fairbanks) Daily News-Miner reported. But McLeod's visit is no guarantee Alaska will be invited to join the WCHA, the News-Miner reported. Last week, officials from the CCHA met with four members of the Atlantic Hockey Association to discuss the possibility of those four teams joining the CCHA. The AHA schools are Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara and Robert Morris, and they agreed to continue the dialogue with the CCHA. U.S. College Hockey Online (www.uscho.com) reported the CCHA has given its remaining schools a Sept. 30 deadline to declare their intention to leave their present league. USCHO also reported the four AHA schools will reassess the makeup of the CCHA after Sept. 30 before making decisions on whether to join the league. Eight or 10 schools in a league is considered ideal because it means all schools will be able to play during a weekend of league play. Seven schools can be made to work, but makes scheduling difficult because of the odd number. Six schools leaves a league vulnerable if it loses a member because a league needs at least six members to receive an automatic berth to the NCAA playoffs. |
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 04 August 2011 17:08 |
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Comments
A WCHA and CCHA merger wil benfit the ten small schools involved. A good strong league to recruit good talent.The new WCHA will be strong if this happens.
You might want to look again -- it's current CCHA members who have until Sept. 30 to declare whether they're leaving, not the AHA teams.
Why wouldnt the WCHA want three natioanl championships from LSSU and one National Championship from Bowling Green?
All the remaining WCHA teams only have four National Championships three for MTU and one for NMU.
Bowling Green, FSU, and LSU have a longer college hockey history then Bemdji, Mankato, and St Cloud combined.
The league will have presence in Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio.
Let the two leagues combine.
It's going to be a tough decision, no matter what. Maybe a new league can help resurrect the University of Findlay's hockey program, and add Alabama-Huntsville, which is becoming an excellent program.
Where is the league offices going to be Big Rapids Michigan. Come on give me a break. The league might as well sing its goodbye song and join the WCHA.
NA NA NA goodbye.........CCHA..
The CCHA/AHA merger would be much weaker and similar to the old CHA.
A WCHA/CCHA merger would give small programs a strong indentity and a good product name with WCHA behind it.
If a kid wants to play in a small town big league like the WCHA, he can chose between ten solid small town teams. Not every kid wants to play for the big name programs to make to the NHL.
Look how many kids have made it in the NHL from the small programs in D1 college hockey. Lots.
You cant go wrong with a WCHA name brand.
So let the WCHA/CCHA merger take place over the CCHA/AHA merger.
The WCHA name brand is better than the CCHA.
It sounds like it would be lot fun for college hockey to see this merger take place.
The next day the WCHA/CCHA can merge. Maybe UAH makes eleven teams and the small schools wont have to worry about scheduling and not have to go Alaska twice.
The new WCHA champ will be the cinderalla story of college hockey every season.
I cant wait to see the WCHA and CCHA merge and be a stronger league then the Big 10 and Nacho league.
It would seem to me that while the leagues want to stir the same pot of schools that there should also be a broadening of their desire to see more new programs at the NCAA level in the near future.
The present WCHA programs arent any better then these CCHA teams and UAH.
Let the merger begin when Notre Dame and WMU join the Nacho league.
It makes no sense to join a weak league, which the WCHA has become, and be forced to travel great distances.
A strong regional league, like Hockey East, is better off because of lower travel costs compared to the new "National" league.
The CCHA will be better off in the long run by remaining a regional league while working to expand college hockey in the Midwest - UC, Pitt, Akron, OU, Dayton, UT, Kent, CSU...
The WCHA offers the CCHA nothing other than higher travel costs.
The WCHA offers lots to the three CCHA teams in nead of a home (BG, LSSU and FSU).
1. WCHA offers stability
2. WCHA offers name brand
3. WCHA offers good compition and against similar size schools.
4. Who are the three teams going to play if they werent in the 10 team league?
5. If they dont combine they will fold.
1. Nothing in hockey is stable these days.
2. With the loss of the big names the WCHA is in the same boat as the CCHA
3. The WCHA schools offer good comp. but they are all smaller than BG.
4. The CCHA will be in a 6/7 team league in a region with good growth potential.
5. The CCHA doesn't need to merge with the WCHA, in fact, it makes more sense for the WCHA to join the CCHA.
The WCHA is no longer a Western league.
The WCHA consists of Duluth, Mankato, Cloud, Bemidji, Mich Tech and N. Mich. (The two Alaska schools are BIG question marks.) This group of 6 schools will form the northern div. of the expanded CCHA.
The southern div. of the CCHA will consist of BG, Ferris, Lake Sup., and the 4 (maybe 5 if RIT joins) Atlantic League teams. This gives the southern div. of the CCHA 7/8 teams.
This arrangement keeps travel costs to a minimum for schools in each div. while creating a robust league whose schools represent the CENTRAL region of the country, i.e., the CCHA.
MTU/NMU/LSSU/FSU
Bemdji/ST CLoud/Bemdji/Moorhead
UAA/UAF/UAH/Bowling Green
Play home and home inner cluster. Play home and home with one of the other clusters.
Only go to Alaska and Alabama every other year.
A perfect WCHA.
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