Discussions between the Central Collegiate Hockey
Association and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association resumed Tuesday in Chicago.
And the two leagues agreed to continue talking in the future.
Rumors of a merger between the leftovers from the CCHA — including Bowling Green — and the WCHA have been
swirling since the formation of the Big Ten hockey conference and the National Collegiate Hockey
Conference earlier this year.
BG is one of six teams remaining in the CCHA after Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State left for the
Big Ten; Miami departed for the NCHC; and Northern Michigan exited the CCHA for the WCHA.
In addition, CCHA member Notre Dame isn’t expected to return to the league, and is believed to be headed
for the NCHC or Hockey East; and CCHA member Western Michigan has said it hopes to join whatever league
ND chooses.
The other remaining CCHA schools are Alaska (Fairbanks), Ferris State and Lake Superior.
All of the realignment is effective after the 2012-13 season, meaning schools have two more seasons
before the realigned leagues start play.
The CCHA and the WCHA first met on Aug. 3.
“This was an important and productive meeting for all involved parties,” CCHA commissioner Fred Pletsch
and WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod said in a joint statement. “We asked everyone in attendance to be
open, honest and frank in discussing their concerns, hopes and visions for the future of their
respective programs.
“We recognize that where there is change there is also opportunity. We plan to continue our discussions
in the future and to continue to explore all options.”
BG athletics director Greg Christopher attended the meeting. He declined comment, deferring to the
statement by Pletsch and McLeod.
The statement did not mention the word merger.
The two sides worked from an agenda that included sharing information about each other, engaging in
productive discussions about the challenges that each institution and each conference face, and seeking
common ground to work together for the betterment of the parties involved and of college hockey in
general.
Representatives of Alaska (Fairbanks), Ferris, Lake Superior and Western also attended the meeting.
The WCHA has six remaining members — Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State
(Mankato), Northern and St. Cloud. All of those schools attended the meeting.
Noticeably absent from the meeting was Notre Dame which all but confirmed the school will not be
returning to the CCHA. The school had said it would inform the CCHA of its future plans last week, but
then said it needed more time to make its decision.
No new timetable has been announced for ND’s decision, but sources say it could come by early September.
“One crucial thing that came out of the joint meeting today was the word ‘commitment,’” Pletsch and
McLeod said. “All of these institutions are totally committed to fielding the most competitive and
successful programs possible and to provide the best possible experience for their student-athletes.”
The statement said topics discussed at the meeting included sharing of institutional and hockey program
information (including financial, facilities, community support, staffing and travel), scheduling and
championship scenarios, and membership and league affiliation (including league size, automatic
qualifiers, etc.).
It is believed Alaska and Lake Superior would prefer to join the WCHA. If that happens, that would leave
BG and Ferris as the only members of the CCHA.
That could open the door for four Atlantic Hockey schools — Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara and Robert
Morris —to join a revamped six-team CCHA. A league needs at least six teams to maintain an automatic
berth to the NCAA playoffs.
But a six-team league isn’t ideal as that league becomes vulnerable to losing its automatic NCAA berth if
it loses one of its members.
It is believed the four Atlantic Hockey schools might prefer to stay in their 12-team league, despite its
maximum of just 12 scholarships, if a revamped CCHA is only six teams. The CCHA and the WCHA offer the
NCAA maximum of 18 scholarships.
The CCHA met with representatives of those four schools earlier this summer. The two sides agreed to meet
again, but no date has been announced.
BG also has talked to the NCHC about membership in that league where it could end up with Miami and
Western. BG, Miami and Western are Mid-American Conference members in all other sports. The NCHC has
said it will likely expand from its present six to as many as eight schools.
Christopher said earlier this month that BG is keeping all of its options open.
Alabama-Huntsville, the only NCAA Division I independent, was not at Tuesday’s CCHA-WCHA meeting.
The Chargers are looking for a league home and some believe the UAH program could fold if it doesn’t find
a league home. The CCHA turned down UAH’s membership application in August 2009.
